The Localist
I am interested in creating healthy local economic ecosystems where local business and communities thrive. I write about local business and reframing economic development from the local, state and national perspective.
Hope
Do you have it? Can you find it? Does it exist? These were the questions I recently asked of local business owners through 20 discussions in one on one interviews and focus groups about how local business is doing in year three of the pandemic. There were other...
Communities Make a Nation
The economic health of America lies not in the accumulation of individual wealth but in the greater exchange of dollars in local communities across the country. The current income disparity reaches far beyond individual bank accounts. The unbridled growth of the top...
This ship has a new course
I’ve spent most of my adult life either being a local business or working to support local business. I hear the whispers. You’re a person, not a business. You can own a business, work for a business but you can’t be a business any more than a corporation can be a...
Institutional racism: Making space for others
Like many, I’ve been taking a close look at race both introspectively and as institutional racism. It’s been illuminating. I believe that, in this time, given the upheaval that triggered prolonged protests, no one should be exempt from self-examination. I implore all...
Taking back capitalism
The pandemic has brought out the best and the worst of us. Or as my father used to say about Louisiana politics, both cream and scum rise to the top. I hope, in the long run, that this is good. We currently exist in an infrastructure of greed. But we can change that....
Return to normal? No thanks.
We are all anxious to leave this pandemic-ridden world and return to some form of normalcy. The community of friends and commerce where our everyday encounters provide both necessities and connectivity beckons. In our home-bound minds, it was a near perfect world. Or...