Heartland Capital Strategies

The Occupy movement brings renewed attention to Heartland's second book, Up from Wall Street

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Published on Tuesday, 28 June 2011 08:46

A new movement, “Occupy Wall Street,” has brought home the unfinished business that millions of Americans and people from around the world can’t find decent livable-wage jobs, can’t afford good housing and can’t achieve real prosperity as long as 1% of the population (in U.S.) controls 40% of the wealth.  OWS has changed the policy paradigm in the U.S., as average Americans are now more concerned about economic instability and the need for a strong recovery.

In 2008, we watched as trillions of dollars vanished before our eyes, enveloped in the crash and burn of Wall Street's bottom line. As working families, students and retirees awake from the aftermath, we're still searching for answers and alternatives to the reckless loans and dicey short-term bets that ravaged our savings and retirement assets.

Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative makes the case that there are strategic and socially responsible investment paths that have the capacity to rebuild our economy and infrastructure, reinvigorate our cities, and create the highly-anticipated green jobs of the future.  Through real-life stories and case studies, the author, Thomas Croft, illustrates how the responsible investment of savings assets, pensions, insurance funds, and other trusts can generate positive social, economic, and environmental benefits - along with financial returns.

Up from Wall Street:  The Responsible Investment Alternative (2009, Cosimo)
By Thomas Croft
Forward by Richard L. Trumka

Included in the book is A Field Guide to Responsible Capital, which contains descriptions of responsible investment funds that are together managing over $30 billion and provides a detailed analysis of some of the firms and projects in which they invest.

OWS has unleashed a new urgency for Up from Wall Street.  We want to know what roles our capital—the trillions of dollars in assets owned by working families—play in the economy.  Are our retirement and institutional assets being used to grow the economy or destroy value?  Are “capital stewards” investing wisely and prudently for the future or are they contributing to another financial bubble?

Many responsible investors have been making solid investments over these past few years, avoiding the sub-prime debacle and other traps, and thereby creating or saving thousands of good jobs, building thousands of decent housing units and other important assets for society.  In addition, these investors have forged new paths in the broader arenas of capitalizing advanced manufacturing and other sustainable industries; affordable, workforce and multi-family housing; commercial revitalization; renewable energy and efficient transportation; and infrastructure and energy efficiency.  

Up from Wall Street shows how our money—the hard-earned assets and savings of workers, retirees and students, can be profitably put to use in socially and economically progressive ways. Responsible investment will create greater growth and prosperity in America, Canada and the world.

Author

Thomas Croft is an international expert on innovative capital strategies and jobs-oriented economic revitalization policies. He serves as the Managing Director of Heartland Capital Strategies (HCS) (www.heartlandnetwork.org) and Executive Director of the Steel Valley Authority (SVA) (www.steelvalley.org) and has authored or commissioned vital new perspectives on alternative pension investment strategies and a fair economy.