Michael Shuman Speaking in Portland

Michael Shuman, author of several books, including The Small-Mart Revolution and, most recently, Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift your money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity, will be giving a talk in Portland at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, at SPACE Gallery, located at 538 Congress Street. The event is free and open to the public. A growing body of evidence suggests that the most promising way to create new jobs is to nurture small, locally owned businesses. Small, local businesses constitute roughly half a typical community’s economy, and even more in rural areas and small towns. Yet almost none of Americans’ $30 trillion in long-term savings—in stocks, bonds, pension funds, mutual funds, and insurance funds—goes into these businesses.

In his new book, Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity (Chelsea Green, 2012), Shuman argues that the most important economic stimulus opportunity for the United States today—and one that would cost almost nothing to implement—would be to open the way for people to invest more of their savings in local businesses.

On May 3, Shuman will discuss how new investment tools – including those just legalized in a new crowdfunding law – could begin to move as much as $15 trillion from Wall Street to Main Street and create millions of new jobs. After his talk, there wil be time for questions and answers.

Longfellow Books will be on-site selling copies of Shuman’s books (you can also purchase books ahead of time at the store or through Longfellow’s website).

The event is sponsored by Portland’s Downtown District, which will be providing 2 hours of free parking to attendees of the lecture at the Spring Street Garage, Wild Iris Inn, Tsunami Tattoo and Coffee By Design.

Please let us know you are planning to attend and share the event with friends via our Facebook Event Page.

About Michael Shuman
Michael H. Shuman is an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and Director of Research and Marketing for Cutting Edge Capital. He has authored, coauthored, or edited eight books. His most recent book, just published by Chelsea Green, is Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity. His previous book, The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), received as bronze prize from the Independent Publishers Association for best business book of 2006. He helped co-found BALLE, which represents 22,000 local businesses in North America in 80 communities, and is now a Fellow there. He is also a Fellow at the Post-Carbon Institute. At Cutting Edge Capital, a consulting firm that helps communities and businesses solving finance challenges, he manages its economic-development initiatives.

About Portland Buy Local
The Portland Buy Local campaign promotes locally owned, independent retail and service providers through numerous initiatives, including the highly popular member directory published annually and distributed throughout the city to residents and visitors. In addition to its promotional efforts, Portland Buy Local educates consumers and businesses about the benefits of supporting locally owned, independent businesses, and offers members monthly networking opportunities hosted by local businesses. See more info