Soup Nazi Returns to Girard Ave. Friday - 11/18/11

Soup Nazi returns to Doc's Soup Bar this Friday 11/18/11!

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Crowdfunding Bill Would Allow People to Invest in Local Businesses

By Stacy Mitchell on November 8, 2011
via

Under a measure that passed the House last Thursday, you may soon be able to invest in a portfolio of your favorite independent businesses. The bill [1], which won bipartisan support and cleared the House on a 407-17 vote, would overturn long-standing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules that make it nearly impossible for small businesses to raise capital (or borrow money) from their customers and communities.

Current SEC rules divide investors into two categories. Wealthy people ("accredited" investors) are assumed to have a certain degree of financial sophistication. Businesses are free to approach them for funding. The rest of us are covered by safeguards that bar businesses from soliciting our investments without registering a public offering of securities with the SEC, an arduous and expensive legal process that is well beyond the reach of a neighborhood restaurant or start-up clothing maker. The current rules do exempt some small investment offerings, but these exemptions are too narrow for most independent businesses to use without running afoul of the law.

The result is that, even as enthusiasm for independent businesses and locally produced goods has grown, the savings of almost all American households remains invested in the stocks and bonds of large corporations. We may buy local, but we invest transnational. There are few alternatives.

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