Yesterday shares fell on the world's stock markets. Today has been "jittery" with the FTSE 100 falling below the 5000 mark. We hear that millions of people who have money invested in pension funds and ISAs have lost out.
But there are some companies that seem completely unaffected. Search the columns of shares and it is impossible to find them. How did John Lewis fare on the markets today? What about The Co-operative Group or Scott Bader the multi national chemical company? Why aren't these companies contributing to the stock market woes?
The answer is that they are various forms of co-operatives or mutual enterprises. They are not dependent for their reputation on panicky external investors but on their own resources. The employees of John Lewis and Scott Bader are the shareholders. They are able to take out what they put in. The Co-operative Group is owned by us, its customers.
During the banking crisis it was no accident that one of the safest banks to emerge was the Co-operative Bank (which is, incidentally, now led by a Methodist minister).
The priorities of a mutual enterprise or co-operative are very different from those listed on the stock exchange. More co-operatives, more mutuality, would lead to a far more stable economy.
John Restakis, author of Humanising the Economy, recently said:
"In the history of bad ideas with huge consequences, the idea of the free market is one of the worst"
and
"a co-operative economy is not only capable of outperforming a capitalist system economically, both for individuals and for enterprises, but even more so for social outcomes".
But there are some companies that seem completely unaffected. Search the columns of shares and it is impossible to find them. How did John Lewis fare on the markets today? What about The Co-operative Group or Scott Bader the multi national chemical company? Why aren't these companies contributing to the stock market woes?
The answer is that they are various forms of co-operatives or mutual enterprises. They are not dependent for their reputation on panicky external investors but on their own resources. The employees of John Lewis and Scott Bader are the shareholders. They are able to take out what they put in. The Co-operative Group is owned by us, its customers.
During the banking crisis it was no accident that one of the safest banks to emerge was the Co-operative Bank (which is, incidentally, now led by a Methodist minister).
The priorities of a mutual enterprise or co-operative are very different from those listed on the stock exchange. More co-operatives, more mutuality, would lead to a far more stable economy.
John Restakis, author of Humanising the Economy, recently said:
"In the history of bad ideas with huge consequences, the idea of the free market is one of the worst"
and
"a co-operative economy is not only capable of outperforming a capitalist system economically, both for individuals and for enterprises, but even more so for social outcomes".
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2 comments:
Have you read this:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100106839/watermelons-v-the-shale-gas-miracle/
Perhaps this is the alternative.
Not so many years ago we destroyed most of our mutual building socities by turning them into banks, all as PLC's. A terrible mistake.
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