becomes possible, and necessary
new conversations at the vanguard of public discourse
popular participation in local community engagement in globally curated conversations for adaptively evolving our shared common sense of:
- the circumstanes then prevailing
- the capacity of Pensions & Endowments, under those circumstance
- prudence and loyalty in the exercise of that capacity
We know of Politics today as citizens in governments as constitutional electoral representation at the local to the national level.
In this politics, we can particiapte as:
- voters,
- campaigners,
- donors, and
- protestors.
Indeed, the politics of protest are perhaps the most important vector of citizen engagement in holding institutions accountable in Politics as electoral representation.
The politics of electoral representation are more often about the rough-and-tumble sport of personality and personal popularity than it is about thoughtful deliberation on policies.
In theory, although our representatives are elected mostly on personal popularity, in practice they represent us in thoughtful deliberation.
But the truth is, this kind of politics is a messy business, and the exercise of legislative, administrative and even judicial powers are often a chaotic mix of public policy and private self-interest.
Citizens Assemblies are being advocated as an alternative to electoral representation, that replaces popularity with sortition, for direct citizen participation, through deliberation, in law making that is true to considerations of public policy, and proof against corruption by the self-interest of vested interests.
In collaboration with The Deliberation Gateway Network, a thematic network with the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (the RSA), I am pushging the envelope on sorition, experimenting with moving Citizens Assemblies beyond Poilicy to Money.
Specifically, the Forever Money as the tens of trillions we entrust, through the laws of trust, to the plenary powers of discretionary authority of Pensions & Endowments, accountable to our common sense of their capacity, prudence and loyalty in their exercise of that discretion.
The currently customary common sense of that capacity is vintage 1970s Modern Portfolio Theory that turns prudence stewards of a dignified future into Asset Owners Allocating Asset Across Asset Classes, and within classes, mandating/selecting Asset Managers peer-benchmarked by Consultants for outperformance in maximizing the highest possible purely pecuniary profit extraction from volatility and growth in market clearing prices for securities in the markets for maintaining volatility and growht in market clearing prices for those securities, solely in the financial best interests of Asset Managers, Consultants, Corporate Executives and other securities trading markets professionals, in reliance on the axiomatic assertion (which is fundamentally false) that more money in the securiites trding markets (and more fees and profits for securities trading markets professionals) will also always be better for all of us.
Within this common sense of their capacity, it makes no sense for people who are not expert in the financial mathematics of Exit by Sale for profit extraction from selling price.
My argument is that this common sense makes no sense under the circumstances now prevailing, which include the ubiquitous availability of personal computing technologies of spreadsheet math, desktop publishing and digital communication that Pensions & Endowments can use – because they have the required size, purpose and time – to allocate their aggregations through the financial mathematics of Exit through Amortization, to an actuarial/fiduciary cost of money, from cash flows through Enterprise that can be prioritized by contract for:
- Suitability of the technology solutions being offered to popular choice by the Enterprise, under the circumstances prevailing at the time;
- Duration of the social contract with popular choice, over time; and
- Dignity in how the business does busienss, all the time, throughout all six vectors of cash flow through the Enterprise:
- Dignified Trade, with suppliers;
- Dignified Engagement, with communities, of place and of interest;
- Dignified Reckoning, with the consequences, on Nature, Society and our shared Future;
- Dignified Working, in the worplace;
- Dignified Dealing, in the marketplace; and
- Dignified Sharing, with the savers whose savings are the “raw material” out of which capital for the busienss is fashioned through fiancning for the Enterprise.
Where the financial mathematics of Exit by Sale is exclusive and elitist – you really do need to remain close to price movements in the securities trading markets to be able to successfully extract profits from those movements – this new fiduciary forever financial mathematics is inclusive, and populist, in the sense of being accessible to all of us who care enough to take the time to make the effort to make ourselves familiar with such matters as Suitability, Duration and Dignity in how business does business.
My ambition is to adapt the proven practices of sortition for deliberation in Citizens Assemblies to create new conversations at the vanguard of public discourse that will be safe spaces for popular participation in making ourselves familiar with matters of Suitability, Duration and Dignity, in order to contribute to the articulation of an adaptively evolving common sense of prudence and loyalty in the exercise by Pensions & Endowments of their capacity to allocate their allocations through this new financial mathematics of Exit through Amortization.
Shifting to Equity Paybacks 