I first ran across Hidden Forces while listening to the interview with Ray Monk about philosophical mathematics. Monk’s narration on the work of Frege, Russell, Whitehead, Wittgenstein, and Gödel is excellent – by far one of the clearest and easiest to grasp. It was learning about these paradigms and paradoxes of mathematics via Hofstadter’s famous book which led me to start this website.

Most “activist” investors and funds are simply trying to change corporate boards for self-interest, their goal being to induce a new executive team to increase profitability, free cash flow, product diversity, etc… Most likely the purpose of these activists is to make changes which will result in a large long term gain with a nice 15% tax rate. But, what I am suggesting has no goal other than to raise enough funds to accumulate an ownership stake which will allow a board take-over of a large corporation.

One of the interesting aspects of this fund would be that it’s goal would not be in any way to earn investors a profit. Thus, all contributions to join the partnership would be subject to complete loss. Any gains or losses would be given back or incurred to the donors after the mandate has been achieved. Once the mandate is complete, the partnership would be dissolved. This could take 1 year or 10 years depending on the situation in the corporation.

Starting anew would ensure that any managers would not be corrupted. Fees would be minimal. No one managing this fund would make any more than a living wage. However, there will be legal and other such fees which are unavoidable.

For instance, if 10 million people invested $3,000 in this partnership, the total of $30 billion would be sufficient to slowly accumulate a controlling interest in the corporation. Once the controlling interest is achieved, the board of directors would be replace by the desired men and women. This new board would then replace the executive team to create a new culture for the corporation to ensure the mandate is achieved.

Anyway, let me know what you think… constantly trying to think of ways to improve/fix our existing system.

In No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, Harry Markopolos, the financial fraud detective who studied Bernie Madoff’s questionable returns in early 2000, narrates the entire history and investigation of Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme — starting in 1998. I was shocked, as was Markopolos, on learning about the negligence and failure of the SEC on numerous occasions. The book provides a good summary account of the Madoff fraud and the people involved. It also provides important insight into financial fraud, reform, and regulations.

The solution to the impending crises lies in a change of perception. The often quoted “survival of the fittest” ideology tends to cause people to forget about another important form of evolution — symbiosis. Cancer is the extreme version of “survival of the fittest” and parasitism at the cellular level. Cooperation through symbiosis however, is working together to get the job done (mitochrondria and the endosymbiotic theory). If we change the way we view nature, from “Man versus Nature” to “Man with Nature,” our problems will begin to vanish. The conception of the future will turn from a dismal apocalyptic world to one of harmonious mutualism. A symbiotic biological cooperation between our species and the other species of Earth, who are at our mercy, will forever change the course of history. The importance of symbiosis is becoming increasingly clear as a powerful survival mechanism in biological evolution and the future of homo sapiens may depend on its acceptance.

Brainstorming ways to establish a framework which intimately connects the economics of humans with that of their relatives in a symbiotic relationship, I believe one solution could be via the market. It involves creating a new asset class. By establishing shares of stock in species (or family/order) and having these shares trade in an exchange, the success of other species now becomes a potentially profitable industry for humans. At the same time benefiting the non-human species. Similar to humans trading shares of stock with theoretical values based on the work potential of organizations of labor producing members, the trading of species shares would be based upon the ecological value of biological organisms.

This Species Xchange would provide a means to store human labor potential (money) in the data collection, protection, monitoring, preservation, and development of any number of species. This funding would be initiated through an IPO for each species. I believe this would be symbiosis at its finest. Including other species in our financial decision making would fundamentally change the relationship humans have with their biological relatives.  By protecting the species humans rely on for ecological harmony, while at the same time providing them with a more “bio-diverse” basket of eggs to store their labor potential would, in effect, create a more dynamic and powerful investment system.

We need to think outside the box to protect our environment and I see this a way to benefit both man and nature. Man will be awarded with more assets with which he can diversify his financial holdings; nature will win in various ways — including the proceeds of the IPO to protect the species.

This would be initiated to test the idea that a traded asset can be something more general than an organization consisting of human labor and assets.

You may argue that a stock must have a fundamental basis in the value of human commodities and labor. That may be true, however, what limits the definition extending to non-human commodities and the labor of nature? In any case, for the experienced investors, how many companies have you seen being valued in the billions with little or no assets and no profits? In fact, a species actually has an enormous value and potential in terms of biology, ecology, and the sustainability of human activity.

There are numerous possible arguments against this, which I would enjoy countering. Perhaps I will devote more to this in a future post.

David Harvey has an amazing awareness of society. Listening to him discuss his perspective and ideas about cities, money, and capitalism brings with it the joy of great insight into the behaviors and relations of human activities which the intellectual listener will enjoy. I will have to eventually pick up a few of his books. For now, I will watch his lectures: