My Blog

(This blog is the first in a 12-part series on emerging opportunities for local investment that are especially important in the post-COVID era.  It’s drawn from my new book, Put Your Money Where Your Life Is.) The one financial bright spot was that my spouse had accumulated a significant pension,

As COVID-19 destroys more American lives than the Vietnam War and more America jobs than the Great Depression, all of us are being called to consider acts of adoption. Here’s an easy possibility: Adopt your favorite local business. Local businesses are the lifeblood of our communities. They are not only

My recent recommendation to radically overhaul public procurement (one of “A Dozen Asks for Your Governor”) elicited lots of great questions. Today’s blog explains in more detail what needs to be done and why. Let’s begin with the bottom line: In 2017, according to Census data, state and local governments

Close social interactions are the essence of community. Author Bill McKibben once observed that a shopper has about ten times more social interactions at a farmer’s market than at a supermarket. You know more people, you exchange pleasantries, you chat with vendors, you take delight in the beautiful products (whether

Wall Street is no longer a roller coaster, it’s a runaway train heading over a cliff. How are you feeling about losing at least a fifth of your retirement savings? Or thousands you diligently tucked away for your kids’ education?  Your investment adviser is no doubt telling you to stay

I’m currently offering a workshop on how to help revive your community’s economy as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, through a specific, comprehensive local investment strategy.  You can find details for planning a virtual or live (should that option become feasible) workshop on my Speaking page. Feel free to reach out to AudreyDumentat@gmail.com

Everyone knows that the three, multi-trillion-dollar stimulus bills passed by Congress fall way short.  For most local businesses—the lifeblood of our economy—these bills offer too little relief, too late.  I’m hopeful though that the states (and maybe, in some places, counties and cities) can rise to the challenge of saving

This past weekend, a bright Georgetown undergraduate asked me how I squared my passion for localization with the theory of comparative advantage.  For economics newbies, he was referring to David Ricardo’s argument that every community should find one product to specialize in and trade for everything else.  I gave my

Many thanks to the WASHINGTON POST for publishing on June 7th my latest take on the Takoma Junction Redevelopment Project. I argued that Takoma Park is now the proverbial canary in the coal mine. The era of communities giving huge subsidies to developers may be ending, and progressive revulsion at

I was recently hired by Utopies, a French think tank, to help MCB, the largest bank in Mauritius, rethink its approach to economic development.  The following is from an interview I did with MC, which summarizes the case for local economists.  (Another interview I did with them, on what MCB

Where I live, in Montgomery County, Maryland, this is a critical election, because we finally have an opportunity to elect a leader, Marc Elrich, who really understands the meaning of economic development. His principal opponent, Nancy Floreen, is justifying her quixotic, independent bid to become County Executive with the claim

A basic mantra of progressive economic development should be to deploy public land for public purposes.  This has become clear to me as I’ve watched the nearby City of Takoma Park, Maryland, struggle to move ahead on a controversial development project on a 1.4 acre site called Takoma Junction.  The site is largely