Understanding the economy as a complex system operating far from equilibrium, prone to the periods of sudden, dramatic collapse that we know as financial crises.
Just as the UK and Holland invented the corporation as a holding tank for value left over after South Sea bound ships returned with spoils, sold them off and liquidated the proceeds (ships as the SPVs of the 17C) ... corporations are now being deconstructed (balance sheet DeFi) ... the post-covid City has become a work of the imagination and it may well be filling that gap.
But a city is tangible, not just an idea but also a living, physical balance sheet. Like all idealized balance sheets, it needs a mix of liquid and physical capital. It needs a steady or growing stream of tax receivables (which means happy citizens) shored up by investments in its physical capital. It needs leverage but not too much, and common equity spaces that make life more than a factory with absentee owners for its residents. Green patches not just for animal grazing but also people grazing and gazing. And, it should not have too many contingent liabilities. IE., sufficient thought should be given to design that the byproducts of urban living are planned for and integrated into asset renewal. For, a city is at the end of the day an idea that attracts and inspires people. Its citizens may be off the balance sheet, as labor, innovation and imagination are off the corporate balance sheet, but the relationship between the city balance sheet and its citizens is inextricable. A city without people has no assets.
Just as the UK and Holland invented the corporation as a holding tank for value left over after South Sea bound ships returned with spoils, sold them off and liquidated the proceeds (ships as the SPVs of the 17C) ... corporations are now being deconstructed (balance sheet DeFi) ... the post-covid City has become a work of the imagination and it may well be filling that gap.
But a city is tangible, not just an idea but also a living, physical balance sheet. Like all idealized balance sheets, it needs a mix of liquid and physical capital. It needs a steady or growing stream of tax receivables (which means happy citizens) shored up by investments in its physical capital. It needs leverage but not too much, and common equity spaces that make life more than a factory with absentee owners for its residents. Green patches not just for animal grazing but also people grazing and gazing. And, it should not have too many contingent liabilities. IE., sufficient thought should be given to design that the byproducts of urban living are planned for and integrated into asset renewal. For, a city is at the end of the day an idea that attracts and inspires people. Its citizens may be off the balance sheet, as labor, innovation and imagination are off the corporate balance sheet, but the relationship between the city balance sheet and its citizens is inextricable. A city without people has no assets.