The Australian National Reconstruction Fund was set up in November 2023 to disburse 15 Billion dollars.
They asked for a 500-word or less proposal on whether it is worth the proposers going to the full extent of a complete business case. Here is a proposal I sent in on January 25th. I will report back on their reaction.
Summary
Permanent Capital Markets is an innovative financing algorithm that allows individuals or entities to turn any group of existing assets they own into a shared pool of resources, known as a Commons, in the sense of Elinor Ostrom. It is a development of Mutual Funds and Credit Unions. Instead of owning each asset, each entity owns “tagged shares” that entitle them to a share of the assets. For instance, a group of homeowners can put their houses into an entity immediately capitalised at the value of all the houses. The homes also generate income from occupants' rental payments and use the rental payments for further investment and maintenance.
In this approach, each homeowner agrees to pay to occupy their home and the money they pay purchases extra shares or buys shares in the Commons. Doing so removes the cost of interest to transfer houses, the cost of real estate and title transfers, and other expenses associated with occupying a home, including electricity and water. The Commons can also set up another Commons to own and operate all renewable energy and storage facilities on the same or other properties. This brings economies of scale to insurance, maintenance, additions, finance, and additional costs associated with occupying a home.
The continuous stream of income and the organisation of a constant capital exchange mean that the capital in the houses is available for other investments. The savings can be agreed upon depending on the cost of occupying a home, but a 10% return on Capital is easily achieved. This translates into a reduction in the cost of occupation (rent) by about 50%.
The approach can be applied to all assets, including Infrastructure priority areas. Economic analysis and operational systems will be agent-based modelling and construction tools. These reduce the cost of modelling and constructing and allow fine adjustment and predictive control over development, maintenance, insurance events, and future planning.
A small experiment has been successfully trialled with funding solar panels, and proposals are being put to Community Banks for affordable housing and to Universities to research and reduce the cost of student accommodation and University fees. It is recommended that the area for this commercialisation proposal of a new financing algorithm be selected in consultation with the National Reconstruction Fund and other government agencies.
I have outlined how to reduce the cost of any community asset such as community batteries, water conservation, transmission and electricity distribution, light rail, build-to-rent, productivity commission, reserve bank money creation and community development assets.
Each area will have variations, but the underlying financial innovation of sharing profits in a Commons remains.
Further details on Commons Finance are here https://kevin-34708.medium.com/proactive-economics-a-new-approach-to-market-stability-and-wealth-distribution-through-4a026c608d35