Overview

man looking at stock marketOnline marketplaces are potent. They create economic activity, identify opportunities and bring new resources to market. But their benefits are concentrated at the top levels of the economy.  We need a new generation of e-markets built around what people at the bottom have to sell.

 

Modern Markets for All

broken wall street signWant to understand what a truly modern e-market can do? Don’t look towards listings sites for consumers such as eBay, Craigslist or Monster.com. Focus on an area like high finance. The frenetic trading that sucked cash out of Main Street into the rarefied world of Big Finance was enabled by online efficiencies for traders. Someone selling their time as, say, a home cleaner hasn't gained anything like those efficiencies from the Internet.

cleaning bucketThis site explains a new philosophy: Modern Markets for All. To maximise economic activity, the time has come for a commitment to Universal Service for state-of-the-art marketplaces. We will show that this requires: (a) new web technologies, only now viable (b) a specific legal framework to create the new markets in each country. 

columnsThis legal framework bestows benefits only the State can give to a system of e-markets. In return, it places public service obligations on the private operators who get a cut of each transaction. There's nothing radical about this model: it's how the world got National Lotteries. (A legal framework for NEMs.)

NEMs would be one government-backed website in each country. The site offers standardised markets across multiple sectors. Primarily its for trading time-slots. Any person, possession or sum of money that is free for an hour, a day, a week or more can go straight into an official marketplace. (What could you sell?)

 

Why bother?

Tool bag

This might seem a marginal issue. Many on low incomes don’t use the web. And does it matter if markets for sectors like Babysitting, hire of tools or home storage space are inefficient? It does. NEMs could bring a flood of resources into the economy from the less well off. It could create cheaper, convenient, ways of providing domestic assistance, leisure opportunities, public services, journeys and services to business. (Why time-slot markets matter)

In each NEMs sector:

  • anyone who’s legal can sell on their own terms at times of their choosing
  • the costs of market entry are zero
  • total transaction costs are just a mark-up to fund the system, probably around 1% 
  • buyers can instantly see every one who’s ready to meet their specific requirement, graded by track record of reliability and price for that transaction
  • completion, payment transfer, admin and tax are all handled automatically.

No other marketplace would be restricted by the legislation to create NEMs. National Markets would increase everyone's choices.

 

Differences between NEMs and existing marketplaces

       

What was old is new again

stock market chart with money in front of itA legal framework for NEMs would be comparable to historic legislation that transformed technologies like water supply, telephones or railways. All started life in the service of powerful institutions. Then far-sighted legislation exploded their usage, usefulness and economic impact. (Existing legal frameworks)

The extraordinary potential of NEMs marketplaces may seem improbable at this point. A 1990’s banker would have felt the same about turbo-trading of securitized mortgages, CDO’s and complex derivatives. Advanced e-markets can change everything.

 

 

Overview