As the author of Local Dollars, Local Sense, Michael Shuman shows investors, including the nearly 99 percent who are unaccredited, how to put their money into building local businesses and resilient regional economies and profit in the process. Shuman draws from his expertise as an economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a globally recognized expert on community economics. Over the years he has written nine books on this topic.

He has appeared on the "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" and NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "All Things Considered," and has written nearly one hundred articles for publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation.