Is the way finance is set up the root cause of our faith in growth? Banks that create money out of thin air. Interest that requires growth somewhere in the financial system. This was one of the topics in this conversation with Anastasia Linn. Her answer surprised me.This conversation got me thinking about blame and accountability, about sustainable finance: is it even possible, and energy from your work and at the same time protecting your own energy.
Today, we are learning from Anastasia Linn.
Anastasia works at the intersection of organizational behavior, finance, and the Just Transition. Before co-founding Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance, she worked at organizations like the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, World Climate Foundation, and the House of Beautiful Business. She initiated the Exploring Postgrowth Finance project at Degrowth Switzerland and has worked across the areas of leadership, innovation, and sustainability since 2016.
Genuine sustainable finance is finance that can enable wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries.
Let's get started...
In this conversation with Anastasia Linn, I learned:
00:00 Intro -
02:15 What does Arketa stand for, and what does the business do?
05:25 Ecological economics vs. neoclassical economics.
10:45 The responsibility of finance and banks (money creation) for our obsession with growth and deciding what is made in the economy.
13:50 The incentives within the system to accumulate money and power to be safe and deeper cultural issues.
17:10 Conversations with financial professionals to get into the underlying cultural change.
19:30 Wealth equals happiness, and material goods are necessary to feel pretty, powerful, respected, or loved.
21:25 Surprised and disappointed by where the sustainable finance conversation was.
24:00 Even people who self-identify as committed impact investors are not willing to pay slightly more for exponentially more impact. (see https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhac066)
27:25 Sustainable and traditional investors are basically indistinguishable because they are applying the same logic (see paper by Edmans and Gosling below).
29:25 Do we want rich families from Europe to own the fresh water infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa? You are fulfilling a real need and at the same time extracting profit to Europe.
33:55 How her new business created a place for all that energy to go. The point is to care for herself enough to sustain that energy long term.
34:40 How can I embody our namesake of enoughness and make enough space to take care of myself?
40:15 The attention for the work and the paper of Arketa in the finance world is much more than she anticipated so soon.
41:05 When people realize that they are not alone, it makes it safer to take the next step.
45:00 The income streams for Arketa.
46:05 Do you need to be privately wealthy to try to work in Degrowth?
51:00 How do we want to manage accountability for centuries of maltreatment?
52:40 Blame is an easier position psychologically.
58:15 Going back to university to study psychology.
1:02:35 Exist at the intersection between the two systems, play by the rules a little bit, and stay connected to the new world.
1:07:30 Examples of exciting things that are happening at the fringes of the financial world. Progressive wealth holder movements like Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity, Good Ancestor movement and Research generation.
1:08:40 The growth independent financial system.
1:09:05 Examples of what individuals can do with their personal finance: financial activist playbook, Bank for Good, Triodos (NL) and the divest movement.
I admire her wisdom and you can see and hear this particularly from 30:20 to 35:35 is really interesting and important. What she shares is, for me, one of the main reasons to work with the Inner Development Goals.
More about Anastasia Linn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/avlinn/
www.arketa-institute.org
Reports and papers by Arketa:
The first report, an introduction to Ecological Economics and Degrowth, and what it means for finance: By Disaster or Design
The pension paper: A Path to Post-Growth Pensions
Impact report 2025
Resources shared by Anastasia:
Jasmine Rashid’s Financial Activist Discussion Zine
Miho Soon’s podcast Money Trauma
FEBEA (European Ethical Banking Network) + Bank for Good Europe + US
Renee Lertzman’s Substack, Becoming Guides
The Hidden Business Majority: From Private Support to Post-Growth Transformation Report from Jeni Miles, Dario Krpan and Fred Basso at the London School of Economics
Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist at Triodos Bank, has a Substack where he often talks about post-growth, degrowth, and wellbeing economies—definitely worth following.
An intro to progressive wealth holder movements from Michael Gast (US focus) + Also check out Good Ancestor Mo…
Today, we are learning from Anastasia Linn.
Anastasia works at the intersection of organizational behavior, finance, and the Just Transition. Before co-founding Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance, she worked at organizations like the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, World Climate Foundation, and the House of Beautiful Business. She initiated the Exploring Postgrowth Finance project at Degrowth Switzerland and has worked across the areas of leadership, innovation, and sustainability since 2016.
Genuine sustainable finance is finance that can enable wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries.
Let's get started...
In this conversation with Anastasia Linn, I learned:
00:00 Intro -
02:15 What does Arketa stand for, and what does the business do?
05:25 Ecological economics vs. neoclassical economics.
10:45 The responsibility of finance and banks (money creation) for our obsession with growth and deciding what is made in the economy.
13:50 The incentives within the system to accumulate money and power to be safe and deeper cultural issues.
17:10 Conversations with financial professionals to get into the underlying cultural change.
19:30 Wealth equals happiness, and material goods are necessary to feel pretty, powerful, respected, or loved.
21:25 Surprised and disappointed by where the sustainable finance conversation was.
24:00 Even people who self-identify as committed impact investors are not willing to pay slightly more for exponentially more impact. (see https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhac066)
27:25 Sustainable and traditional investors are basically indistinguishable because they are applying the same logic (see paper by Edmans and Gosling below).
29:25 Do we want rich families from Europe to own the fresh water infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa? You are fulfilling a real need and at the same time extracting profit to Europe.
33:55 How her new business created a place for all that energy to go. The point is to care for herself enough to sustain that energy long term.
34:40 How can I embody our namesake of enoughness and make enough space to take care of myself?
40:15 The attention for the work and the paper of Arketa in the finance world is much more than she anticipated so soon.
41:05 When people realize that they are not alone, it makes it safer to take the next step.
45:00 The income streams for Arketa.
46:05 Do you need to be privately wealthy to try to work in Degrowth?
51:00 How do we want to manage accountability for centuries of maltreatment?
52:40 Blame is an easier position psychologically.
58:15 Going back to university to study psychology.
1:02:35 Exist at the intersection between the two systems, play by the rules a little bit, and stay connected to the new world.
1:07:30 Examples of exciting things that are happening at the fringes of the financial world. Progressive wealth holder movements like Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity, Good Ancestor movement and Research generation.
1:08:40 The growth independent financial system.
1:09:05 Examples of what individuals can do with their personal finance: financial activist playbook, Bank for Good, Triodos (NL) and the divest movement.
I admire her wisdom and you can see and hear this particularly from 30:20 to 35:35 is really interesting and important. What she shares is, for me, one of the main reasons to work with the Inner Development Goals.
More about Anastasia Linn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/avlinn/
www.arketa-institute.org
Reports and papers by Arketa:
The first report, an introduction to Ecological Economics and Degrowth, and what it means for finance: By Disaster or Design
The pension paper: A Path to Post-Growth Pensions
Impact report 2025
Resources shared by Anastasia:
Jasmine Rashid’s Financial Activist Discussion Zine
Miho Soon’s podcast Money Trauma
FEBEA (European Ethical Banking Network) + Bank for Good Europe + US
Renee Lertzman’s Substack, Becoming Guides
The Hidden Business Majority: From Private Support to Post-Growth Transformation Report from Jeni Miles, Dario Krpan and Fred Basso at the London School of Economics
Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist at Triodos Bank, has a Substack where he often talks about post-growth, degrowth, and wellbeing economies—definitely worth following.
An intro to progressive wealth holder movements from Michael Gast (US focus) + Also check out Good Ancestor Mo…