Infrastructure Literacy
Learning to see the underlying systems and relationships that make visible outcomes possible: how capital moves, information travels, authority operates, incentives influence behavior, and trust supports coordination.
Author · Consultant
Jeffery A.Garfield
Author of The Invisible Economy
De novo bank formation consultant
A practitioner’s perspective on institutional design and economic systems, informed by the work of helping organize new banks.
A way of seeing
Look beneath the outcome.
Understand what makes it possible.
About the author
Practical experience.
A broader way of seeing.
Jeffery A. Garfield is the author of The Invisible Economy: Learning to See the Invisible Systems That Shape Our World and a consultant specializing in de novo bank formation.
His writing explores Infrastructure Literacy—the ability to recognize the systems, capital, information, authority, incentives, trust, and institutional relationships beneath visible outcomes. Applied Infrastructure Literacy connects that understanding to practical judgment and action.
His perspective comes from practical work helping organize traditional community and business banks. New-bank formation requires specialists to bring capital, governance, regulatory requirements, people and operating systems into a coherent institution.
That experience informs the questions in his writing: What must work together? Who has the authority to decide? Which assumptions need evidence? What happens when a dependency fails?
His educational aim is to make those questions useful beyond banking—at work, in a community organization and in everyday decisions. Infrastructure Literacy helps readers recognize the system; Applied Infrastructure Literacy helps them put that understanding to use.
The central ideas
From recognition to practical judgment.
Applied Infrastructure Literacy
Connecting that understanding to practical judgment and action. Look at the relationships behind an outcome, question the assumptions, and consider what needs to work for a decision to succeed.
The book
The Invisible Economy
Learning to See the Invisible Systems That Shape Our World
Visible events attract attention. This book directs the reader toward the systems and institutional relationships beneath them.
Its scope extends across economic life and institutional behavior, exploring capital, information, authority, incentives, trust, and coordination.
A closer look
Questions about the work
What does “de novo bank formation” mean?
It means forming a new bank. Jeffery A. Garfield’s consulting work specializes in this area.
How do the book and consulting work connect?
Both focus attention on the systems and relationships behind an institution’s visible activity. The book develops the reader’s ability to recognize those structures; bank formation provides a practical context for thinking about institutional design.
Where can I learn more or connect?
Visit the About This Book page, find the book on Amazon U.S., or visit Jeffery’s LinkedIn profile.
In Jeffery’s own story
How the book began.
Watch Pause & Pivot, the 1-minute-34-second story behind The Invisible Economy.
Watch Jeffery’s story →