This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

The U.S. economy expanded in the fourth quarter of 2025 at a 1.4 % annualized rate , a notable deceleration from the 4.4 % pace in the third quarter . For the full year, real GDP rose 2.2 % in 2025 , down from 2.8 % in 2024 , according to the advance estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). ( Bureau of Economic Analysis ) This slowdown has important implications for Black- and minority-owned firms — not just in the aggregate, but across industries and regions. Below, we unpack what the data suggest for owners, investors, and leaders in underrepresented business communities. 1. Consumer Spending & Services — Staying Power GDP Drivers: Consumer Spending Still Positive Services and consumer spending were key contributors to growth in Q4 2025. Particularly, health care and related services showed strong activity, driven by demand for outpatient and long-term care services. Minority Firm Implication Black and minority entrepreneurs are disproportionately represented i...

The passing of Jesse Jackson invites reflection not only on a singular life of moral courage, but on a set of missed intersections in American economic history—moments when civil-rights leadership, capital markets, and data-driven accountability might have converged to permanently change corporate behavior in the United States. Rev. Jackson understood something many still resist: civil rights do not end at voting booths or courtrooms . They extend into purchasing decisions, supply chains, boardrooms, and balance sheets. Economic justice was never ancillary to his work—it was foundational. Our Pitch to Rev. Jackson — 2006 In 2006, Creative Investment Research actively sought to develop, alongside Rev. Jackson and Operation PUSH, what we believed was a next-generation framework for corporate accountability . This effort is documented in contemporaneous correspondence from that period . At the center of our work was a simple but then-radical proposition: Corporations that benefit from A...

This morning’s Bureau of Labor Statistics release on U.S. inflation — the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2026 — has been greeted with celebratory headlines. Politicians and pundits alike are touting the modest slowdown in headline inflation as proof that “prices are finally coming down.” But that’s not what the data actually show. According to the official CPI report from the BLS, the overall CPI rose 2.4% over the past 12 months , after rising 2.7% in the year ending December. That is a deceleration. But it is not a decline in prices. Prices still rose everywhere consumers spend — on food, rent, medical care, and services — and in many cases remained stubbornly high (especially food, which rose nearly 3% YOY). ( Bureau of Labor Statistics ) Slowdown ≠ Relief at the Store A common mistake in popular commentary is conflating “inflation slowed” with “inflation fell.” But inflation slows when the pace of price increases decelerates — it does not mean that prices actually dr...

The January 2026 Employment Situation report has been widely cited to suggest improving labor-market conditions across demographic groups. But a close reading of the only place where race × sex unemployment is fully disaggregated suggests that the reported drop in Black women’s unemployment is statistical noise at best and a reporting artifact at worst , not evidence of real labor-market improvement. Below is why the headline interpretation does not hold up. 1. The “Improvement” Exists Only After Seasonal Adjustment The apparent month-to-month decline for Black women appears only in the seasonally adjusted data series . The not seasonally adjusted  data—the raw survey data—do not show a clean or convincing improvement. This matters because: Seasonal factors for small demographic subgroups are volatile and frequently revised. Seasonal adjustment is calibrated to historical patterns that do not reliably fit Black women’s labor-market dynamics , which are more sensitive to sector...

Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair Philip N. Jefferson spoke at Brookings on Friday Feb 6, 2026. His key point was that, while inflation is still at 3%, already above the target of 2%, he expects inflation to fall as the tariffs make their full way through the system. In his judgment, this is a one-time price level change rather than an ongoing price increase spiral since he believes inflation expectations remain well anchored. Key Drivers The pandemic showed that supply-side factors such as labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and commodity price spikes following conflicts like the Ukraine war, are crucial. New tariff policies, immigration restrictions that cut the supply of labor and large AI-driven infrastructure investments are some of the current day challenges. China, Canada A panel discussion addressed the electronic vehicle (EV) industry and the evolving trade relationship between China, Canada, and the United States. Panelists noted that China’s slowing domestic economy ha...

Bankers are trained to think about risk in familiar terms: interest rates, credit quality, capital ratios and macroeconomic cycles. What they are less accustomed to modeling—but increasingly cannot ignore—is the economic cost of civic disruption. Recent events in Minneapolis illustrate why. An amicus brief I filed in federal litigation involving the Minneapolis immigration enforcement program , Operation Metro Surge, documents $275–$320 million in cumulative economic harm tied to prolonged civic unrest, business shutdowns, school disruptions and emergency public-sector costs. These losses are not abstract. They translate directly into revenue volatility, labor-market disruption, impaired small-business cash flow and declining commercial corridor performance—all of which matter to banks. Small businesses in affected areas experienced revenue declines of 50% to 80% on disruption days, while public-sector overtime and emergency coordination costs exceeded $5 million per month. The burden ...