This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

On January 21st, federal financial agencies established new offices devoted to ensuring minorities and women businesses are included in contracting opportunities . Moreover, these offices are still staffing up; therefore, professional opportunities also exist. The Dodd -Frank legislation that became law in the summer of 2010 include these provisions. Attend the Wednesday, January 26 th Chicago Booth Black Alumni Association's evening program event in Washington, DC to learn more! Date: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 from 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM (ET) Location: University of Chicago's Office 1730 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Suite 275 Washington DC Click here.

According to the Fed, "The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced the establishment of offices to promote diversity and inclusion at the Federal Reserve Board and at all 12 of the Federal Reserve Banks. The offices will build on the Federal Reserve System’s long-standing efforts to promote equal employment opportunity and diversity, and will continue to work to foster diversity in procurement, with a focus on minority-owned and women-owned businesses. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act required that diversity and inclusion offices be established at certain federal agencies, including the Federal Reserve Board, and at the Federal Reserve Banks. In addition to promoting diversity at the Board and throughout the System, the Board’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion will play an integral role in the development of standards to assess the diversity practices at entities regulated by the Federal Reserve as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. The heads of the dive

Bloomberg News reported today that " U.S. Government Contractors Face New Minority Hiring Mandate ." The article goes on to state that: "U.S. financial regulators are required to open 20 offices this month endowed with new powers to force government contractors and subcontractors to diversify their staffs or risk losing federal business. The Dodd-Frank law orders U.S. financial regulators to set up Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion to monitor whether they and their contractors are hiring enough women and minorities -- a mandate that could have far-reaching effects on public and private-sector hiring. The offices are being established at agencies ranging from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to each of the 12 Federal Reserve banks. Among other duties, staff will scrutinize hiring at firms that do business with the regulators and take steps to terminate contracts if the companies

The Labor Department today announced..that "unemployment dropped to 9.4 percent—its lowest number since mid-2009—and employers added 103,000 non-farm jobs in December." We agree with Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis: “One thing is for certain: (Obama Administration) investments have reversed the trend of catastrophic job losses and put this country on the road to recovery.” These unemployment numbers confirm our September 2, 2010 Fully Adjusted Return (tm) forecast : "unemployment will trend downward as payrolls and the economy gain strength." Even with the outstanding unemployment numbers, as we noted in our December 31, 2010 Fully Adjusted Return (tm) Forecast, "most stock market forecasters expect equity markets to do well in 2011. While we expect certain sectors, like technology and energy, to do better than others, we are not as optimistic as most."

We predicted during our webinar: The Election and Section 342, that "influential and wealthy tea party contributors will push repeal of financial reform effort first." On January 5th, Tea Party Caucus Founder U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann introduced a bill to repeal the Dodd-Frank Law: "H.R.87 Latest Title: To repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Sponsor: Rep Bachmann, Michele [MN-6] (introduced 1/5/2011). Cosponsors (4) Latest Major Action: 1/5/2011 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, the Judiciary, the Budget, Oversight and Government Reform, Ways and Means, and Small Business, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned." That the Dodd/Frank repeal bill has been introduced BEFOR