This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

On October 6, 2020, Jerome H. Powell, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System reviewed America’s economic status amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Powell began his analysis at the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic hit. He then touched on the recession and the nascent recovery that must ensue. Mr. Powell closed with a look at what lies ahead on the road to normalcy. The speech was full of numbers and statistics that, to the casual observer wouldn’t fully explain what this means for the country. But, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that Chair Powell is wary of what's to come for our nation, which, before the COVID-19 pandemic was experiencing new highs in job creation and the stock market. Nevertheless, Chair Powell remains optimistic that the country will fully recover and return to what it once was. In terms of the pre-covid economy, Chair Powell stated that:  “The U.S. economy was in its 128th month of expansion—the longest in our recorded hist...

  JPMorgan Chase announced a $30 billion “commitment” to address U.S. wealth inequality in Black and Latino communities. The pledge consists of actions, over five years, designed to increase the number of loans, investments, donations and grants the bank makes. The focus of the effort is housing, where the bank says it will lend an additional $14 billion dollars, finance the construction of 100,000 affordable rental units and issue $12 billion in mortgages. These efforts are meant to be supplemental, that is, the bank says these are loans and investments it would not otherwise make. Of course, problems with racial inequality in the U.S. have been magnified after the May 25 death of George Floyd, instigated by former members of the Minneapolis, MN police department. The incident sparked weeks of protests across the globe. In addition, the COVID pandemic exposed gaps in health care access. The Black community has experienced far higher Covid-19 mortality than in the overall populatio...

As a new virtual knowledge-exchange, Prox is dedicated to "connecting wisdom with those who seek it." The platform allows people to search a community of subject matter experts and book time with them instantly. In a September, 2020 TechCrunch article, Prox CEO Michael Mathieu stated that the goal of the platform "is to create an entire suite of 'back office' tools for experts and influencers...the company is starting out by offering an easy way to host one-on-one video sessions with knowledge seekers. People who are influencers on social media and on YouTube, they don't control that customer," Mathieu said. "It's a YouTube customer, so if you're going to monetize, it's through a slice of YouTube ad revenue." The TechCrunch article goes on to state that "Prox is designed to help..experts make money more directly from anyone who wants to connect with them, and to understand that audience. (CEO) Mathieu suggested that the...