This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

On July 10, 2025, Brookings’ “State of the Global Economy” panel gave a somewhat bleak picture of the world’s economic future. Global Projections:  The 2020s are projected to be one of the slowest decades for Global GDP growth in recent memory. There are several reasons, but this decline boils down to trade uncertainty and a rise in global conflict.  We are seeing a decrease in global GDP growth for the year 2025, with projections showing that GDP growth will drop from 2.8% to 1.4%. There was a consensus that we will see GDP growth stabilize in 2026, but it will not recover. Making the 2020s the slowest decade for GDP growth.   Countries are showing growing economic uncertainty as recent U.S. trade and tariff policies shift the global economic landscape. These changes have contributed to a slowdown in global trade growth, driven by increasing fragmentation and a lack of clarity around the U.S. approach trade going forward. As nations struggle to anticipate the direct...

On Monday, January 22, The Brookings Institution hosted White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard, who outlined the Biden-Harris administration’s focus on supporting communities that have been left behind, and the direction of the economic agenda in 2024. The event began with a forward by Ms. Brainard. She debriefed the systematic issues in Reagan's 'trickle-down economics' philosophy, offering Biden's place-based growth as an alternative. Where the former spurs regional inequality for the benefit of some, the latter targets those inequalities at their most basic local level to provide long-term solutions lasting well into the future. Brainard outlined six principles of place-based policy.  The first was a well-designed environment for public investment (acting as a foundation for private investment) ensured by Biden's infrastructure law.  Second were additional special investments to propel private investment, like those in emerging technology and sustain...

Recently, the Brookings Institution issued a report titled “ Black-owned businesses in U.S. cities: The challenges, solutions, and opportunities for prosperity. ” While we appreciate the effort, the report is flawed in several significant ways.  It opens with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s statement at a MLK day event in 2017. She indicated:  “From Reconstruction, to Jim Crow, to the present day, our economy has never worked fairly for Black Americans —or, really, for any American of color.”  This is, of course, not accurate. As the chart below indicates, the economy has worked well for Asian Americans and is improving the economic standing of Hispanics at a rapid rate. According to the US Census Bureau, “non-Hispanic White householders had a median household wealth of $187,300, compared with $14,100 for Black householders and $31,700 for Hispanic householders. Asian householders had a median household wealth of $206,400, which is not statistically different from the...