This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

This week, a number of organizations submitted "Friend of the Court" briefs in SEC v. Citigroup Global Markets. (United States Securities & Exchange Commission v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. - UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT, docket number 11-5227- cv .) The case is now in an Appeals Court after a lower Court Judge threw out a settlement reached between the SEC and Citi. The National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys (NASCAT), the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), the Business Roundtable, Occupy Wall Street and the US Chamber of Commerce have all either filed or are seeking permission to file briefs in this case. Of course, industry groups, like SIFMA, believe that, if the lower Court ruling is upheld, the wheels will come off the economy. It will be the official End of the World. (We note that one of the attorneys for SIFMA, Annette L. Nazareth of DAVIS POLK & WARDWELL LLP, spent a...

Selected highlights from the Appeals Court Brief filed yesterday by the SEC: "As one example, the same district judge who rejected the consent  judgment here approved a consent judgment in which Worldcom agreed to  injunctive relief—and later, a $750 million penalty, one of the  largest ever obtained  by the Commission—without admitting or denying the fraud allegations in the  complaint." Irrelevant, since they refer to a different time and industry. More  importantly, a $750 million dollar fine in 2002 translates into a $962  million dollar fine in 2012. Or a $285 million dollar fine is only  $223 million in 2002 dollars. The SEC notes that "BP resolved charges that it violated the Clean Air Act in connection  with the Texas City refinery explosion, which killed 15 people and  injured 170, by entering into a consent judgment that ordered it to  undertake an array of remedial measures and pay one of the largest  civil...

Review of Office of Minority and Women Inclusion (OMWI) Performance: Opportunities for Minority and Women firms, Implications for Policymakers Friday, June 8, 2012 from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM (ET). $100.00. Register by clicking on the link above.  

A recent article  on United Bank in Philadelphia appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer today. While the article accurately quotes some of our research, it carefully ignored other points. Here is what we submitted to the paper: Consider something as small as the House dress code being applied differently  to the Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. And  there is the more important fact that "redistricting could mean the  CBC’s four most senior – and oldest – members will soon be gone." This  is an unprecedented level of anti black hostility and threatens to  turn the Congressional  racial clock back to pre-reconstruction days.  And finally, five of the eight cases before the House House Ethics  Committee involve blacks. While I might not agree with their alleged  behavior, I know that Black congressmen are not committing 62% of the  ethical violations on Capitol Hill. That much is certain. I believe  many of these inve...

From the New York Times,"At the behest of New York City’s public pension funds, two of the biggest financial companies with headquarters in the city, Goldman Sachs and MetLife, have agreed to publicly disclose information about the racial and gender breakdowns of their staffs." Also see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/nyregion/goldman-sachs-and-metlife-to-disclose-staff-diversity-data.html Also see: http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/goldman-has-some-gall-seeking-profit-in-housing-1048229-1.html

I recently wrote an opinion piece for the American Banker Newspaper website. The article is on Goldman's new housing fund. It was Goldman's mark to market on the Bear Housing Fund that triggered the liquidity part of the housing crisis. They then went into the Fed to become a bank. Subsequently, they got $2 trillion in funding. Now, they are playing the upside, this after denying any meaningful role in the financial crisis (God's work) and after multiple severe securities market violations. My point is that, given this track record, they are lucky to be around, much less raising money for a mega housing fund. One would be justified in being concerned that their actions with respect to the new Fund, despite what they might say, will not help the market and country work it's way out of the housing crisis, just when we are beginning to recover. It's like letting someone with the flu in your house just after you got over pneumonia. Not a good idea. The point i...

The BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM released its Report to the Congress on the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. March 2012. We note that "During 2011, the Board’s procurement contracts for goods and services totaled $125,070,569. Of this total, $15,414,147, or 12.3 percent, was awarded to minority-owned or women-owned businesses. Specific awards by contractor classification are as follows • minority-owned businesses (excludes women owned businesses) = $9,028,526 (7.2 percent of total); • women-owned businesses (excludes minority women) = $4,237,038 (3.4 percent of total); and • minority women-owned businesses = $2,148,583 (1.7 percent of total)." http://federalreserve.gov/publications/other-reports/files/omwi-report-20120402.pdf