This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

An effort to boycott the Oscars has gained significant traction, even leading to "a history-making announcement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about diversifying its membership.." Simple economic analysis reveals why the Academy responded so quickly. It also reveals why the course of action chosen is likely to be less effective than many hope. Finally, it points to a more effective solution. As noted in the charts above and below, both drawn from the  2014 Motion Picture Association of America Stat Book , Asians, African-Americans and Hispanics comprised 46% of movie ticket sales in 2014. You don't need an MBA from the University of Chicago to know policies and practices that disrespect 46% of your customers, while several of your employees make statements that appear to channel Donald Trump's  perspective on diversity , are bad for business. As I wrote in an  MLK Day post , Dr. King stated quite clearly that "If you respect ...

Jan. 26, 2016  - -- William Michael Cunningham has been invited to serve as a speaker during the Rainbow PUSH Coalition & Citizenship Education Fund 19th Annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit, convening February 16-18, 2016 at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, 811 Seventh Avenue at 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019. The theme of the Summit will be “Wall Street: The New Paradigm – Access to Opportunity.”  Up to 2,500 corporate executives, minority suppliers, and political, community, religious and world leaders are expected to attend. Mr. Cunningham will speak at a panel titled “Access to Capital: Crowdfunding, Alternative Funding Sources and Business Development for MBW/WBES” on Thursday, February 18th (10:45a.m.-12: 00p.m.). He will discuss new techniques to acquire funding to start or grow a business. As the organizers noted, "It seems like every day you hear about a new crowdfunding site or another firm looking to invest in new ventures. Some things sound ea...

Capitalism and Equality  As the civil rights movement expands to include investing and investments, I thought it would be an appropriate time to reflect on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s attitude toward investing. Though it may surprise some, Dr. King was one of capitalism's staunchest proponents. In this respect, his actions were fully consistent with his faith: as he noted in one of his speeches, "Jesus never made a universal indictment against all wealth." What's more, Dr. King's work made capital markets more efficient, as I discuss below.  A Socially Responsible Investor Martin Luther King was more concerned with how wealth was obtained and used. To him, the fact that one owned a Cadillac said nothing about one's faith or about one's character, for that matter. Worshiping the Cadillac, however, did. This certainly made him a socially responsible investor, specifically a values investor. His emphasis on values rested on a concern he expressed ma...

Why the  #FED  doesn’t care about Black unemployment. EllisonReport 12/22/2015 edition: New shifts in the GOP primary. Emerging differences among Democratic and GOP candidates on national security issues. How the political calculus might reshape (or not) in wake of trial, grand jury decisions. Federal education policy 50 years later. How recent interest rate hikes eviscerate already eviscerated African Americans.   Economist William Cunningham (@CreativeInv) talks about how the Fed doesn’t care about Black unemployment – but, has many tools at its disposal to take care of it.  Listen at:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/11yR9RGTdY5ccp5PyEhbjkRqgiKQJm34-/view?usp=sharing

As the New York Times reported, "Syrian refugees continue to flee the violence at home,  President Obama  is turning to the modern tools of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship as a supplement to the more traditional means of humanitarian relief. At the request of officials from the White House Office of Digital Strategy, the crowdfunding website Kickstarter has begun its first  social service campaign  aimed at raising money for the  United Nations  refugee agency on behalf of Syrian refugees." Here is my talk 10/7 on NPR's  Press Play with Madeleine Brand: " Host Madeleine Brand looks at news, culture and emerging trends through the lens of Los Angeles, weekdays at noon." http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand How effective is this? They raised $700,000 in six hours. Six hours. For more, visit the links below.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/ 10/07/world/middleeast/obama- turns-to-crowdfun...

We note that last week automaker  Volkswagen admitted  that “’defeat devices’ used to cheat emissions testing were installed in 11 million vehicles worldwide.” The admission resulted in the swift “resignation and prompt replacement of CEO Martin Winterkorn, and a 30-percent drop in the company’s stock..” Volkswagen will be removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) as of October 6 (showing, once again, just how unreliable these index measures are).   Some time ago (2011), we  quantified the impact environmental factors have on stock prices  using several statistical techniques. Our analysis showed that investors and publicly traded companies must recognize the impact environmental incidents and issues have on a given firm's ability to use company assets and therefore generate revenue and profits. As we stated on February 5, 2015 in testimony to the  Norwegian Ministry  of Finance and on April 22, 2015 in testimony to the Governmen...

As noted in Testimony to the Council of the District of Columbia on Thursday, March 12, 2015:  “Our 2016 Fully Adjusted Return® forecast for the City suggests a crisis may be coming soon in the August/October (2015) timeframe."  (The testimony can be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx3S91AlzNJ4RGF0WTZQd05Ha3M/view?usp=sharing and https://youtu.be/rlr_DomOais  below:) One newspaper recently reported a "growing fear that the District is less safe. This fear resides with the City’s gentrifiers, not its natives, since Black male DC natives have been subject to elevated murder risk for decades. The truth is that as long as Blacks are the victims, Washington, DC's murder rate has never been a concern for the DC City Council or their masters, the Congress of the United States, our Constitutionally anointed overseers. Failing to recognize that synthetic drugs, domestic violence, and illegal guns are all factors in the increase in homicides anchors this lac...