Pulse: Global


No Quiet Monument: EconVue Spotlight

Last weekend I drove through the Skokie Lagoons, just north of Chicago. They are both beautiful and manmade, created literally from the sweat of the Great Depression. Four million cubic tons of soil were removed to form a series of lagoons from the existing marshlands. It was one of the largest public works projects of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps, employing thousands of men, including three African-American construction companies. Started in 1933, the project took until the beginning of the US entry into World War II in 1941 to complete.

Hale Report: Podcast Episode 9 A Green Recovery for Investors? Webinar with David Maywald

Sustainable investment focused on a "Green Recovery" is being widely discussed as we envision the post-Covid world. What are the promises and pitfalls of ESG for investors?

On Wednesday, July 8th at 4 pm CDT, in advance of the ministerial-level Clean Energy Transitions Summit in Paris, EconVue hosted a webinar with economist David Maywald, a leading specialist in the field of ESG and infrastructure investment based in Sydney. He was joined by EconVue colleagues with expertise in these subjects, including Marsha Vande Berg and Robert Madsen. 

My Remarks at EconVue Webinar on Sustainability

Asset owners are at the apex of the global investment community and many are focused on and in the vanguard of sustainability investing movement. They are an important part of a reallocation of capital to long-term investments in those companies with a credible vision for mitigating risks associated with the really big megatrends and their potential for undercutting long-term competitiveness and value creation.

Are We There Yet? EconVue Spotlight - June 2020

Yesterday Peter Navarro declared that the US-China trade deal was dead in the water, which his boss quickly walked back on Twitter. In a world of global threats, should bilateral disputes remain our focus, or are we wasting precious time? As I wrote for the G7 Research Group:

Moral Mentors: Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility in Era of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter

Well before Nike or Starbucks was even a glimmer in the eye of their founders, a little-known economist sat down at his desk in the 1950s in America to write why he believed companies are obliged to be responsible citizens.

Paradise Regained? - EconVue Spotlight

I had planned to be in Washington last week at the IMF/World Bank meetings, a chance to hear the latest policy debates and catch up with old friends. Not this spring; the meetings were entirely virtual and didn't offer much clarity beyond a dismal forecast for 2020. I have however indulged in a cornucopia of online offerings, some of which I have included below. 

Exceptionally Strong Growth of US Bank Deposits

We have another week of data on the US commercial banks’ assets and liabilities. Deposits rose by 2.6% in the week to 25th March, after a (revised) increase of 2.2% in the previous week. The increase in the fortnight to 25th March may have been the highest ever in such a short period of time. The implied annualised rate of increase was not much less than 250%.
 

Covid-19 Won’t Derail Sustainability Momentum

The microscopic pathogen that is threatening global health and wreaking havoc from Singapore to Seoul, Tokyo to New York and Berlin to Milan is clearly reshaping the 2020 global outlook. But it should not derail the current momentum driving sustainability investing and corporate governance. 

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