As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on around the world, authoritarian regimes such as China, or cultures where the individual's rights are seen as subservient to the public interest such as Japan and Korea, have seen relatively little unrest triggered by the public health crisis. However, in the West - broadly defined not just as the US and Western Europe but also encompassing Eastern Europe and even Russia - have seen relatively high levels of citizen protests and even violence.

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.

COVID-19 has pushed to global economy in a synchronized and deep downturn of apocalyptic proportions, with combined supply-side and demand-side shocks devastating economies across the world. In the words of Gita Gopinath, the Chief Economist of the IMF, “A crisis like no other”.

Donald Trump may have normalized cognitive dissonance for many of his supporters and some young people.  But wishing away the pandemic does not affect reality.  

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:

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.

Last Friday the Federal Reserve published another week of data on the US commercial banks’ assets and liabilities, completing the month of May. Deposits rose by 0.2% in the week to 27th May, so that the sequence of weeks since the start of March is as given in the table below.

This article was originally published by Washington Monthly.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) surprised the markets and most economists Friday with an announcement that the unemployment rate fell from 14.7 percent in April to 13.3 percent in May. President Donald Trump had the temerity to boast that George Floyd, the unarmed black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, was “looking down from heaven” to admire those numbers. “This is a great day for him,” Trump said in the Rose Garden. “This is a great day for everybody.”

The field of behavioral finance studies the behavior of the investment markets. Similarly, the field of behavioral economics studies the behavior of the global economy and the numerous national, regional, and local economies.

But what of the field of behavioral accounting? How does it resemble the fields of behavioral finance and economics? And how does it differ?