August, 2020

Archive

Investing in the greater good

Every day, more investors are converting their portfolios to socially responsible investing (SRI). But does being a socially responsible investor mean you will take a hit on performance? “Over the last five years, responsible investments have done at least as well as the traditional portfolio,” said Tim Nash, a fee-for-service financial planner who spoke at the webinar “Investing in the Greater Good” on August 18, 2020, sponsored by Questrade. Nash is the founder of Good Investing and blogs as The Sustainable Economist. He is also the lead researcher for Ethical Markets Green Transition Scoreboard research report, which details more than […]

Healthy skepticism

Selecting environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds is a way that ordinary citizens can invest in an ethical way. But what does the increased interest in ESG investing shown by institutional and private wealth clients really mean? Is it paying off? Are we at a watershed moment for structural change in the way investors allocate resources? The move to consider ESG investing came some years ago with scandals such as Enron, and continues with more scandals such as Volkswagen’s Dieselgate and Facebook’s meddlings, said Pedro Matos, a professor of finance at University of Virginia and the author of the CFA […]

Impact of Covid-19: Economics

How is the world grappling with the Covid-19 Pandemic, especially in the realm of economics? The magazine the Economist presented a webinar on July 30, 2020, titled “The Inside Story: The Impact of Covid-19.” Helen Joyce, executive editor for events at the Economist, interviewed a science writer and an economics editor. This is part two of a two-part summary of that webinar. The second panellist was Henry Cur, an economics editor. He said the economic crisis precipitated by the pandemic is markedly different from “garden variety recessions.” “The scale of unemployment is greater than the 2008 downturn,” he said, “and […]

Impact of Covid-19: Science

How is the world grappling with the Covid-19 Pandemic, especially in the realm of science? Much is happening and the world is hungry for information on these fronts, was the consensus of the panel convened by the magazine the Economist, which presented a webinar on July 30, 2020, titled “The Inside Story: The Impact of Covid-19.” Helen Joyce, executive editor for events at the Economist, interviewed two staffpersons, working on different aspects of the pandemic. She also ran a Q & A session with an audience of thousands via the Zoom platform. This is part one of a two-part summary. […]