A model of good money management embraces ESG. 

By Hank Boerner

We’ve commented here on “Universal Ownership,” which like the term “SRI” can have several meanings and dimensions, depending on the speaker (and those who hear her and interpret the words). I like the concept of UO as the communities’ monies, with funds contributed into the larger pool, partially and in the main by individuals and government, and other institutions, to be managed by independent fiduciaries with very clear duties and responsibilities for the ultimate beneficiaries. Think of pension funds (corporate and public sector), mutual funds, and endowments and the concept of monies being universally-owned.

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Government investment made the US great – and can do it again.

By Hank Boerner

In our fractious and contentious public policy debates – where the nation is almost equally divided pro and con on many issues – how can we agree on solutions or at least the basic questions to unite and move forward to preserve our quality of life and build on the great legacies of generations past? These are not idle questions – with the end of the Cold War we have lost the common enemy (the USSR and satellite states), and to an alarming extent, our common purpose.

The terms thrown around, especially by pundits  – right/left, conservative/liberal, red/blue state, loony left/wacky right – themselves aggravate the differences of opinion in these United States (which on many issues are dis-united). And if we can agree on a forward approach, the immediate comment is: where do we get the money for that, or, we can’t afford that. How did we get to this awful state of affairs? (One answer is that Cold War spending exhausted not only the Soviet Union but the US treasury as well.)

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Corporations are using our money to trash the environment.

By Hank Boerner

Let’s ask ourselves, whose money is it, anyway? In a recent CSRwire Talkback blog post, I wrote that, in my opinion, the highest test of true corporate responsibility is to see how the corporate board and management respect the concept of managing other peoples’ money (OPM). That set me thinking: as the billions and tens of billions of dollars that trade every day go swirling around the capital markets…whose money is it, anyway that stock traders and investment bankers and hedge fund managers and other market mavens are using to “play the market?” Yours and mine? Let’s think about that for a second or two as we read of investment banking bonuses.

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