Quarterly Market Update and Outlook: Incrementally More Positive
Third Quarter 2020 Executive Summary: With most asset classes having recovered from the intense volatility that occurred in financial markets at the onset of the COVID-19 virus, we see select opportunities…
Women Entrepreneurs: Foundational to Economic Recovery
Executive Summary The creation of small businesses boosts economic growth by introducing new products, services, and technologies into the economy. Most importantly, it provides new job opportunities, challenges existing firms,…
Investing in the Future of Work
The future is specialized. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is affecting the professional job market in much the same way automation and robotics impacted production and service jobs over the past…
Implications of COVID-19 for the U.S. Economy and Capital Markets
The COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding uncertainty in the financial markets necessitate a different approach to our Quarterly Market Update and Outlook. Importantly, COVID-19 is a health issue first and an economic issue second.…
Quarterly Market Update and Outlook: 2020 – Many Moving Parts
The combination of (i) a phase one trade agreement with China, (ii) the enactment of the USMCA trade agreement, (iii) an accommodative Fed, and (iv) possible fiscal stimulus ahead of the 2020 election has the…
Fighting the Sixth Mass Extinction
Human activities are causing a climate crisis, which is increasingly responsible for pushing various species of animals and plants closer to the edge of global extinction. These include “keystone species” that have disproportionately…
Intentional Design: Embracing the Circular Economy
The economic model of our current era is linear. We take resources from nature, make them into a product and then throw the item away when we’re done with it. The result? Overflowing…
Quarterly Market Update and Outlook: Slowing Global Growth to Sway Asset Prices
Global GDP growth continues to slow, with trade and tariff issues being a major contributory factor. The deteriorating macroeconomic outlook has been impacting investors’ decisions. The prices of perceived “safe haven” assets, such…
No Place to Hide? Climate Change and Systemic Financial Risk
Much has been written about the physical impacts of climate change on the planet: heatwaves, droughts, rising sea levels, etc. There is less mainstream discussion of the potential impacts of climate change on …
Scaling Climate Action: Aligning Investments to Sustainable Development Goal 13
A growing global population and economy leads to more demand for food, water, transportation, housing and the fuel to supply these essentials to the world’s populace. Growing food, providing transportation and supplying the energy…
Sacrifice Nothing: A fresh look at investment performance of sustainable and impact strategies by asset class
Despite decades of competitive returns, a “myth” persists that sustainable and impact investment strategies financially underperform conventional strategies. The myth should be dead. We recently conducted a fresh review of the academic…
Advancing “Access” in Gender Lens Investing
Gender lens investment approaches have expanded in recent years. All asset classes have seen a tremendous increase in the number of funds and assets under management since 2014. Fund strategies range from empowering…
Quarterly Market Update and Outlook: Rates-Driven Markets
Global central banks have been key to supporting financial markets. The stimulus has offset weak economic growth and a poor corporate earnings environment. There is no reason to believe this monetary stimulus will…
Two Lenses, One Vision: Investing for LGBTQI and Gender Equity
In the absence of clear and consistent government regulation, corporate policies have been pivotal to the provision of legal protections for LGBTQI workers. For companies, greater inclusion is associated with improved brand reputation, reduced turnover, and increased…
Quarterly Market Update and Outlook: Range-Bound
With the U. S. yield curve not far from inversion, global GDP growth slowing, and earnings estimates continuing to decline, it seems the risks to stocks are on the downside from current levels. …
Investing to Revitalize Rural America
Rising income and wealth inequality is a widely recognized social concern in the United States. This is a multi-faceted issue, with root causes that vary according to demographics, and one that impact investors have…
Sustainable Protein: Investing for Impact at the Nexus of Environment, Human Health and Animal Welfare
Advances in agricultural technology, changes in human diet, and rising awareness of the environmental destruction caused by factory farming are accelerating the rise of sustainable protein. Investors can target…
Quarterly Market Update and Outlook: Volatility Likely to Continue in 2019
In our last Quarterly Market Update and Outlook , we noted that “volatility in the capital markets was even more muted in the third quarter than it was in the prior quarter. ” The…
Mobilizing Donor Advised Funds for Impact Investing
More than $23 billion [1] was contributed to donor advised funds (DAFs) in the United States in 2016, yet only a minor fraction of donor advised fund assets are invested for positive…
Opportunity Zones: Positive intentions, many questions
On October 19th, the U. S. Treasury Department issued proposed regulations regarding Opportunity Zones and Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs). Investors have questioned whether Opportunity Zones and QOFs that invest in these zones would…