Martha and Walmart and socially responsible investing.
When I examined socially responsible mutual funds, I found that none screened companies for inclusion based solely on their promotion of women's equality. Some claimed to screen for gender but those claims appeared overstated. One fund claims to invest in "public companies that advance the social and economic status of women in the workplace." Digging a bit deeper, it is clear that the important screening criteria are environmental not gender-based.
I've urged the leaders of the women's movement to develop gender-based screening criteria. One obstacle to those efforts is that few companies compile the data by gender alone, compiling the data instead using the broader category of women and minorities.
Martha Burk attended the Walmart shareholders meeting last week and complained that only two of the companies fourteen board members are women. She also pressed the company to reveal the gender and race of stock option grantees. I applaud her efforts and hope she continues to press companies for that information. We'll need it to truly screen companies based upon their treatment of women.
Susan
posted by Charter Financial Group @ 10:44 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Susan
When do you think the real estate bubble will burst and what strategies should we be putting in place to either capitalize on it or protect ourselves from it?
How important is timing or is timing just a gamblers' game?
Kate,
I don’t know when the real estate bubble will burst, but I do know that most experts expect the real estate market to stop appreciating, as opposed to experiencing a rapid decline in prices. If that happens, speculative real estate investors, who rely on being able to sell properties for more than they paid, are likely to be hurt.
Those same investors often use financing techniques which push the limits, requiring little or no down payment, or requiring the payment of interest-only for the first several years. There will be many who cannot afford the costs of carrying their property over the long-term and be forced to default on mortgages.
That’s why stock and bond investors might want to avoid companies whose fortunes are tied to a rapidly rising real estate market. We don't own stocks or bonds of homebuilders, mortgage lenders or home improvement companies, for instance, and invest instead in companies that are unrelated to the domestic real estate market.
Investing is as much about owning the right thing as it is about not owning the wrong thing. I think there are still plenty of opportunities for the smart investor.
Thanks for blogging
Susan
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Everyone’s financial situation is unique and the opinions expressed here should not be construed as a recommendation . You should use your own judgment or consult your financial advisor in making financial decisions appropriate for you. Stock and bond investing involves the risk of losing money. Contact Charter Financial Group, Inc ® at www.charterfinancialgroup.com for a comprehensive list of all the stocks in our portfolios, when we bought them and at what price.
I have an idea for socially responsible investing. It is based on objective and clear measures of now unequal a company is. Most funds now seem to just reward companies if they put just one woman in an executive position. My idea revoles around using an index that measures the aggregate income going to women and then comparing that to the aggregate income going to men to give an objective measure of how gender unequal or equal the wealth distribution is.
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