At Resilience 2017 (II)
It’s over, and it’s been quite interesting. I gather from various conversations that the science element has been downplayed a bit this conference–there used to be considerably more ecology, apparently, whereas this year we’re hearing a lot more social theory. Even more, we’re hearing more about theories of theory–if we were to have a theory about something, what would that theory look like, that sort of thing. I have become used to session titles with “meta” in them. This seems…
At Resilience 2017 (I)
This is the first Resilience conference I have attended, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Resilience is one of those terms that, like Sustainability, has tended to assume multiple meanings, depending on who is using the term. In fact, the two terms are often used interchangeably, which is an error. Resilience is a systems characteristic, one that can often be quantified–the ability of a complex system to adapt to change, sometimes catastrophic change. Sustainability is, well, not resilience,…
So, do Green Bonds outperform, or underperform, or what?
A lot of ink, and innumerable pixels, have been spilled on the question of whether Green Bonds outperform, or underperform, comparable vanilla bonds from the same issuer, or the overall market, or what. For all I know, there’s probably some article out there from some financial journalist on Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, and Green Bonds are from Someplace Special. The laziness and sloppiness with which this issue has been pursued has been disappointing, but not necessarily surprising. There have been several “reports” from banks, and several academic articles, not to mention too many breathless media stories to count, that in the end have really explained less about Green Bonds and how they trade, and, sadly, more about the quality of research being published in the financial sphere.
Are Green Bond fund criteria too stringent?
The Financial Times has an article today of interest to issuers and buyers of Green Bonds. Apparently, Green Bond funds, of which there are an increasing number, are having difficulty finding Green Bonds to buy because not enough bonds meet their criteria. This is an interesting and probably unexpected problem for the Green Bond market to have–not enough Green Bonds to meet fund demand. It’s a criteria issue, certainly–to sell the Green Bond concept to investors, fund managers need to…
Is “Where Will the Jobs Come From?” an ESG Issue?
As ESG practitioners know, labor issues are generally compartmentalized as a component of the “Social” part of things. Traditionally, or as traditionally as anything can really be in the ESG sphere, “Social” has included a number of issues that relate to labor relations and working conditions–the living wage, recognition of the right to unionize, child labor, employee sweatshops, how many of its employees does a company kill annually (and is this number rising or falling?), Social-License-to-Operate–there is a whole range…
Is MIFID II Good or Bad for ESG Research?
European investors, as the Financial Times reminds us today, are going to be required to pay for sell side research in the near future–and this will include not just equity and bond research, but areas such as economics, strategy, quant stuff and, yes, even ESG research. Granted, most sell side research houses don’t have much in the way of an ESG offering to begin with, particularly on the bond side, but it’s been a growing field, as many practitioners are aware.…
Coal is dead? Pretty much.
For all their imperfections, markets generally do know how to price a pretty broad spectrum of goods and services (nature not so much.) So when a substantial and integral player of the US private sector–railroads–decides that coal is dead, it probably is. Keep in mind that North American railroads, including CSX, have made quite a bit of money hauling coal around over the years–it’s largely why Warren Buffett bought Burlington Northern, in fact. And if there’s an industry that has…