BloombergBusinessweek’s picture says it all: Hedge funds talk big, but results are limp. Sheelah Kolhatkar reported back in July on the poor performance and high cost of specialist investor funds. The follow up for the 3rd quarter tells the same story: Hedge Funds Continue to Be for Suckers If the fund managers had to suffer …
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Author:astraea
Fossil fuel subsidies: over $ 500,000,000,000 a year.
That’s about $112 for each adult in the world. It’s a lot of money for any industry. It’s a huge commitment of resources for a sunset industry. Subsidies must be eliminated. The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) report notes that “these subsidies outweigh the support provided to fast-start climate finance by a ratio of 7:1”. That …
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Listen to your gut.
It’s not always what you want and it’s not always right, BUT it is at least as good as your head when it comes to emotional response and relationships, and life is all about relationships. A study on gut-feeling as it relates to the longevity of matrimonial relationships indicates that it is a better predictor …
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1945 – 2013: Where has common sense gone?
From somewhere in the noosphere. It’s not all wrong now. But it’s not good or right either. But the humourous contrast below hints at the difficulties of implementing rules, laws, and even guidelines. Education in body and consciousness as well as mind, can resolve the dilemmas. (And it would be good if there were fewer …
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Investing Legend Jack Bogle Answers Your Questions
A quick read of the transcript is worth the few minutes it takes. And if you have the time, enjoy the video. Jack Bogle, with 84 years of life experience, much of it in investing, shares some views with Motley Fool’s Tom Gardner. He offers worthy insights, like this incidental quote “Liquidity is the last …
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Banking and Sustainability? Yes please.
UNEP Finance Initiative launched their Online Guide to Banking and Sustainability at their Global Roundtable – Financing The Future We Want – a couple of weeks ago. It offers a comprehensive reference and training tool easily accessible online, covering: 1. Board & CEO 2. Management 3. Communication 4. Sustainability 5. Legal 6. Risk 7. Business …
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Dumb Things Finance People Say
A few snippets of wisdom to help you keep your feet on the ground. Dumb Things Finance People Say by Morgan Housel, The Motley Fool My job requires reading a lot of financial news. It’s one of my favorite parts. But it gives me a front-row seat to the downside of financial journalism: gibberish, nonsense, …
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Rebirth of a dymaxion car.
The word dymaxion makes me think of a lattice-work of struts which form triangles which form hexagons, which form a sphere. The design is intimately associated with Buckminster Fuller. A mind ahead of his time. So the idea of a dymaxion car is intriguing. And then it turned out that even the frame is built …
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People said no to GMO, so now big agroindustry and pharma-chem businesses are engineering mutagenic food. Yum!
Mutagenesis isn’t new: Breeders have relied on it for decades to produce thousands of varieties of lettuce, oats, rice, and other crops. Pharma-chem companies sell high volumes of mutant breeds, ranging from wheat to sunflowers, in markets that reject genetically engineered seeds. It just doesn’t sound very nice and might even be a dangerous idea. …
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Facing down immorality might not pay, but it’s the only option.
Ethical Corp, an on-online magazine, published an article Executive whistle blowing: what to do when no one listens (with useful comments too). It is difficult to broach the subject of dealing with immoral behaviour in companies because people who are immoral don’t care and those that do can rarely change the culture. The culture comes …
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