ESG

As investor interest in ETFs that promote higher environmental, social, and governance standards fades, more issuers are shutting down these funds.

The fiercest adversary of investing based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) is Aswath Damodaran. ESG is a failure, its advocates are to blame, and the concept should be retired, according to Damodaran.

How do you go from the theoretical to the practical? What AI tools can you use that will streamline and improve your processes?

Big Tech earnings next week will offer investors a dose of reality following this year’s impressive gains in the sector that were powered by hype over artificial intelligence.

Kyle Bass has some advice for real estate investors: Tear it down. The founder of Dallas-based Hayman Capital Management says office buildings in cities need to be demolished because demand isn’t returning and it’s impractical to turn most towers into apartments.

The Saudi-Russia oil alliance has the potential to cause all kinds of trouble for the US economy — and even for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. This month’s OPEC+ decision to cut crude output, for the second time since Biden flew to Saudi Arabia last summer seeking an increase, may be just the start.

Sustainable investing continues to gain in popularity, with investors worldwide frequently attracted not only by ethical concerns but also by the lure of superior returns. Unfortunately, new research focused on global stocks showed that they did not get what they were sold.

For many of those – now a clear majority – who believe climate change is a serious long-term threat, the recently announced breakthrough that nuclear fusion has at last produced net energy is an extremely hopeful sign. First, however, they need to read this article.

When Microsoft Corp. launched its $1 billion Climate Innovation Fund three years ago, it was the lone tech giant pledging serious money to tackle rising temperatures. The dangers facing the planet have since become more acute, and the fund has about $400 million left.

Should investors build their own portfolios of bonds, or buy shares of bond funds? Is there an economic difference or just one of appearance? Are directly held bonds safer because they mature, and you get your money back? How should one decide?

The importance of Biden’s veto to save the DOL rule was not about assessing ESG factors. It was about affirming the role of the fiduciary in investment advice.

You provide a lot of value to your clients. Save them from making even a single catastrophic financial mistake and your fees will forever be a moot point.

The strongest force standing in the way of nuclear energy is the antiquated, irrational fear of it.

The US Supreme Court’s conservative majority cast doubt on President Joe Biden’s plan to slash the student debt of more than 40 million people, imperiling one of his signature initiatives in a high-stakes showdown over presidential power.

The asset management industry is overlooking what promises to be a major new ESG risk: biodiversity.

Here are the top three trends that will affect ETFs in 2023.

Low-volatility strategies are often cited as an anomaly offering higher returns without a corresponding increase in risk. But the so-called low-volatility factor is well explained by other factors, and new research shows it does not reduce exposure to “systemic,” broad-economic risks.

President Joe Biden faces a formidable obstacle in his bid to slash the student debt of more than 40 million people: a US Supreme Court that has repeatedly thwarted his agenda.

The asset management unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. has wiped its ESG portfolios clean of their exposure to the Adani empire.

Some of the world’s largest economies ramped up calls to increase support to troubled emerging countries ahead of a Group of 20 finance chiefs meeting.

When it comes to the clients they serve, advisors need to think about the now and the new, not the next, and step up their offerings in key areas.

US homes in areas prone to floods may be currently overvalued in the range of $121 billion to $237 billion, according to a report published Thursday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Morgan Stanley has picked an interesting moment to press ahead with expanding its offering of ESG-themed funds.

While equity markets are on a relentless march higher amid optimism around stronger economic growth and cooling inflation, most investors aren’t convinced the gains will last, according to Bank of America Corp.’s latest global fund manager survey.

The riskiest bond trade in emerging markets is mounting a comeback, offering double-digit returns to those brave enough to flirt with default.

The dark side of ESG investing has the potential to undermine a whole generation of clean-tech strategies.

For the nearly 2,000 attendees of the ETF Exchange conference, a lot has changed in a year.

“Geopolitical recession” doesn’t exist as a defined term. But it should, according to Ian Bremmer. If relations among global powers were framed in economic terms, we would be in the “bust” phase of the business cycle, he said.

Cash flows into US sustainable funds plummeted last year as the broader market took a beating and anti-ESG crusaders targeted money managers including BlackRock Inc. for “woke capitalism.”

ESG proponents sell the idea to investors that they can achieve both altruism and high returns. In the end, they fail at both.

Three decades after helping give birth to the ETF industry, Morgan Stanley is officially back in the game in what could be a milestone moment for the investing world.

Six Wall Street banks are being pressed by a group of shareholders to move faster on reducing their financing of fossil fuels to meet global climate goals.

We turn fantastic conversations with clients into risk profiles, performance reports, and various financial documents that have little meaning to them and their values.

When should your firm begin to leverage a new offering, if at all? Let’s talk about ESG investing and share three strategies to help your firm discuss and market a new product or service in an authentic, practical, and distinctive way.

Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, has one.

Vanguard Group, which quit the world’s biggest climate-finance alliance in December, was the only major ETF provider to post an increase in European assets last year thanks to its lower exposure to environmental, social and governance strategies, according to Morningstar Inc.

So-called greenwashing by asset managers misleads investors by labeling products with false claims of ESG benefits. But the SEC’s initiative to restrain this malpractice falls short because it does not distinguish between risk- and ethics-driven ESG products.

Big global banks are eying some of the world’s most fragile countries for a new experiment in financial engineering: debt relief in exchange for environmental protections.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is making a $1 billion wager that small private equity firms without the heft of the biggest buyout institutions can boost the pension giant’s returns and clout.

When the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, triggering the largest-ever oil spill in the US, all eyes turned to BP Plc, the British company behind the drilling. But BP wasn’t alone in the project.