Institutional Investor (August 23)
“Proponents and critics of ESG claim it can change society. Both will be disappointed.” During the past five years, ESG investing has taken off. “By the end of 2022, global ESG funds had attracted more than $2.5 trillion in assets.” Regardless of this clout and “whether or not asset managers are ‘woke,’ ESG doesn’t hurt oil companies or provide capital for solutions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.”
Tags: $2.5 trillion, Asset managers, Assets, Capital, Change, Climate change, Critics, Disappointed, ESG investing, Impacts, Oil companies, Proponents, Society, Woke
Wall Street Journal (November 28)
“Mr. Trump isn’t going to change, and the next two years will inevitably feature many more such damaging episodes. Republicans who continue to go along for the ride with Mr. Trump are teeing themselves up for disaster in 2024.”
Tags: Change, Damaging, Disaster, Inevitably, Republicans, Trump
New York Times (November 29)
“The recent market turmoil shows how dependent the economy is on the path of the pandemic, and how quickly sentiment can change with every twist and turn in our understanding of the virus.”
Tags: Change, Dependent, Economy, Market, Pandemic, Recent, Sentiment, Turmoil, Twist and turn, Virus
Chicago Tribune (July 7)
Illinois has successfully vaccinated 70% of its citizen. The “Department of Public Health on Monday reported zero deaths from COVID-19 for the first time since march 2020—a sign of how far the state has come since the pandemic took hold.” Though concerns over variants and the unvaccinated remain, this represents tremendous “change from the spring of 2020 and this past winter when the state was frequently reporting more than 100 deaths a day,” peaking at 238 on December 2.
Tags: 2020, 70, Change, COVID-19, Illinois, Pandemic, Unvaccinated, Vaccinated, Variants, Zero deaths
Financial Times (June 6)
“The Japanese AGM season will provide rapidly digestible evidence of three things: how empowered activists feel, how awkward the big institutions feel about backing them, and how threatened managements feel by both of those.” The results are unlikely to show real change. “Despite the appearance of change, half of Japanese stocks still trade below book value and carry not just a record value of cash as a proportion of equity, but the largest such ratio in developed markets.”
Tags: Activists, AGM, Appearance, Awkward, Book value, Cash, Change, Empowered, Evidence, Institutions, Japan, Managements, Stocks, Threatened
USA Today (November 8)
“Our long national nightmare, the Trump presidency, is finally nearing an end. But the brutal reality is this: Get ready for another national nightmare now that Joe Biden is the president-elect.” We are likely to be “in for a parade of horrors during Trump’s remaining time in power. Change is coming, but along the way, fasten seatbelts for severe turbulence.”
Tags: Biden, Change, National, Nightmare, Power, President-elect, Reality, Remaining time, Trump, Turbulence
Los Angeles Times (September 4)
The TV season usually begins during the third week in September. “For nearly seven decades, broadcast TV networks have used the season to launch new shows in the hope they become enduring hits—and to bring back fresh episodes of returning programs after the long summer hiatus.” The pandemic, however, closed down scripted production, “making it impossible for broadcast networks to premiere most of their new shows on schedule.” It may no longer matter in a world where streaming reigns. Ultimately, the pandemic may “accelerate change at broadcast networks” where the concept of a season seems increasingly anachronistic.
Tags: Broadcast, Change, Closed, Episodes, Networks, Pandemic, Premiere, Production, Scripted, Season, September, Shows, Streaming, TV
The Economist (July 18)
“Big change is coming, as countries around the world adopt cleaner sources of energy. Peak demand for oil may still be years away, but covid-19 has given the Middle East and north Africa a taste of the future. Prices of the black stuff plummeted as countries went into lockdown…. Even when the virus recedes, a glut of supply will probably keep prices down. Faced with budgets that no longer add up, Arab states must adapt.”
Tags: Budgets, Change, Cleaner, COVID-19, Energy, Glut, Middle East, North Africa, Peak demand, Plummeted, Prices, Supply
WARC (May 7)
“Marketers are readying themselves for a post-pandemic world in which consumer behaviours have changed, but they should consider not just what those behaviours are but why they have emerged so quickly.” Underlying attitudes may not actually shift deeply given the change was abrupt and largely unwilling.
Tags: Abrupt, Attitudes, Behaviors, Change, Consumers, Marketers, Post-pandemic, Shift, Underlying, Unwilling
Financial Times (June 13)
“We live in an age judged to be one of exciting technological change, but our national accounts tell us that productivity is almost stagnant. Is the slowdown or the innovation an illusion?” The truth is we don’t yet know and it might be something else. There might be a measurement error or a lag before big gains from AI and other revolutionary technologies kick in.
Tags: Change, Illusion, Innovation, Lag AI, Measurement, Productivity, Revolutionary, Slowdown, Stagnant, Technologies
