Investment Week (September 14)
The “Next Generation EU” deal provides ESG investors with much to watch. The €550bn “centerpiece of the stimulus” focuses on fighting climate change through “expenditures earmarked for promoting energy efficiency and developing renewable energy resources, emission-free vehicles, and sustainable transport, alongside other measures of environmental protection designed to help meet Europe’s 2050 climate neutrality pledge.”
Tags: 2050, Climate change, Climate neutrality, Efficiency, ESG, EVs, Investors, Next Generation EU, Renewable energy, Stimulus, Transport
Investments & Pensions Europe (August Issue)
“Credit investors would be wise to reflect upon the growing debt burden weighing on the global economy.” Debt has surged since the pandemic and it was already at high levels. “Global debt rose by $10trn (€8.9trn) in 2019 to $255trn. At the end of last year, global debt stood at 322% of global GDP, or 40% higher than before the 2008 financial crisis.”
Tags: 2008, 2019, Burden, Credit, Debt, Financial Crisis, GDP, Global economy, Investors, Pandemic, Reflect, Surged
Wall Street Journal (July 17)
“Germany has a patchy record in fighting corporate crime. Volkswagen AG ’s giant emissions-cheating scandal was uncovered by California. The U.S. has imposed more money-laundering fines on troubled German lender Deutsche Bank AG than Germany has. BaFin’s decadelong blind spot for Wirecard now raises questions about the country’s ability to enforce securities rules that protect investors.”
Tags: BaFin, Blind spot, California, Corporate crime, Deutsche Bank, Emissions, Enforce, Fines, Germany, Investors, Money laundering, Patchy record, Scandal, Securities rules, U.S., Volkswagen, Wirecard
Bloomberg (July 3)
“Much more than survive the pandemic lockdown, the largest American companies are seeing their advantage widen drastically as a result of it, with investors flocking to anything with size and stability.”
Wall Street Journal (June 10)
“Growing fears of a surge in coronavirus infections sent the stock market tumbling Thursday, pulling the Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 1,800 points for its worst day since March.” In recent days “investors have gotten more signs that the smooth reopening they have been hoping for may be increasingly difficult to achieve—throwing into doubt their hopes for a nascent economic recovery.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Dow Jones, Economic recovery, Fears, Infections, Investors, Stock market, Surge, Tumbling
Responsible Investor (June 9)
“Only in finance can a product lose 24% of its value and be celebrated as success. Since traditional benchmarks have lost more than ESG funds since the beginning of the year, ESG is feted by some as a success, a ‘refuge’.” Kudos, however, are not in order. “The rude fact is that, on the whole, ESG risk management frameworks did not prepare us for the inevitability of the pandemic. They did not help investors and banks anticipate the crisis, nor how to navigate it. The pandemic is a failure of mainstream risk management frameworks. Sadly, it is also a failure of ESG risk management frameworks.”
Tags: Banks, Benchmarks, Crisis, ESG funds, Finance, Frameworks, Investors, Pandemic, Refuge, Risk management, Success, Value
Barron’s (June 3)
“The stock market’s rally in recent weeks has felt awfully disconnected from the grim reality on the ground. And that only felt more true as protests erupted around the country…. Investors, however, are motivated by fear and greed, and right now both are helping—fear of missing out and greed as the market goes higher.”
Tags: Disconnected, Fear, Greed, Grim, Investors, Missing out, Motivated, Protests, Rally, Reality, Stock market
Institutional Investor (May 5)
“Institutional investors have a remedy for the mounting pile of public debt accumulating during the coronavirus crisis: Tax private equity.” In a recent survey 62% of respondents suggested “increasing taxes on private equity, carried interest or performance fees, and special purpose vehicles” as ways “their national governments should adjust tax policies to offset stimulus spending.”
Tags: Carried interest, Coronavirus, Crisis, Governments, Institutional, Investors, Performance fees, Private equity, Public debt, SPVs, Stimulus spending, Survey, Tax
Bloomberg (April 28)
“For years, technologists have been talking about smarter cars packed with sensors, chips and supercomputers that can replace human drivers.That was enough to get investors excited about the future of automotive semiconductors.” As earnings reports are revealing, however, there is “one slight flaw in the plan: People need to actually buy cars.”
Tags: Automotive, Cars, Chips, Drivers, Earnings, Investors, Semiconductors, Sensors, Supercomputers, Technologists
Institutional Investor (March 25)
Due to the “historic buying opportunity,” a few “hedge funds legends” are “quietly contacting investors” These “superstar managers” are “making an exception” and reopening their funds to new investors citing “the massive drop in asset prices catalyzed by the novel coronavirus pandemic.”
Tags: Asset prices, Buying opportunity, Coronavirus, Hedge funds, Historic, Investors, Legends, Reopening
