Markets & Economy: Making the irrational, rational.

• The new money trust: how large money managers control our economy and what we can do about it (economicliberties)

• Five economic reasons to be thankful (calculatedrisk)

• Bad debts in China (economist)

• US Federal Reserve rolls out new guidance, highlighting risk of climate change to our financial system (cnbc)

Robots & AI: Unlimited possibility; the good, the bad, the transformative. 

• People are turning to robots to cope with mental health during pandemic (fastcompany)

• RoboCop sets sail (hakai)

• AI automation promises to have a big, and not always positive, impact (techrepublic)

ESG Investing: Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

• Solar panels + agriculture: you ain’t seen nothing yet (cleantechnica) 

• Silicon Valley is investing in climate tech again (quartz)

Carbon & Renewables: A step in the right direction.

• 5 predictions for corporate renewable energy market in 2021 (pvmagazine)

• Electric vehicles set to reach price parity with gasoline vehicles by 2024 (BNEF)

• What exactly is a carbon offset? (greenbiz)

Mental Health: Remember, we’re all human.

• De-politicizing your feed (ritholtz)

• How to avoid rushing to solutions when problem-solving (hbr)

• When ordinary people go viral, where’s the line between comedy and cruelty? (vox)

Sustainable Investing: Align your dollars with the rest of your life.

• Sustainable investing assets in US now account for $17.1 trillion, a 42% increase over 2018 (ussif)

• Investors are looking for sustainable business models that can withstand market shocks (financialtimes)

• New study: 100% percent of institutional investors considered ESG in their decisions over the past year (morrowsodali)

• Tax equity and ESG investing: the best of both worlds (forbes)

Tech’s Dark Side: Innovation has a cost…

• ‘Extremely aggressive’ internet censorship spreads in the world’s democracies (umich) 

• Orwell’s nightmare? Facial recognition for animals promises a farmyard revolution, but where is the limit? (wapo) 

• 3.2 billion images and 720,000 hours of video are shared online daily. Can you sort real from fake? (singularityhub)

Tech’s Green Side:  Many times that cost is worth it.

• Solar panels + agriculture: you ain’t seen nothing yet (cleantechnica) 

• Silicon Valley is investing in climate tech again (quartz)

Mindset: The first step towards change is awareness.

• Looking at the extraeconomic side of money and wealth (amherst)

• Psychologists find a mindset that can foster positive feelings amid interpersonal conflict (psypost)

• A call for more conscious consuming this Black Friday (fastcompany)

Markets & Economy: “This time it’s different.” Oh, maybe not.

• G20 summit focuses on ending the pandemic and strengthening the economic recovery (globalmx)

• What’s in store for the dollar? (goldmansachs) 

• Why real estate needs a seat at the table in a sustainable future (sustainablebrands)

• Men have recovered nearly 60% of their March and April job losses. Women, less than 40% (forbes)

Corporate Social Responsibility: Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

• Switzerland soon to become the first country to hold corporations responsible for supply chain injustices (triplepundit)

• Capitalism must be saved by capitalists, say ESG investors (fortune)

• Carbon taxes do not harm jobs or economic growth (resources)

Markets, Finance & Economy: Make the irrational, rational.

• The economy as we knew it might be over, Fed Chairman says (cnn)

• Modern Monetary Theory and public finance: the state’s new role (crossfire)

• Long-term unemployment is on the rise (mazech)

• Home prices are rising everywhere in the U.S. (wsj)

• If restaurants go, what happens to cities? (NYT) 

• [Podcast] The End Game ep. 10 – Chris Cole – Volatility and risk assets (grantwilliams)

Socially-Responsible Investing: Align your dollars with the rest of your life. 

• What Biden administration could mean for stakeholder capitalism and ESG investing (businessinsider)

• Twin crises of 2020 prompt rise in clean investing (triplepundit)

• 10 economic patterns related to gender that are material to investments in the recovery (criterioninstitute)

• New report: rethinking American capitalism (mckinsey)

The Future of Cash and Crypto: A digital revolution. 

• ETH: the bond of the internet (bankless) 

• Zelle has turned dollar-starved Venezuela into a cashless test lab (bloomberg)

• [Podcast] 38 – The world is waking up to crypto – Raoul Pal (bankless)

• [Podcast] MacroVoices #235 Luke Gromen: U.S. dollar deep dive (macrovoices)

The Changing World of Work: The life blood of our economy.

• ‘Work from anywhere’ is here to stay. How will it change our workplaces? (latimes) 

• Black women represent 42% of new women-owned businesses (forbes)

• The omnipresence of work and why stepping away allows us to do and be our best (moreofthat)

• Study finds men have been promoted 3 times more than women during pandemic (cnbc)

Social Enterprise: Don’t doubt human ingenuity.

• The city of San Francisco just passed an ‘Overpaid Executive Tax’, which adds a 0.1% tax on companies whose executives earn 100 times more than the average worker (nbc)

• How to run a successful business while elevating humanity (inc)

• Seven emerging issues that will shape sustainable business (thefastforward)

• How working from home could revitalize rust belt cities (theconversation)

   

Markets & Finance: Make the irrational, rational. 

• Why financial advisors should care about Bitcoin (coinbase)

• World’s largest banks invested more than $2.6 trillion in sectors causing biodiversity loss and wildlife destruction in 2019 (triplepundit)

• How economically damaging could new lockdowns be? (economist) 

• Necessity plus opportunity yield fastest growth of US new business applications since 2007 (wsj)

   

Social Consciousness: A humanity revolution. 

• Podcast: How to Succeed by Being Authentic (Hint: Carefully) (Ep. 438) (freakonomics) 

• Does being an ethical consumer go far enough? (atmos.earth)

• Policymakers turning to Indigenous leaders for their knowledge of burning techniques that stop the spread of wildfires (nytimes)

   

Time for Renewables: Unlimited possibility; the good, the bad, the transformative.

• New advances in solar energy technology include floating solar farms and infrared night panels (asme)

• World first: Dutch brewery burns iron as a clean, recyclable fuel (newatlas)

• New plan charts path to zero-carbon US economy by 2050 (triplepundit)

• Green Hydrogen: Could It Be Key to a Carbon-Free Economy? (yale360) 

• 100% solar, wind and batteries is just the start — the ‘super’ power they produce will change the world (utilitydrive)

Calls to Action: Solutions require new thinking.

• It’s time to end slash-and-burn capitalism (hbr)

• The US financial system needs to prepare for climate disruption (fastcompany)

• Connecting the dots: the intersection of economic equality, racial justice and sustainable investing (ccm)

• If we want to get past “woke capitalism,” this is what it’ll take to get companies to an equitable relationship with both workers and society (fastcompany)

Trends: History is seasonal. 

• Wall Street will soon have to take millennial investors seriously (economist)

• Between 14-23 million Americans plan to relocate now that they can work from home (npr)

• New data shows climate risk is rising among executives’ biggest concerns (greenbiz)

• Men are taking environmental concerns more seriously as a result of COVID (sustainablebrands)

Social Justice, Diversity & Ethics: No more tradeoffs. 

• Yale endowment chief puts money managers on notice about diversity for its $31 billion endowment (wsj)

• From “woke washing” to true corporate social justice (hbr)

• Discrimination cost US economy $16 trillion over past 20 years (npr)

• A tale of two Americas: How the pandemic is widening the financial health gap (fortune)

Carbon, Climate & the Environment: The not-so-silent crisis.

• New massive coral reef just discovered in Australia (cnn)

• Solar is now ‘cheapest electricity in history’, confirms IEA (carbonbrief) 

• The Amazon rainforest is near a survival tipping point (fastcompany)

• ‘Sky mining’ facility creates carbon-negative diamonds (eandt)