January 19, 2021

Markets & Economy. 

• Public and private sector payroll jobs during presidential terms (caculatedrisk) 
• China’s national emissions trading may launch in mid-2021 (reuters)
• Weighing the week ahead: what will Biden proposals mean for investors? (dashofinsight) 
• Weekly macro summary (primarydealer) 
• The periodic table of commodity returns 2021 edition (visualcapitalist) 

Cryptocurrencies, digital currencies, and the future of money.

• An economic analysis of ethereum (lynalden) 
• Grayscale Q4 digital asset report (grayscale) 

Technology.

• The moderation war is coming (onezero)

Environment.

• We need to talk about the rapid decline in insects around the world (sciencealert) 
• Donors pledge $14 bln for ‘green wall’ to hold back Sahara (tribuneindia) 
• “Cautious optimism” about fighting climate change (salon)
• The plan to build a global network of floating power stations (wired)
• Why it’s falling to you and not your government to decarbonize the food system (forbes)
• 2020 smashed the record for billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, NOAA says (cnn)

January 6, 2021

Economy: making the irrational, rational.

• U.S. home prices rise at fastest pace in more than 6 years (cnbc)
• Does working from home make employees more productive? (economist)
• There were only four US bank failures in 2020 (calculatedrisk)
• What happened to Europe’s economy after the Black Death (bloomberg)
• What to expect in 2021 according to prediction markets (economist)

Carbonomics: changing global climate policy.

• World’s oceans in distress, but radical reduction in greenhouses gas emissions can make a difference (spiegel)
• Could we ever pull enough carbon out of the atmosphere to stop climate change? (space)

Environment: the not so silent crisis.

• New rules to tackle ‘wild west’ of plastic waste dumped on poorer countries (guardian)
• Wall Street Eyes Billions in the Colorado’s Water (NYT)

Cryptocurrencies: the future of money.

• Bitcoin is breaking records because bigger investors are buying it now, says PwC (cnbc)
• Federally chartered banks and thrifts may participate in independent node verification networks and use stablecoins for payment activities (occ.gov)

A personal note from the Green Matters Team at Willow,

Thank you sincerely for joining us this year as we shared with you some of the headlines that caught our eyes, informed the trends we see developing, and kept us all conscious as investors.

As we move into 2021, we would love your feedback so we can continue to deliver thoughtful and insightful content to you. Please complete this short survey and we’ll mail you a Willow canvas bag! 

For our last newsletter of 2020 we wanted to keep it light and share a guided meditation from the Willow Team. Wishing you a happy, healthy new year!
 

Meditation: Breath in, smile, now let it go. 

• A guided mediation for loving change from the Willow team [20 min] (youtube)

2020: What at year… 

• 7 wins that gave us hope for the environment in 2020 (natgeo)

• A look at the remarkable women+ who made 2020 (ellevest)

• Around the world, people yearn for significant change rather than a return to a “pre-COVID normal” (ipsos)

Carbonomics: The real emerging market. 

• Companies taking strong climate action rose 46% this year (bloomberg)

• Japan adopts green growth plan to go carbon free by 2050 (ABC)

   

Trends: Shifting like the weather.

• Food futurology: How will we be eating 10 years from now?(foodnavigator) 

• Firms want to adjust supply chains post-pandemic, but changes take time (wsj)

• Each new generation has a harder time overcoming the wealth of their parents (vocal)

Blockchain: The digital push forward continues.

• Why blockchain is the solution to sustainable energy (medium)

Environment: The not silent crisis.

• Seven wins that gave us hope for the environment in 2020 (nationalgeographic)

• The top eleven must-see sustainability documentaries (triplepundit)

• Should carbon credits count if the forests are already preserved? (bloomberg)

   

Companies: It’s time to step up. 

• Why brands need purpose to survive now more than ever (sustainablebrands)

• More companies holding cash reserves at Black-serving banks (forbes)

• Leading car maker (accounting for 1% of global CO2 emissions) to link top executives’ pay to ESG targets (yahoofinance)

• 45 of the 50 largest US companies turned a profit since March, yet the majority cut staff and gave almost 80% of total profits as buybacks and dividends (washingtonpost)

• Here’s how corporate America did on their 2020 climate goals [visual] (bloomberg)

Tech: The good and the bad. 

• How COVID-19 accelerated automation (futurism) 

• 425 of the Fortune 500 companies may have been victims of massive cyberattack (cnn) 

• Capella Space’s new satellite is eerily observant (input)

Energy & Renewables: Powering our future.

• The world’s largest renewable energy ‘Megapark’ will be the size of Singapore (sciencealert) 

• Electricity from a new coal plant is now 177% more expensive than electricity from new solar panels (fastcompany)

Economy: People & ideas.

• Putting the green in greenback? ESG investors call for companies to report on “extinction accounting” (reuters)

• Small business optimism falls by the largest amount since April (fanniemae) 

• Wholesale traders have outsized influence on global food markets and are engaging in collusion for more profits (AEA) 

• How people spend their time globally (visualcapitalist)

Carbonomics: A new driving force for change.

• The role of AI in carbon reduction and energy efficiency (forbes)

• Pandemic caused CO2 emission to drop of 2.4 billion tonnes, but that’s only 7% of our 39 gigatonne human impact in 2020 (fastcompany)

• E.U. agrees to slash carbon emissions by 2030 (nyt) 

• The green hydrogen dream is no longer a dream (triplepundit)

   

Economy: Life uh, always finds a way…

• Fixing the US child care crisis could deliver $1.6 trillion boost to GDP (bloomberg)

• One in six restaurants has closed nationwide due to pandemic (bloomberg)

• Pandemic + recession = multiple expansion? (compound)

• Eighth annual conscious consumer spending index results are in (csrwire)

   

Glass Ceilings: It’s time to step up.

• New report: missing perspectives – women six times less likely to be expert, source or protagonist in news stories (shethepeople)

• New report: only 8% of all chair, CEO and CFO positions are occupied by women at S&P 500 companies (equileap)

• Forbes releases 2020 list of world’s 100 most powerful women (forbes)

• Mellody Hobson becomes only Black female board chair of S&P 500 company (bloomberg)

   

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

• Survey: Investors plan to double their ESG investing over the next 5 years (blackrock)

• Victory belongs to the patient investor (tebi) 

• The psychology of the stock market, in one image (pragcap) 

• [podcast] Jeff Currie: Goldman Sachs commodities chief on ESG, carbon pricing, and new technologies (smartermarkets) 
   

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

• Corporate philotomy: the next evolution of corporate social responsibility (hbr)

• CEOs from 37 corporations join the OneTen initiative, pledging 1 million jobs for Black Americans (wsj)

• AI will change the world, so we must make AI more representative (nature)

The Tides of the Economy: Always shifting.

• How the must-have hipster vessel of DIY authenticity also became a foreboding signal of the economy (marker) 

• The death of the department store and the American middle class (vox) 

• Barry Ritholtz 2021 Outlook Year in Preview (ritholtz) 

• Wages for the top 1% skyrocketed 160% since 1979 while the share of wages for the bottom 90% shrunk (epi)

• 42% of people falling behind as COVID-19 widens the wealth gap, report finds (CNBC)

Change: The one thing we can count on. 

• We’re at a turning point on climate change. But most countries are still choosing fossil fuels over clean energy, report says (CNN) 

• City transportation ecosystems are suddenly getting more diverse, creating an opportunity to (finally) rethink the car (wired) 

• How COVID-19 is changing our food system (quartz)

• Six innovative solutions to the housing crisis (ssir)

Crypto & Digital Currency: The advances continue.

• Will central-bank digital currencies break the banking system? (economist) 

• Bank of Canada may be accelerating digital currency plans (decrypt)

• Visa partners with Ethereum digital-dollar startup (forbes) 

• The Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain is here. Now what? (consensys)

Greenwashing: Let’s get real.

• Research firm TerraChoice highlights the seven sins of greenwashing? (ul)

• Unraveling the ambiguity of Net-Zero pledges (newclimate)

• NASDAQ asks SEC to require one woman and one “diverse” director on board for each listed company (nytimes)

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

• Gen Z is pushing wealthy parents to more sustainable portfolios (financialnews)

• Most investors now believe ESG has a positive impact on returns (globest)

• Harvard team quantifies true corporate profit by adding or subtracting impact from bottom line (bloomberg)

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)