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We've had "ethical investment" for a while, but consumers are being denied the other choice. People should be able to stipulate that their money will only be used to support autocratic, strip forests bare or steal candy from babies. Until that day yin and yang will be pushed further out of equilibrium
by every new ethical investment plan.
Vice Fund
http://www.vicefund.com/
Baked. This is one of many [FloridaManatee, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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The problem would be getting companies to divulge their lack of ethics. |
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Baked. It's called the stock market. |
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I don't think this is a good idea, since it would encourage evil corporate practices. But if it did exist, it would at least have the advantageous side effect of showing that, contrary to popular cynical belief, evil and profitability are not positively correlated. |
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I'm not entirely sold on the fact that they ['evil' and profitability] are not positively correlated. Perhaps creation of such a fund could demo that even to my satisfaction. My understanding is that there is always some amount of tradeoff between "norms", (valuation based on -anyone's- personal values), and market values (prices). What is needed is a method to codify most any set of norms and calculate how efficiently any given portfolio (ideally any possible portfolio) negotiates that tradeoff. |
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The fund proposed here seems to postulate the existence of an investor with malevolent intentions, and perform the service I'm trying to describe for that investor. Somehow I don't see that as interesting or challenging. |
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Financial markets are great for putting price information in the public information, as well as some types of accounting information. The difficulty in obtaining systematic compilations of values-based data on business activity is discussed a lot elsewhere in halfbakery. Since values/norms are subjective, it makes no sense to even bother if you don't first have at least one person's norms systematically catalogued. |
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It is becoming common for corporations to seek to hire 'corporate social responsibility' auditors and other fanciful positions. With an unethical investment fund, it would be possible to get a job officially titled 'evil spin doctor' or 'unethical PR person.' |
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Baked - there's a fund in the UK which invests in Tabacco, Petroleum and Arms stocks. Forgotten the name, there was an article about it in the FT 6 months ago. I think it's outperformed the stock market for the past few years. |
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Can't you just make your own fund by cherry picking whatever companies you want to to invest in? Read some left-leaning journals to find out who the worst companies are and throw together a portfolio. |
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