Put Responsibility into the Stimulus Payments?

Put Responsibility into the Stimulus Payments!

Well, here is another idea that may seem crazy to many:  On the next stimulus payment, let’s put a touch of responsibility on the recipients.  How about some very short educational video courses on stress management?  And a short quiz any sixth grader could pass to know people actually watched these 7 minute informational videos.  They get $10/minute for watching the video and doing the quiz.

Why on stress?  FIRST:  Stress is the single most important aspect of health.  Even NIH has said stress is the main cause of disease, not just mental but also physical disease, using inflammation as a marker.  So maybe some help here to national health care costs?  SECOND:  With the Covid and the election, these are troubled times.  I just watched a news report on how Ted Leonis, an owner of various sports teams here in DC, has been focusing on this issue as he is concerned about his players as well as more generally.   THIRD: It’s a good thing to do for people, give them tools to be more balanced with MBSR (mindful based stressed reduction) courses.  Maybe some intro to the benefits of short meditations and even a video on deep breathing during times of stress … well you get the idea.
The need for these payments is not to be denied, but why give them out for free?  We have an opportunity to provide some basic education in this important timely element in their life and in society?   Hmmmm…..   

Washington Monthly Article I Wrote on Philanthropy and Business

Aligning Business And Values 

A father of the social investment movement reflects on decades in the field, and the ongoing promise of changing the world through responsible financial choices.

by Wayne Silby, Calvert Foundation

Some 35 years ago, I co-founded Calvert Social Investment Fund, the nation’s first socially responsible mutual fund. To this day, people ask what inspired me to join what would soon evolve into the

My Big Idea on Reducing Inequality through MarginShare

MARGIN SHARE

 

Marginal Cost Inclusivity as a Possible Answer to Inequality?

Executive Summary

 

We introduce MARGINSHARE, a change in the economy that may substantially lift disposable incomes of approximately 60 million low wage workers in a self-sustaining  manner. The

Black Lives Have Always Mattered at Calvert

               Actions taken on the BLM issue over the decades when I was Calvert chair.  Walking the talk. 

 

1.      Calvert Social Investment Fund was the first mutual fund, and one of the first institutional investors, to divest from South Africa over its moral objections to apartheid.  About 20 years later, Calvert sponsored the first venture fund to go into South Africa post-apartheid. 

Compassion Informing Business Opportunities

A Wall Street group asked me for some thoughts on investing with Compassion. I thought one angle that could be of interest to their readers is how having compassion can inform business opportunities.  see article below

   Too often when we talk about business ethics, compassion, and doing good, there is a “should” quality to the conversation that tugs on guilt and feelings of burdensome responsibility.    I recommend against that framing of compassion.   Better to ask yourself about your own values that speak to you that gives you the uplifting energy and the joy that can come from positive self-expression.    Riding on this energy gives one the persistence needed to make things happen.

 

Pension funds contribution to investible society - new rules?

       I want to thank the Neanderthals at the Department of Labor (DOL) who recently proposed a new rule that pensions funds can only invest with one view – financial returns – and cannot even consider the benefits of an investment to the broader stakeholder society.  Gratifying to know that over 90% of the commentators of the proposed rule were against it, including leadership firms like BlackRock.  I find it so amazing that the administration can be on the wrong side of history as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) concerns become more widely accepted concerns in the investment process.

Talk at Megafund Temasek on Well Being as an Investment Opportunity

 A little more than a year ago I was asked to share my investment thoughts with the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, Temasek, which is one of the world's largest asset pools.  This presentation before their senior executives was a high end event, part of their annual eco-prosperity week.  Before my comments, I was approached by the moderator.  When I told him I was going to talk about mindfulness and related trends around suicide, he was a bit shocked and taken aback.  I think they were expecting me to talk about big ideas around climate change.  He kind of tried to nudge me to mute my the mindfulness