Corporate Accountability

Every election season, some Congressional candidate or Senate candidate barks into the microphone that officials must hold “corporations more accountable to the public.” Those are just code words for more regulations, more political donations, and more grifting.

Corporate accountability...free from government intervention...is a tenant that firms should be held responsible for their decisions and actions, especially non-financial ones that affect more than just their shareholders. These decisions can include matters of social and civic responsibility, their impact on the environment, their impact on competitors and consumers, and the local communities in which they operate.

Holding companies accountable has been a difficult and arbitrary task by regulators. However, firms typically highlight their efforts to be better citizens in their annual financial reports. Some firms are better at it than others.

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Finance: What is an Ethical Fund?22 Views

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Finance allah shmoop what is an ethical fund an ethical

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fund the political weapon of unsophisticated finance people throwing straw

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at brick houses everywhere Well unethical fund is one that

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has no ah sin or no investments in what they

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perceive as bad things like you know porn google images

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and snapchat facebook tobacco philip morris altria arguably the best

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investments over the last century Guns and boeing rockwell bomb

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gambling a vegas casino caesar's sands yeah that's not really

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oil chevron shell bp hollywood it is neat bike on

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the other and then there's technology which delivers all of

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the above and let's not forget about telecommunications which lets

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people converse Teo then deliver all of the above way

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Going too far here Yeah and that's the problem with

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quote ethical funds unquote healthy ethics are in the eyes

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of the beholder Go to a church service in the

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deep south and it's likely the congregation will give you

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a completely different quote It's ok to invest in unquote

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portfolio then what A bunch of hippies in marin county

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california So who's to say what is ethical and what

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is not Well actually it's the gang marketing the mutual

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fund which named itself to be and ethical fund Who

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determines what investors would feel good about investing in and

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hey that's fine Someday it's him up We want to

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start a fund investing on lian companies who are funny

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like intentionally funny not like you know g and those

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guys Well the problem is that for better or worse

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a large portion of the name's actively omitted from the

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list of buyable stocks in and ethical fund are often

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actually really good Businesses like oil and gas for example

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has been a stalwart for a century in the u

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s so has tobacco And oh by the way most

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technology companies early histories were driven by profits in and

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around porn So there is in essence a price that

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investors historically seemed to be paying for the privilege of

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being all judgy about what ethics are meaning that results

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in ethical funds tend to lag their competitors by a

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few percent each year and over a couple of decades

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While that means that ethical funds end up being worth

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a lot less than unfiltered funds their funds who just

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are out there trying to make money for shareholders and

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then the big question gets asked from the ethically rich

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and financially poor from the poor house i shouldn't The

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best ethics just revolve around legally producing the best financial

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return for investors Know what a concept investing in order 00:02:52.165 --> [endTime] to make more money Who'd a thought

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