hat tip to Scott Fullwiler
The HIP (Human Impact + Profit) method of investment analysis
The very fact that we have to keep restating the obvious is itself an illustration of why we keep failing.
Personal level.
There's ample evidence that narrow pursuit of wealth defines neither the "best" adults, nor the "best" and most enduring families. After all, how many people would sell their kids, spouses or kin ... for any amount of currency? [Yes, everyone defines "best" differently, and differently each year. Nevertheless, when push comes to shove, currency possession never tops the defining traits of healthy individuals, or their families.]
Corporate level.
There's another article every year or so, documenting that companies which have wider goals than simply profits are sustained - on average - for much longer periods.
National level.
There is, of course, also ample data that nations that have wider social goals than just dog-eat-dog personal profits ... also endure and prosper better than those without general welfare of the people as their goal. It's called Democracy. Odd that the USA, of all nations, would forget that.
Yer doin' a heckuva job, Wall St.!
However, at the end of each day, whatever Wall St's nominal "job" is, it sure as hell doesn't correlate very well, at all, with our individual, corporate, or national REAL work and purpose. Certainly not with Public Purpose. And that bit about doin' the work dictated by one or more gods? Get real! (Not just nominal.)
As Warren Mosler keeps repeating, the entire finance industry long ago became more trouble than it is worth. Isn't it obvious, once again, that OUR responsibility is to change our own trivial, accounting industry, sooner rather than later? So that it can be a useful tool aiding OUR adaptive rate, rather than a parasitical burden, on OUR nation and culture?
We could start by eliminating all government backing for the banks:
ReplyDelete1) The monetary sovereign itself (e.g. US Treasury) should provide a risk-free fiat storage and transaction service and government-deposit insurance for the banks abolished.
2) The legal tender lender of last resort, (e.g. the Fed) should be abolished too. All fiat creation should be by the monetary sovereign and should be for the GENERAL WELFARE not for private interests such as the banks.
3) The use of common stock as endogenous private money should be encouraged. Unlike bank credit, common stock as private money requires no government privileges.