Search
Close this search box.
DONATE
DONATE
Facebook Linkedin Twitter

Capital Institute Blog

Topics

Media-Backup
  • Ecological Footprint ·

Footprints and Foreclosure

The global economy now uses 1.5 times the earth’s capacity to regenerate the natural capital we use every year, up from the 1.4 times of the prior year, according to a report of the well-respected Global Footprint Network.  In their Living Planet Report 2010
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • October 17, 2010 7:37 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Ecological Boundaries ·

The Great Transformation

There are several “Great Transitions” circulating, visions for a transition to a just and sustainable economy and society.  Tellus Institute convened the Global Scenario Group, to produce the Great Transition Initiative in 2002, a comprehensive set of alternative futures.  More recently, the New Economics Foundation
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • October 3, 2010 8:55 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Efficiency ·

The End of Investment?

I recently attended a school function and was chatting with a friend (“Pam” for the sake of this post) who is a buy-side analyst at a major asset management firm, the kind that manages hundreds of billions of pension fund assets, and 401Ks. Pam’s firm, like many mainstream asset management companies, is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment…
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • September 26, 2010 10:28 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Future of Finance ·

Financial System as a Global Commons

Last week, Capital Institute co-convened with futurist Hazel Henderson at Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil), her company’s facility in Florida, the new Committee on Transforming Finance (CTF).  The CTF is a group of seasoned capital markets practitioners, scholars, and financial writers who share a belief that the policy responses to the financial crisis were more
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • September 19, 2010 10:24 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Future of Finance ·

Labor Day: For Tony, with Appreciation and Respect

We immerse ourselves in facts and figures; turning real life suffering into an abstraction.  The official unemployment rate is 9.6 percent in the United States. Estimates vary about the additional unemployed who have given up looking for a job.  Some say the real number could exceed 15 percent.  The unemployment for black youths in America aged 16 to 19 is…
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • September 5, 2010 10:39 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Future of Finance ·

If the Bathwater Becomes Toxic Enough, Throw Out the Baby

The more I discover about the modern financial system, the less I recognize it, and the more incredulous I grow.  And I worked at the center of the financial system until 2001. My comment is prompted by the latest news that several leading hedge fund managers and private equity moguls are lashing out at the Obama Administration and funneling money, lots…
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • August 29, 2010 8:28 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Complexity ·

Toward a Finance Ethic

An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence. An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from antisocial conduct. These are two definitions of one thing.  The thing has its origin in the tendency of interdependent individuals or groups to evolve modes of cooperation. The
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • August 16, 2010 10:56 am·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Efficiency ·

From Risk to Uncertainty

Stress-test complacency will be a cause of the next financial meltdown. Economic commentators have been increasingly using the word “uncertainty” of late. The context has included the business climate, the stimulate vs austerity debate, and forecasting the investment outlook across capital markets. Two examples: “When
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • August 9, 2010 12:49 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Ecological Boundaries ·

Where’s the Middle Class?

Capital Forum’s current series on “Reducing the Wealth Gap” ties in nicely with Edward Luce’s July 30 piece in the Financial Times, “The Crisis of Middle Class America,” a sobering reality check, putting real people behind the statistics.
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • August 2, 2010 11:50 am·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Carbon ·

They Just Quit?

I can’t believe they just quit. No fight, no public debate from the government of the country that represents 5 percent of the global population yet emits 20 percent of the carbon, more than twice the per capita average of even our European counterparts of the developed world? No prime-time TV address by the President? No more talk of a
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • July 26, 2010 9:28 am·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Financial Reform ·

A Busy Week, but No Joy in Mudville

Last week was a busy week in the world of financial reform. Congress passed “the most sweeping financial reform legislation since the Great Depression” (at least measured by its 2,300 pages). Treasury appears to be blocking the selection of Elizabeth Warren to head the new consumer financial protection agency, despite its denials. And the SEC
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • July 18, 2010 8:34 pm·
  • 0·
Media-Backup
  • Future of Finance ·

Gus Speth Joins Capital Institute’s Brain Trust

“John, I think you are pursuing one of the most important initiatives around these days. Please call on me any time. All the best, Gus” Well, I decided to take Gus at his word, and today I am pleased and honored to welcome Gus Speth to our Council of Advisors. Gus’ impressive career of service to the environment
Read more
  • John Fullerton·
  • May 17, 2010 10:25 am·
  • 0·

© 2023 All rights reserved