Do you wish to dramatically reduce coffeeDevelop a micro-lending facility the next global bankDistribute antiretroviral drugs by big pharma to developing countries in crisis - at their value of production Curtail excessive CEO pay and broker bonusesEnd bid rigging on government contractsBuild a carbon neutral airlineReduce the price of the most important benefit desktop the gw990Break the iphone monopoly in Mexico Send medical help to disaster victims in Ceylon Feed refugees in Darfur
Think about controlling failing banks and insurance policies which can be already held up by your tax dollars to insure accountability, transparency, regulation and ethics oversight are maintained going forward (Remember that the U.S. gov't bought non-voting shares, passing over the opportunity to match control with investment).
At this point, ethical investing has focused on slowly accumulating positions in ethical companies while screening out unethical ones and passively patiently waiting for change.However nowadays, shifts in social consciousness and advances in communication technology have enabled massive investing groups to produce.Ownership and handle of major, public corporations are offered by purposeful masses, making radical change truly possible.
During this new landscape, problem companies commonly are not to remain avoided.They are simply to remain focused on massive investment whereby social activists and persons of conscience with money unite for being corporate raiders.
In earlier times, Greenmail - a phrase used that combines the words green (to represent money) and blackmail - was obviously a strategy that had been restricted to holding a public company financially hostage if you want to extract income, oftentimes damaging the mark company in the act, because Greenmailer lacks the interest in increasing the company.Worse, corporate raiders often caught up by asset stripping, a strategywhere the productive assets of theacquired company are sold to cover belonging to the debts belonging to the corporate raider.
An alternative model of -GREENmail- is proposed here that emphasizes achieving meaningful telecomutting saves gas over temporarily profits.On this scenario, GREENmailers are activist investors by using a social agenda.Ransom is extracted in the event the marked corporation concedes towards the demands of your investor group.
GREENmail is an alternative process of ethical investment which uses group collaboration and consensus and leverages the power of numbers to get social demands not easily attainable by other means.It can be contrasted to fliers and other modes practiced by social investment funds that screen companies with negative attributeswhile only getting companies with positive ones.
The high dollar plus blind pools established by corporateraiders while in the 1980's provide a precedentforsimilarly large pools which can be accumulated and leveraged by GREENmailers.
Traditional:Investment funds buy stocks in firms that adapt to certain ethical guidelines and exclude stocks that produce socially harmful products. These products could be harmful chemicals, tobacco, alcohol, and firearms.Additionally, these funds can exclude companies with poor environmental records, employ contractors in sweat shops, paid fines for ethical violations, violate the rights of animals, and similar matters.Investments come in companies that pass positive screens, having to do with human rights, corporate governance, environmental issues, and employee relations.
Mainly because of the lot of views regarding social ethics and values, the character for these criteria is not really without controversy.Additionally, a great number of funds underperform the current market, as companies that ignore stakeholders often outperform sales and still have nodifficulty raising capital. Typical investment strategies widely-used that will include potential motorola roi, chance of loss, suitability and diversification. The funds may perhaps be called Ethical Investment Funds or Socially Responsible Mutual Funds.Either way, they typically carry larger fees than -agnostic- investment funds.
Results:Weak to non-existent (limited mostly to psychological benefits towards investor).Although Domino Social Funds has recorded some wins through proxy voting and shareholder activism.Proctor and Gamble (Fair Trade Coffee), GAP (through contractor ratings and transparency), and JP Morgan (adopted a wide environmental policy) are among their notable achievements.
GREENmail:Combine with other socially conscious activists and investors with shared beliefs for the purposes of accumulating enough shares within the target company to influence (purchase a seat for the board, wage a proxy fight) or control (via majority ownership, leveraged buy-out and also other means) companies to evolve them from inside.Individual activists and investors may align with public pensions, NGO's, religious groups, and existing social funds.Here a counterintuitive approach is maintained, either investing with corporations that conform to get new most or cooperating with businesses that require the most change, not one of the most ethical or socially responsible ones.In contrast towards passive, traditional model that seeks to reward businesses that pass positive screens by investing in them while avoiding companies that really do not, GREENmail is definitely an activist, confrontational model that seeks the maximize investment in one marked company at the moment.Roi, risk aversion, portfolio balance, and diversification are secondary considerations within the collective goal of achieving an enormous enough share position to perform fundamental change throughout the target company.
Strategies can incorporate acquiring shares in businesses that cause environmental degradation (Monsanto [1], Exxon Mobil), win no bid government contracts and bribe foreign governments [2](Halliburton, KBR), maintain artificial scarcity of lifesaving drugs [3](Merck, Abbott), build fleets of inefficient, air polluting vehicles [4](GM, Ford, Chrysler), engage compensation practices that ignore social risk [5](AIG, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley) and facilitate tax evasion [6](UBS).
Although profit motives are secondary to telecomutting saves gas, large investments in socially irresponsible firms may prove profitable, particularly GREENmail fails.In instances where GREENmailers seek reform in executive pay packages or and require clawbacks on bonus compensation for management and brokers, GREENmailers would seem to fall in arms to shareholders that look to increase the profits for the firm.At other times GREENmail,when successful, may lead to lower share values by means of it communities' belief that social responsibility may conflict considering the target firms profit goals.But this is ok, as in many casesthe GREENmailer is ready lose a portion of their purchase of order to obtain change around the marked corporation.
On the other hand, the GREENmailer is not really out over destroy corporations.Only reform them, as every corporation is a composite of bad and good attributes.
But who seems to be to say what exactly is positive or negativeThe free market need to be the ultimate decider.Will activists place their money where their mouth isWill persons of conscience follow their heart Will the socially conscience ultra-rich join in Will the media take sides
Applications that reside within social media platforms using the web are preparing to make mass participation in investment a real possibility. Social networks are transforming themselves into economic networks.Bottom up hierarchies have been completely emerging, countering the accumulated strata of roller hierarchies which can be collapsing before us.
If this occurs, will the governments on the planet intervene regarding targeted corporations Will corporations bend within the will of powerful activists investorsDuring a takeover, knowledge nothave asay.Nevertheless in any event, again, it's democratic element (portion referred to as -free-) of markets that need to be the decider, not governments or maybe the narrow interests of billionaires.
Also consider that GREENmail might match the aggregation of voter rights through proxy exchanges the same as the one that is proposed by Glyn Holton.Glyn has published a posture paper and keeps a website and field agent program at iSuffrage.org.
Using similar tactics as corporate raiders and personal equity, -activist investors- may radically transform business practices of mega corporations such as Monsanto, KBR, Merck, GM, Goldman Sachs, UBS, AIG and Citibank.Given the strength,breadth and power of global mega corporations, the results of changes from within might be a lot more effective than other designs of activism (boycotts, protest marches, picketing, writing congress and senate) and charitable giving - since major corporations have the productive power and resources that dwarf most charitable organizations.
At the moment, Wall Street desperately needs to seek out new causitive factors of individuals invest. Despite this approach being potentially hostile for the interests ofsmall number ofmajor Wall Street firms, smaller boutique investment firms whose governance is beyond reproach would like to team with social activists, NGO's, charitable foundations, money managers andwealthy individuals of conscience to advertise specific GREENmail projects.
With market capitalization for major corporations at historic lows together with a a feeling of reform associated with the mass of workers and individual investors at record heights, potential GREENmail projects are several along with urgent.Since charitable giving is already a 300 billion 1 year global market, it will be easy that after just a piece of these total funds are along with other funds concentrated in social investment and are generally targeting a person GREENmail target,control by of large cap corporation for social purposesmay for that matter be at your fingertips.
Stock prices may rise as GREENmailers accumulate large positions, but a concentration of investment well below controlling interest may prove enough to achieve influence and effect change through proxy voting
Vince Trading Blog.
Below may be a chart that shows how big a position GREENmailers must gain controlling need for specific corporations based on closing share prices of 3/05/09, priced in US dollars.
Then why not controlling failing banks that happen to be already maintained your tax dollarsWhile the government appears to have been ineffective at providing accountability and transparency due the usa taxpayer that may be supporting these institutions, GREENmail offers a strategy that bypasses ineffective and compromised to ensure (here gov't) representation.
As a complement to the GREENmail strategy,many smaller corporations may be bought for relatively insignificant stages of money. For below the fee for some beachfront Californian mansions, the companies below have significant operations and revenue, however struggling in the current economy.While they don't really deliver the bounty many large corporations carry for social activists, they will do have other attractions.Purchasing a regional airline might prove compelling, as new owner groups mightexert their control to extract benefits.By offering discounts on unsold seats on the new owners along with their families, one might effectively solve the common empty seat problem.
Express Jet operates 214 aircraft using a capacity purchase agreement with Continental Airlines. They have been losing large sums of money, however in recent months, due in part to less fuel prices, Express CEO had this to say, -Our continued discipline and near perfect service allowed ExpressJet to offer positive cash flows from operations during 8 weeks of 2008.-Ten thousand individual investors could own 50% of Express Jet for a $967.50 per person.
Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group having fleet of greater than 150 aircraft and flights to 39 states is sold for a lot less than $5 million, it really is saddled using more than $500 million in difficulty.Investor groups could rescue Sunrise Senior Living.Current price: $17 million. The business sleeps 54,000. Sales this holiday season should top $1.7 billion and debt totals at only over $600 million. But it consists of no profits.
Social websites applications are getting built and distributed on Facebook, My Space, Linked In, and Bebo (as well as others) that enable large groups quickly organize online.Recently, social network sites surpassed email in popularity.Facebook alone is liable for 175 million active users.
Being the user demographic becomes increasingly older, wealthier, plus much more sophisticated, the conversion of the differences to economic networks may become a real possibility, enabling GREENmail to emerge as a good response to corporate irresponsibility and socioeconomic hegemony.
