The April 30 issue of The New Yorker has a fascinating article about the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum, India. Over centuries, people have made donations to the temple’s deity, Vishnu, and a huge fortune has accumulated. As in – possibly $20 billion in gold and precious stones. Indian property law has an interesting twist…. [Read More]
Blog
Category: Emerging Markets
Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!
This Monday brought news of suspected bribery at Walmart and fraud charges against the former head of CalPERS. It’s a useful reminder about the limits of human frailty and of social investing. Walmart is one of the most environmentally conscious companies out there, and CalPERS runs a great shareholder activism program. But both play in… [Read More]
March is Dummies Month!
Are you in the market for a new book? Like, say, Emerging Markets for Dummies? Or another fine book in Wiley’s . . . For Dummies series? If so, this is your lucky month! March is Dummies Month, and many booksellers are offering special deals on Dummies purchases. If you want to know more about… [Read More]
Bribery and Transparency
Today’s New York Times had a great article about new efforts to expose bribery in developing countries. All it takes is a little exposure. People sometimes justify bribes by dismissing them as gifts or tips. It’s part of the culture, they say. I was a waitress for a while in college, and I can assure… [Read More]
Current Trends in Social Investing
Last week, I spoke at a meeting of the Chicago chapter of Women Advancing Microfinance along with Caroline Allen of Creation Investments. Here’s a recap of my speech: Essentially, we can think of social investing two ways. One is finding investments for people who want to invest socially, and the other is improving the environment,… [Read More]
