I walked down Wall Street after today's market close and overheard an angry, sweaty stockbroker yelling into his cellphone. He was having a bad day, and the New York humidity must have been killing him in that tailored Armani suit. Judging by Jim Cramer's manic meltdown on television recently, Armageddon seems to be right around…
Crude oil prices dropped today by 4.5%, the most in seven months, as investors bet that U.S. summer fuel demand has peaked. Given the large size of speculative long positions in the market, further downward pressure in the short-term cannot be ruled out. The price of oil is one of the major factors in the…
In simple terms, wealth is defined by what we have. Capitalism allows us to seek out our fortunes and few, if any, people or obstacles will prevent us from amassing them. And then there are the fortunate few who are born into money. Either way, a number of people on our planet enjoy a great…
In mid-June, Michael Bloomberg roiled the presidential race by hinting that he might enter. The civil war in Iraq ground on and global warming still had no evident solution. But interestingly, the most emailed article of all the startling news in the New York Times around then was this one: "Some Colleges to Drop Out…
"On July 17, 2007, Atlanta Falcons player Michael Vick was indicted in Virginia on charges involving animal fighting. According to the criminal indictment against Vick, dogs were beaten, hung, electrocuted, starved and forced to fight other abused dogs while their owners and others bet thousands of dollars on which dog would either die or give…
After reading “Message in a Bottle” by Charles Fishman in the July issue of Fast Company, I questioned whether the article would be widely discussed by bloggers and other people interested in the environment. Even though bottled water is ubiquitous, particularly on these scorching July days, is an article that questions the validity of both…
While we focus more on sea level investment opportunities through a socially responsible lens here at The Panelist, one cannot ignore the macro trends above sea level that are driving these opportunities. Less than two weeks ago, the U.S. Senate came out with their version of this year's Clean Energy Act, and just last week, the…
Somewhere along the way, an industry becomes defined by the terms used to describe it. And then sprouts a descent saying that the original terms are somehow skewing the real meaning of what the industry does, or perhaps, unfairly paints another industry as not being what the new industry says it is. Such is the…
We, at The Panelist, are planning to endorse a Republican, Democrat and "Other Party" candidates before the primaries kick off. We've been watching John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama with interest. Today another candidate popped onto our radar, Dal LaMagna. He is a very progressive candidate for the Democratic nomination and doens't seem to…
So Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG), the stodgy, 139-year old lawn chemicals company that has annual revenues of $2.7 billion and an approximate 59% share in the plant food market, has decided it needs to place a lawsuit against TerraCycle, a three-year old, $1.5-million start-up that is not even profitable. Cited reasons include that TerraCycle's packaging is too similar…
When we see a documentary that tells us how limited our time is before the world implodes, our first thought is, “Wow,” and the second is, “Let’s see who called my cell phone while I was at that documentary.” The reason for this is that we, as a society, do not have the resolve to…
Disposable DiapersThe safest and most time-proven diapering method is the venerable cloth diaper. Following are the top five reasons you should use cloth: 1. Cloth Diapers are better for the environment: Andrea, a nurse practitioner at Tribeca Pediatrics in Manhattan says, “In a given day, if I see thirty patients, I might see two people…
Up until now I have been somewhat casual about Climate Change, at least compared with the immediate direct causes of Mass Extinction. It seemed to me that the truly irrevocable consequences of climate were 50 to 100 years away and because climate change is so directly threatening to humanity, we would deal with it eventually.
Since there have already been 3,468 military deaths and countless civilian fatalities in Iraq, shouldn't we search for non-military solutions before we go to war with Iran?
Earlier this month Joe Nocera of The New York Times (NYT) published an article entitled “Well-Meaning But Misguided Stock Screens” about the socially responsible investment (SRI) industry. He argues not that SRI produces lower financial returns – in fact, asserting that many funds have done well or even outperformed non-SRI funds – but that they…
In honor of Earth Day, here is a list of 50 things we can do to stop global warming. Feel free to brag about all the ways in which you save the world from imminent destruction, as well as the ways in which you are an environmentally irresponsible monster (I'll start):
Jeffery Sachs thinks so. He ran some numbers for the World Bank and came up the solution.
On Tuesday, April 10, I attended a Sustainability Practice panel hosted by Deloitte, called “The Post-Multinational Corporation: Can New Business Models Deliver Business Growth Alongside Social, Environmental and Development Progress?”
Citizen Joe went to a panel of generally lefty, eminent wall street wizards and economics professors speaking with Bob Kerrey at The New School on Friday, March 9, 2007.
Funny blog at TMZ.com that smashes, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, who drive hybrids but take private jets.
It would seem obvious that money makes everything better. It would seem obvious because money is tied to things like health, comfort and opportunity, all of which are happy-making concepts. Yet there has been a backlash against the power of money recently, and it seems that as we become more financially successful, we become less…
Weeks into my stressful new job as an attorney, I needed my daily chocolate-glazed munchkin hit with sugar-infused coffee just to turn on my computer. Having been raised in a house ruled by bananas, apples and grapefruit, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I dunked the munchkins deep into my past and returned to…
Why Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Didn’t Go Far Enough. The movie is hilarious. The unscripted moments where Americans say the darndest things, the bungled broken English phrases that beg to be quoted, the physical comedy that continues until the theater is hysterical, then uproarious. The San Francisco…