This Week in CItizen Joe (6/25/2007)

The Senate revives its immigration bill, hoping – against the odds – to bring it to a final vote before Independence Day break, but not before senators from both sides of the fence get a chance to nip and tuck at the overhaul bill with 24 amendments. Senators will start the week, however, voting –…

Investing on My Own Terms: A Definition of SRI

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…

Bloomberg at DMI

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored at a benefit for The Drum Major Institute (DMI) on Thursday evening. DMI, a progressive organization that backed Fernando Ferrer for mayor in 2005, recently issued a detailed analysis of congestion pricing in support of Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC program. Bloomberg is currently pushing the state to allow an early test…

The Russell Index Trade

Market players will be busy today trading the stocks that will be added or deleted from the Russell Indexes. This event happens annually and investors who wish to take advantage should focus on buying the companies that are being added and shorting the stocks that are due to be deleted.

The BerkShares

I love currency. I think currency is one of those things, like wristwatches, that will get phased out in time, but for now serve as a reminder that attention to detail is an end in itself. It is with empathy, then, that I read about the town in western Massachusetts that adopted its own currency,…

Creative Job Seeker in Union Square

Photo:neubie, Creative Commons, Flickr I often see people begging for money in New York.  Today I saw a guy with a handwritten sign on a street corner outside The Coffee Shop in Union Square.  He wasn't asking for money, he was asking for a job as a director/actor/filmmaker.  Now this is what I call marketing. …

Newscorp (NWS) Hunting Yahoo (YHOO)?

I don't know how true rumors of Newscorp (NWS – $23.74) negotiating to own a piece of Yahoo (YHOO – $27.91) got started, but it would definitely be a postive for the stock.  It would mean that management had a shareholder who would always be lighting a fire under their butts.  I'd love to have…

Time to Short the Market?

Photo:jeffhuttonphoto, Creative Commons, Flickr Market players are facing plenty of reasons to exit positions and avoid any near term selloff in the coming weeks. Geo-political instability in the oil markets and rising interest rates are putting pressure on stocks, and the lack of a strong follow through on the recent retracement has given traders a…

Nike Gets Responsible

Apparently even the Swoosh feels a sense of moral obligation.  On May 31, Nike (NKE – 53.42) announced a corporate responsibility program designed to overcome its image as a $15 billion corporate empire focused more on its bottom line than its employees, the community, and the world around it.  The Beaverton, Oregon athletic apparel maker intends to…

TerraCycle Should Escape Scott-Free

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…

This Week in Citizen Joe (6/18/2007)

The Senate continues piecing through a package of energy measures (S 1419), this week debating amendments on how high to hike minimum car mileage standards, whether or not to make 15% of electricity come from renewable energy by 2020 and if the feds should give loan guarantees for coal-to-liquid plants. Also slated to return to…

GE Almighty

Universal and its parent company, GE, announced this week that they are committing $25 million in environmentally conscious marketing funds to promote the June 22 release of the sequel Evan Almighty (the sequel to the smash hit Bruce Almighty, starring Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman). The marketing plan includes an eco-awareness campaign, which gives audiences…

Sustainability to Drive Innovation

So far, The Panelist has hit home on a few of the underlying benefits of exhibiting sustainability within the private sector, as well as shown how select corporations have taken the lead in raising the bar.  Successfully integrating sustainability practices within a company's business practices can simultaneously increase revenue and reduce operating costs, hence increasing the bottom line. But can sustainability…