Responsible Investing

While legal reform is important, it has not stopped all excessive speculation. We are talking with pension funds and university endowments, showing them how most commodity investments have been losing money despite rising commodity prices and how their investments can influence world food prices and contribute to world hunger.

Barclays considers stopping its agricultural speculation

December 1, 2012 by dave Leave a Comment

In response to growing public pressure against excessive speculation in food and energy markets, Barclays is considering stopping all of its trading in agricultural products due to “potential reputational damage.” Barclays would join a growing number of European banks and pension funds who have recently stopped trading in agriculture futures due to growing concern that this speculation is driving world food prices higher and making them more volatile.

More recently, investors are pulling out of [Read More...]

Filed Under: International, National, Responsible Investing

CalPERS fails to make money in commodities

August 1, 2012 by Brennan Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Nearly five years after it began investing in commodities, the biggest public pension fund in the United States has yet to make any money in the asset class — highlighting the difficulty even the largest and most sophisticated institutions encounter in wringing returns from investments in agriculture, metals and energy derivatives.

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) had assets valued at $236 billion at the end of March 2012, including $3.6 billion [Read More...]

Filed Under: Responsible Investing, Wall Street Tagged With: CalPERS, commodities, commodity indexes, commodity speculation, GSCI

Guidelines for Responsible Investing in Food Commodities

May 24, 2012 by Brennan Leave a Comment

The Interfaith Center On Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), which represents 300 faith-based organizations with over $100 billion in assets, has just released its Guidelines For Responsible Investing In Food Commodities, which gives investors recommendations to promote responsible participation in these markets.

The ICCR guidelines come in response to growing evidence and concern that excessive speculation in food commodity markets inflates food prices, contributing to global food prices bubbles, which have been linked to malnutrition and famine [Read More...]

Filed Under: Responsible Investing Tagged With: agriculture ETFs, commodities investing, ICCR, responsible investment

Barclays admits that speculation influences prices

April 20, 2012 by dave Leave a Comment

In its February 2012 report on commodity investments, Barclays admitted that an increase in commodity speculation leads to increased prices. The report lists three main causes of the current run-up in commodity prices, stating,

“The second key driver is that commodity investors have begun allocating to commodities again after beginning 2012 heavily underexposed to the sector.”

The report goes on to explain that “net long hedge fund positions across all U.S. commodity futures markets have [Read More...]

Filed Under: National, Responsible Investing, Uncategorized, Wall Street Tagged With: Barclays, commodity ETF, commodity indexes, commodity speculation, excessive speculation

CalSTRS responds to public pressure, reduces commodity investments

November 10, 2010 by dave Leave a Comment

Civil society won a significant victory in the struggle to bring sanity back to global community markets. Many of the same groups that led the fight for strong derivatives reforms in the Dodd-Frank bill recently convinced CalSTRS, the second largest pension fund in the U.S., to reduce its planned investments in commodities by close to 95 percent.

The CalSTRS board was very responsive to civil society concerns and will be monitoring [Read More...]

Filed Under: Responsible Investing, Wall Street Tagged With: CalSTRS, commodity divestment campaign, pension fund