Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of August 9, 2022

Article Excerpt

It’s been a long time since we first pointed out that when funds hold themselves out as “socially responsible investments” it helps the fund to sell units to investors, but it’s not doing the fund buyers any favours. In fact, these virtue-signaling funds have long tended to under-perform the market on the whole. Along the way, these funds have undergone a name change (a re-branding, you might say). They now generally refer to themselves as ESG funds—for “environmental, social and governance funds.” The name change hasn’t done much for investors, but it’s been great for the fund sponsors. The ESG segment of the fund industry now manages and earns fees on investor funds worth $2.77 trillion U.S. Andy Kessler, a former chip designer at Bell Labs who went on into the hedge fund business, is an occasional writer for the Wall Street Journal. One of his latest pieces is entitled “The many reasons ESG is a loser.” The article quotes University of Colorado…