Fund Balance

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Investing in a Balanced and Beautiful World for All

We are strategic consultants at the nexus of nature, culture, policy and finance. We design and manifest healthy and thriving planetary civilizations. We provide research, analysis, capital introduction, product design, and public relations solutions for investors, policy makers and social entrepreneurs in all asset classes. We holistically envision and design …

Haiti: Culture, Sustainability & Social Enterprise – “In the Eye of the Spiral” Preview Screening June 14th

Fund Balance is pleased to present this event as part of of our ongoing demonstration that culture, sustainability and social enterprise provide a better organizing principle than predatory debt finance and unrestricted globalization. In the Eye of the Spiral Private Preview Screening Thursday June 14, 6PM-8PM @ The Olivia, A Stonehenge …

Green Lighting Growth: Climate Patriot Bonds and Carbon Taxes

By Walter Borden    Green Bonds, Carbon Taxes, and Market Failures THE gathering dangers of global warming for life necessitate that humanity collapse its dependency on fossil fuel energy (FFE).  Ecological fiduciary responsibility requires shifting balance from political restraint to action. The challenges of managing a drawdown of FFE’s in …

Sell Monsanto Short – From Ethical Imperative to Trade Thesis

by Leland Lehrman In 2009, Fund Balance emerged from the quant hedge fund and pension world with a relatively innovative and massively underutilized investment thesis we call ESG Long Short Market Neutral. In a nutshell, our thesis is: Long: nature, sustainability, culture, and community. Short: war, pollution, fraud, and corruption. * We had determined that socially and environmentally conscious (ESG) …

Position Statement: Heed Scientific Consensus, Decarbonize Economy, Pair Policy Innovations with Technological Breakthroughs

By Walter Borden Science and Sustainability We at Fund Balance are concerned that the only mention of climate change in President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address was “The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change.” …

The True Cost of Fossil Fuel: Oil and Petrodollars

By Walter Borden “The conservation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others.”  Theodore Roosevelt What’s In a Petrodollar? Fossil Fuel producing nations should extract their resources consistent with the health needs of their people, air, land, …

Michael Bloomberg: The Company, the C40 and Climate Finance

Is Michael Bloomberg really getting serious about sustainability and the climate? Is the upcoming free and now completely full ESG 2011 USA event a huddle of the region’s best sustainability practitioners? We’ll be getting the scoop from Bloomberg CEO Daniel Doctoroff, and Thomas DiNapoli, Comptroller of the State of NY, …

Ethics and Value: A Moral Argument for Clean Energy Subsidies

By Walter Borden Energy and pollution salesmen extol the market value of fossil fuels underneath our land and sea based on a certain doctrine. It asserts that job creation requires prolific fossil fuel extraction, and consequently, such operations deserve taxpayer entitlements and subsidies. These operators argue further that vast sums …

Mud Wrestling in the Deluge

The Context and Implications of American International Group vs. Bank of America by Leland Lehrman Like Godzilla and King Kong in the Japanese movies, the lawsuit between AIG and Bank of America appears set in a kind of apocalyptic timeframe with cliffhanger debt ceiling negotiations happening during record heat waves, …

Climate Science and Policy in the 21st Century: All Aboard the Ark

Does it matter if one “believes” in global warming? An ongoing development in Kentucky will sell tickets to a  simulation of Noah’s Ark. The New York Times account contains the the quote: “I don’t believe in global warming…but I do believe we’ve got to be good stewards of everything God’s …

The Gulf Oil Spill, Financial Engineering and The Law of Unintended Consequences

The financial crisis that was precipitated in 2007 by structured finance (credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations et al.) parallels the Deepwater Horizon spill in important ways. And indeed, the very first credit default swap was engineered to offset Exxon’s exposure to remediation, fines and legal costs resulting from the …