Biden

Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard that President Joe Biden has nominated to head the World Bank, told Axios Wednesday that both the bank and the private sector needed to spend “trillions” to combat both climate change and poverty. Banga has been aggressively campaigning for the job, meeting with officials from 37 different governments in the past three weeks, Axios reported . The World Bank faces competing pressure from wealthy and developing countries over whether to focus on combating climate change or poverty mitigation, but Banga said he does not view the two goals as inherently opposed to one another. (RELATED: Major Banks Bend The Knee To Climate Activists, Accelerate Plans To Cut Coal Investments) “I think it’s a fallacious argument that says, either-or,” Banga said to Axios. “I have every intention of focusing the bank and its people on the idea that this is an intertwined challenge.” The efforts to combat both climate change and poverty would cost … [Read more...] about Biden’s World Bank Pick Calls For ‘Trillions’ In Climate Spending

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin At it’s essence, ESG is a wonky acronym for evaluating companies based on environmental, social and governance factors. But depending on whom you are talking with these days, ESG is either a horrible “woke” concept endangering our society or a helpful tool in assessing how company’s take into account societal issues that can impact their and our futures. “ESG is a pernicious strategy, because it allows the left to accomplish what it could never hope to achieve at the ballot box or through competition in the free market,” wrote Mike Pence in a May 2022 Wall Street Journal piece. President Biden, on the other hand, issued his first veto recently to counter legislation that he said would make it illegal for pension fund managers “to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don't like.” Our country’s political discourse is so driven by extreme views that smart, nuanced discussion of how to take environmental, … [Read more...] about ESG Should Bring Us Together Not Tear Us Apart

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Nearly half a million people have been approved for federal student loan forgiveness under a one-time waiver program geared towards borrowers working in public service jobs. Processing is continuing. Many more borrowers may ultimately qualify, even while another Biden administration initiatives — the one-time mass student debt relief plan — remains blocked by federal courts . Student Loan Forgiveness Under PSLF Waiver Accelerates Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) is a federal student loan forgiveness program that can eliminate the federal student loan debt for borrowers who commit to public service careers. After 120 “qualifying payments” (equivalent to 10 years) while working for approved nonprofit or government employers, borrowers can receive a complete discharge of their federal student debt. Historically, PSLF has been a troubled program since its creation in 2007. PSLF has had complicated … [Read more...] about 453,000 Borrowers Approved For Student Loan Forgiveness Under Waiver As Processing Continues

The U.S. President Joe Biden signs the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on August 9, 2022. [AFP/YONHAP] The United States is pushing foreign chip makers to disclose sensitive business data, including yield rates, to receive subsidies under the CHIPS and Science Act. Onerous is the requirement that some companies might decide not to apply for funding. The yield rate, the amount of a silicon wafer that is successfully made into dies, is considered a key indicator to determine a chip producer's manufacturing capabilities. It is often confidential. Other required information includes production capacity for each wafer, operation rates, estimated production yields, semiconductor prices on first-year production, annual production figures and the increase or decrease rate of the cost. All of the information need to be submitted as Excel files. It can be used to verify the final numbers and the calculation process, the U.S. … [Read more...] about Korean companies may walk away from CHIPS Act money

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz mocked Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry for defending billionaires who fly private jets to climate change summits. “Look, I gotta say, John Kerry embodies the rich out-of-touch contempt that today’s left has for working men and women,” Cruz said in the Monday episode of his podcast, “ Verdict with Ted Cruz .” (RELATED: ‘Disgraceful’: Ted Cruz Rips Into Biden’s DHS Secretary For Refusing To Say There’s A Border Crisis) “So if John Kerry believes what he’s saying, it means when John Kerry puts his privileged derriere on a private jet, he is destroying planet Earth and simply buying an indulgence of, ‘well, I sent a check to somebody else.’ It fixes it. And his comment, ‘These gazillionaires are doing more than most people I know.’ And I’ve said, ‘Really, you need to know.’ Like, like, it’s such dripping contempt,” Cruz continued. Kerry discussed the Biden administration’s climate initiatives in an interview with Yahoo … [Read more...] about ‘Out Of Touch Contempt’: Ted Cruz Mocks John Kerry For Defending Billionaires’ Private Jet Usage

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Jason R. Escamilla, founder and CIO of ImpactAdvisor LLC in San Francisco, has seen it all before. It was nearly 30 years ago when he initially tried Socially Responsible Investing (“SRI”), the predecessor of ESG. And he was cool with it. Until everything changed. “ESG/SRI used to be about selectivity and choice,” says Escamilla. “I first got involved with SRI/ESG investing in the 90s. For decades, it was about selectivity and choice or preferences—primarily among institutional investors/clients. Funny thing happened on the way to going mainstream. ESG became the bully. The divestment movements ushered in powerful attention and support from the ‘non-investment class’ only a few years ago: students. Large pools of investment capital: university endowments adopted the cause. I still remember three years ago when CNBC’s Jim Cramer recommended permanently disinvesting from fossil fuels based on this force.” As a professional … [Read more...] about The Curious Dilemma Of ESG Investing And Your Retirement