Civility On Hold By Mel Miller, CFA®, Chief Economist | Download PDF The current political environment turned even more toxic during the fourth quarter of 2019. One can only hope that historians will look back on 2019 as the low point of civility. President Trump, impeached in the House of Representatives, following partisan wrangling in what […]
Gun Violence: Are We Moving Beyond Thoughts and Prayers? By Holly Testa | Download the PDF Recent events give us hope that the answer is yes, even in the face of an unresponsive Senate. In the last few months we have seen significant developments: In the absence of viable federal legislation, state lawmakers have been taking action, […]
Earnings and Economic Growth Decelerating, Valuations Stretched – Markets Rising? By Theresa Gusman, Chief Investment Officer | Download PDF US equities continue to hit new highs. After its best first half in 22 years, the S&P 500 posted a 1.7% gain in the third quarter. Global equity markets were mixed. Japanese, European and US equities rose […]
Falling Leaves and Economy? By Mel Miller, CFA®, Chief Economist | Download PDF Fall is here. As I watch leaves drifting down to the ground from my office window, I have to ask whether the economy will follow a similar pattern of slowly drifting lower. The summer was a record-breaker in terms of rainfall here in […]
Record Archived By Mel Miller, CFA®, Chief Economist|Download PDF The US economy enters July having achieved the longest economic expansion in history. The economy reversed the contraction that began in July of 2004, starting at the end of the second quarter of 2009. Many have criticized the slow pace of the recovery, but having positive quarterly […]
Download PDF Mixed signals: New Highs, Decelerating Earnings Growth, Stretched Valuations By Theresa Gusman US equities continue to hit new highs. The S&P 500 posted its best first half in 22 years, rising 18.5% through the end of June. Stock markets advanced worldwide, with developed and emerging international markets up 14.0% and 10.6%, respectively, year-to-date, […]
Finally: Significant Progress on Board Diversity By Holly TestaDownload the PDF First Affirmative has seen frustratingly slow, but nevertheless steady progress when it comes to board diversity. Of note this proxy season were our successful withdrawals of board diversity proposals at Masimo and Cambrex after both companies took steps to revise nominating committee guidelines and improve their search process […]
You’ve probably noticed that the First Affirmative team has been on the road quite a bit over the last few months as we co-present the 2019 Sustainable Investment Solutions (SIS) symposium series. Last week we were in Boston for yet another great SIS event. We’ve really seen attendance at these regional events ticking up. More […]
I was so encouraged when I attended the recent Sustainable Investment Solutions event in Washington DC on June 25 sponsored by a group of premier asset managers. With close to 60% of the room filled with advisors, 30% of whom were attending their first ever impact investing event, there was robust discussion, a lot of […]
The vibe: dynamic!The venue: nostalgic!The content: strong!The event: impactfully unconventional. These are the words that I use to describe my experience at the 2019 FPA NexGen Gathering at the beautifully historic Loyola University New Orleans. As my colleague and I walked through the lovely campus, I knew that it was going to be a different […]
