This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

Watching American politics from the outside, it’s easy to hear people asking: how did this happen? How does a billionaire brand himself as anti-elite, win major support among impoverished Hispanic voters he openly targets, and keep pulling poor white working-class Americans into a coalition that always acts against their economic interests? One explanation—outlined in this video —is that voting behavior is frequently driven less by policy and more by emotional and social logic: protection, fear, disgust, hierarchy, and status threat . That framework is useful. But it becomes truly persuasive only when we anchor it in the long-run economic shifts that made these emotions politically usable. This analysis connects that “protector politics” thesis to hard economic data — income stagnation, manufacturing job loss, union decline , and the Black–White median income gap —to show why identity and status narratives keep winning against technocratic policy talk. 1) The Great Pretender/Prote...

📅 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – A “Day On” for Justice and Shared Prosperity Today we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , a visionary leader whose work reshaped America’s civil rights movement and challenged us to confront injustice wherever it lives — in society, in policy, and in the economy. While many remember Dr. King for his powerful words on civil rights and nonviolence, he also had a deep concern for how our economic systems treat people — especially those who have been marginalized. Dr. King was not opposed to markets themselves, but he was deeply committed to how wealth is created and used . He urged us to think not just about profit , but also about purpose, dignity, and community well-being .  https://www.impactinvesting.online/2016/01/martin-luther-kings-philosophy-on.html 💡 What Dr. King’s Economic Philosophy Means Today Dr. King believed that: Economic justice is inseparable from racial justice. Markets should serve people , not the othe...

To the editor: The reported  criminal investigation  involving Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell should alarm anyone who cares about financial stability, bank supervision and the rule-based operation of U.S. markets. This is not about a building renovation. It is about power. When political actors are dissatisfied with monetary policy — interest rates, inflation or the impact of tariffs — they increasingly seek leverage outside the policy process. Investigations, early leaks of confidential economic data, and public insinuations concerning legitimate private financial arrangements become tools of pressure. That is not accountability; it is intimidation. Just as  the fatal shooting  of Renée Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis sparked questions about the appropriate use of force, the criminal inquiry into Powell over his congressional testimony about a building renovation — a question of public record and policy disclosur...

📊 Key Labor Market Facts — December 2025 According to the BLS December 2025 employment situation : The national unemployment rate was 4.4% in December 2025. ( Bureau of Labor Statistics ) Black or African American unemployment was significantly higher , at about 7.5% (seasonally adjusted), nearly double the rate for Whites.  Hispanic/Latino unemployment also remained elevated , though far below Black unemployment (about 4.9%).  Between January and September, the number of unemployed Black women surged from 598,000 to 830,000—an increase of 232,000. While unemployment for Black women dipped slightly in November, it rose again in December to 820,000, leaving Black women unemployment 222,000 higher than at the start of the year. These disparities reflect long-standing structural inequalities in the labor market, where Black workers routinely face higher unemployment rates and longer jobless spells than other groups.  📉 Direct Impacts on Black & Minority-Owned Busines...

Black Enterprise ’s recent article, “Pivotal Moves to Help Black Women Rebound Stronger From Massive Job Cuts,” offers a timely and necessary look at the accelerating employment crisis facing Black women—and, importantly, what can be done about it. The article grounds its analysis in hard data, noting the sharp rise in unemployment among Black women in 2025 and the concentration of job losses in sectors where Black women are disproportionately represented. It moves beyond surface-level advice by emphasizing financial triage, skills realignment, entrepreneurship, and long-term resilience as core strategies for recovery. Creative Investment Research was cited in the piece for our analysis showing that this surge in unemployment is not the result of labor-force exits , but of actual job losses and weak hiring , particularly in education, professional services, healthcare, and public-sector roles. That distinction matters—because it points directly to policy failures and sector-specific ...

Some economists argue that working-class Americans who vote for billionaire politicians are driven primarily by shame, status anxiety, and a desire to burn the system down . Of course, the psychology matters—but we examine, below, the fundamental  economic realities that created these conditions in the first place. When we put the economic narrative side-by-side with the data, a more precise conclusion emerges: status resentment is not the cause—it is the symptom . The cause is a long-running economic and policy failure that we predicted   in 1995  and that has never been structurally repaired. This post looks at three core indicators— income, manufacturing employment, and union membership —to show why appeals to dignity resonate, and why toxic and incompetent billionaire “outsiders” can exploit that resonance. 1. Income: The Promise Was Deliberately Broken, Not Forgotten For decades, white working-class Americans were told that productivity gains and economic growt...