Just Capital

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= project by Paul Tudor Jones and Deepak Chopra, to " rate companies on their probity, not their profits".

URL = http://justcapital.com/


Description

1. Alessandra Stanley:

“The wealth gap, that’s the single most important issue in this country,” he said in September while unveiling Just Capital, a nonprofit organization that he created with Deepak Chopra, the spiritual self-help author and wellness entrepreneur who taught Mr. Jones how to meditate.

Just Capital will rank corporations on how well, or “justly,” they treat employees, society and the environment. The idea is to laud companies that offer better pay, happier workplaces and greater transparency — and perhaps shame others to follow suit.

This kind of moral index, Mr. Jones said, “could not only impact investors, it could impact consumers, it might impact the way companies hire, the way people go and work with companies; it will impact boardrooms, everything.” (http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/business/a-plan-to-rank-just-companies-aims-to-close-the-wealth-gap.html)


2.

"Our mission is to create a new standard of business performance based on the values and preferences of the public.

JUST Capital is an independent nonprofit information platform that measures and tracks corporate performance against the public’s definition of just business behavior. “Just” is a comprehensive, inclusive examination of business performance defined by the American public. " (http://justcapital.com/)


Discussion

Alessandra Stanley:

"This year Mr. Jones said in a TED talk that traditionally there are three ways to change income inequality: “By revolution, higher taxes or wars.” His alternative is Just Capital.

Mr. Jones argues that income inequality is being driven by what he calls “shareholder hegemony,” the principle that companies first and foremost should satisfy investors. The solution is for companies to make social responsibility as important as profits and share price.

Mr. Jones, who declined to be interviewed, has a net worth Forbes estimates at $4.7 billion and was one of the few hedge-fund managers who foresaw the 1987 market crash. He is known for founding the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization started in 1988 that raised $101 million last year for anti-poverty programs in New York.

Just Capital’s mission fits into an existing trend. Socially responsible investing, the favoring of companies that demonstrate environmental and social awareness, is a growing movement, driven in large part by the economic ascendance of millennials and women. As of this month, Morningstar said about 2 percent of the mutual funds it tracked were tagged “socially conscious.” Such funds “typically perform on par or a little better than conventional funds,” said Jon Hale, director of manager research at Morningstar.

Not all economists agree with Mr. Jones’s notion that monitoring corporate behavior would narrow the distance between the very rich and the rest. Mr. Wilkin, the economist, argued that inequity was driven not just by bloated executive compensation or the single-minded pursuit of profit, but also by what he called a two-tier economy in which some industries, like technology, finance and health care, soared ahead and left the rest behind. Just Capital, he said, was “wishful thinking that there is a market solution to income inequality that doesn’t involve increasing taxes.”

There are many nonprofits that seek to address income inequality. Mr. Jones and Mr. Chopra bring a waft of New Age spirituality to theirs. The Just Capital board includes Arianna Huffington, a founder of The Huffington Post, and several wealthy business leaders who also are directors of the Chopra Foundation.

...


Just Capital plans to publish a ranking of the top 1,000 publicly traded companies based on a scale derived from the survey. “Americans want a seat at the table,” Mr. Jones said at the September presentation.

There are many research firms, including MSCI and Sustainalytics, that examine companies for social responsibility, although their data is mostly reserved for clients and subscribers. Just Capital plans to make its ratings public at no charge.

Because Just Capital will examine only publicly traded corporations, Mr. Jones’s hedge fund and thousands of others like it will be exempt from scrutiny. At the Just Capital presentation, Mr. Jones said he checked to make sure his own company, Tudor Investment Corporation, was in line with Just Capital’s principles." (http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/business/a-plan-to-rank-just-companies-aims-to-close-the-wealth-gap.html)