Standing by while others suffer is bad.
Profiting from their exploitation is worse. And unfortunately, it’s relatively easy to do by accident. Take real estate investment as an example: investors who hold a diversified portfolio of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are likely to hold shares in GEO Group (NYSE: GEO) and CoreCivic (NYSE: CXW).
GEO describes itself as a “global leader in evidence-based rehabilitation.” CoreCivic says it’s a “diversified, government-solutions company with the scale and experience needed to solve tough government challenges in cost-effective ways.” But they both do the same thing: operate prisons for profit. And they’re both members of the Russell 1000 and the S&P 400 Midcap index. Which means you might own them right now.
How many other problematic companies might have snuck into your portfolio? We reached out to Jay Lipman, a co-founder of sustainable asset manager Ethic, to hear more about what’s out there and how to stay away from the worst of it.
Our conversation starts at 11:43 if you’d like to jump right to it, but if you listen to the whole thing you’ll also hear about how Mario Kart almost ended Ashby’s Marriage, Goldman Sachs’ massive $3.9 billion settlement, and what we’re reading to take our minds off of the ongoing collapse of civilization.