Socially Irresponsible Investing

With so much focus on climate change after the release of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Brussels last week, it seemed only appropriate to air this satirical rebuke of the investment world.

Wormwood Bayne is a fictional US investment company which cares only about the bottom line and where according to its CEO, you should park your investments “if your greed is bigger than your conscience”.

No matter which country you live in there are probably one or two actual investment groups that will spring to mind as you watch the clip.

Companies that also invest “only in the smartest, meanest, most ruthless businesses in the country because they add more short-term dollars to the bottom line and in the long run we’re all dead” anyway.

Companies where you feel the staff there really do conduct themselves with the following in mind:

“I will live each day as if I was the only one that mattered”.

“I will do anything I want to anyone who can’t stop me”.

“I will regard each tragedy that befolds my fellow man as an opportunity for personal profit”.

Wormwood Bayne is a firm that underpays workers, busts unions, exports jobs overseas, uses third world child labour and ignores environmental regulations.

As with most comedy sketches, there is often a message behind the banter, in this case, the blatant anti-corporate greed lampooning – but burningpants isn’t going to go there today.

The broader international media after all has been doing a pretty good job in covering the challenges and threats we face as a planet today – everybody knows what they are, so for the investment world it’s really a case of doing business without becoming in anyway a manifestation of the people over at Wormwood Bayne.