Hazel Henderson, coauthor of the Cosimo book The Power of Yin and a longtime advocate for global financial reform, has written an editorial for CSRwire, which covers corporate social responsibility and sustainability, framing the Supreme Court’s decision to treat corporations as “persons” not as a debacle for democracy but as an opportunity for corporate social responsibility. From her editorial:

Including unions in the new Court ruling is a red herring since unions represent real people while corporations are chartered to delver profits to shareholders. Key proposals [for fighting the SCOTUS decision] can include: tightening corporate governance through regulatory agencies, particularly the SEC, so that corporations must get prior approval from their shareholders for such new political financing while enforcing immediate public disclosure of such funds and recipients.

The full editorial is available at CSRwire.

Also: see economist Dean Baker’s “simple route around the Supreme Court’s ruling” at truthout, and the video interview, at Democracy Now!, with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose new film Casino Jack and the United States of Money is debuting at Sundance this month.

The Power of Yin is available from Amazon and other online booksellers.

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Danny Schechter, author of the Cosimo book Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity and the Subprime Scandal, appeared yesterday on the English-language Net news channel Russia Today to discuss the U.S.’s response to the earthquake in Haiti:

Schechter — always a vocal voice in progressive activism — now appears weekly on Progressive Radio Network with his News Dissector radio show.

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Darwin Gillett, author of the Cosimo book Noble Enterprise: The Commonsense Guide to Uplifting People and Profits has some new tips on revitalizing your business model for the new year at his blog Notes on Noble Business:

Ask yourself these questions about your own business and leadership:

1. What is the ultimate purpose of your business – to do what for whom? Try answering it in as deep or global a way as you can. Why? Such a new perspective on the purpose of your business might just rekindle enthusiasm and focus in your company, making people – including yourself, more alive and motivated.

2. What is the non-material or spiritual dimension of this? I know – business is supposed to be rational and practical. But some of the most successful businesses, even big public ones, have at their core spiritual purpose and principles.

Visit Notes on Noble Business for the full article.

Noble Enterprise is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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Since 1994, Convoy of Hope, a nonprofit organization, has provided resources to organizations and churches to meet physical and spiritual needs for the purpose of making the community a better place. This is accomplished through domestic and international outreaches, supply lines, and disaster response.

Cosimo is a supporter of Convoy of Hope, and we encourage others to support them as well.

For more information on Convoy of Hope, and to donate to their Haiti earthquake relief efforts, please see their web site.

From a recent Convoy of Hope dispatch from Haiti:

Hundreds of desperate Haitians are in line waiting for food at Quisqueya Chapel—Convoy of Hope’s main distribution point in Port-au-Prince. Yesterday, the Convoy of Hope team distributed 100,000 meals here and at five other distribution points.

…

Food supplies are running low in Haiti and show no signs of improving anytime soon. But even when food is available—as it is in limited amounts on some street corners from vendors—many families simply do not have the cash to pay for it.

“My house is damaged, I need food, but I have no money to buy it,” says Ralph, a twenty-something-year-old who could be speaking for tens of thousands of hungry Haitians.

“The situation regarding food and water remains dire,” says Kevin Rose, Haiti director for Convoy of Hope. “The lack of fuel and security issues has made it very difficult to move food around the city. But through our network of partners we are getting food into some of the most desperate places.”

Please donate what you can to Convoy of Hope to help with their aid efforts.

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Thomas Croft’s Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, recently published by Cosimo, has garnered a fantastic review from James McRitchie at CorpGov.net:

[S]hould be read by all working North Americans, concerned with the reckless loans and short-term stock market bets that nearly plunged the world’s economy into chaos….

Croft does and excellent job of explaining the rise of “financialization,” short-termism and how buyout and hedge funds “provided some of the black powder that quickened the landslide.” Trustees, union, and members of funds who want to influence them will benefit substantially from the chapter, “Action Steps for Trustees: How to Talk Back to Experts.” Here Croft lays out how to get fund consultants to expand their horizons to include consideration of investments that can earn high risk-adjusted returns over the long-run, which also help sustain employers and communities. The chapter includes 12 steps with specific advice, such as “Ask your consultant to independently verify the sources and amount of returns from private equity funds… disclose cash in/cash out documentation.”

Part two of the book is a “field guide” that provides information on six responsible private equity and venture capital funds. Each fund is profiled for structure, capacity, products, impacts, financial performance, experience of principals and at least a case study or two of the firm’s investments. Yes, you can make money while doing good. These firms have proven that and continue to do so through the financial melt-down.

Read the whole review at CorpGov.net.

Cosimo books are available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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Thomas Croft, author of the Cosimo book Up From Wall Street: The Responsible Investment Alternative, talked recently wirh Leo W. Gerard, president of United Steelworkers International, about responsible investing and the challenges of these tough economic times. From the interview at Huffington Post:

So, what it means in terms of the economy is that the country doesn’t build things anymore. Remember Allentown, and the song by Billy Joel that described the shutdown of Beth Steel? Bethlehem Steel was originally constructed to build the nation’s rail systems. And those workers helped build the skyscrapers in New York City, and they helped win WWII. After the Beth Plant was closed, a new Las Vegas Casino was to be built on the former steel site. Well, the casino couldn’t find the structural steel, at first, to build the casino. Kind of ironic, but also tragic

If we can’t find enough steel to build casinos today, how in the world will we build the green jobs industries of the future? We need steel to build the Obama administration’s proposed new high-speed rail system, right? And how will the Allentowns and Homesteads and Youngstowns and Flints of this country, and all of our other rust-towns ever fully recover? We can’t depend on casino jobs, eds and meds, tourist and service jobs alone to replace the lost manufacturing jobs. We need a robust domestic manufacturing economy if we are going to benefit from the green jobs boom.

And:

[W]e also know that it’s time that our assets are put to work for the long-term, and not in ways to destroy our economy. With the Obama Administration’s help and guarantees, for instance, we could co-invest real money to re-build our cities and towns, and re-grow and re-shape this economy. And our money should be invested so that markets serve society–community, in other words– and not the other way around. We indeed have the capacity to construct infrastructure, reinvigorate our cities, and create those highly-anticipated green jobs for our children. We just have to re-claim control of our money.

There’s much more…

Up From Wall Street is available at Amazon.com and from other online booksellers.

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