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.