Policy Corner
Podcasts
Podcasts | July 29, 2019
Memo to candidates: Impact investors have a quality jobs agenda
Even the chairman of the Federal Reserve wants to share the wealth. The headline of the New York Times’ account of Jerome Powell’s message …
Features
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on Unsplash
Policy Corner | July 30, 2021
Policy Corner: Beyond coal, Native housing, banking the unbanked
ImpactAlpha, July 30 – ImpactAlpha is working with the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance to keep Agents of Impact apprised of policy developments. Among this …
Policy Corner | July 23, 2021
Policy Corner: Reforming CRA, worker power and sustainability standards
ImpactAlpha, July 23 – “We believe the most durable change will happen at the intersection of government action and private sector partnership,” says Fran …
Asia | July 15, 2021
Carbon markets are set to expand in Europe and China
ImpactAlpha, July 15 – Prices on Europe’s carbon trading system jumped almost 5%, to €55, after the European Commission laid out plans to …
photo: Matt Rourke, AP
Community Finance | July 14, 2021
Investing in marginalized communities to drive the COVID recovery
ImpactAlpha, July 14 – The two-track recovery threatens to leave distressed communities even further behind. Consider Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood: “A community that was …
Catalytic Capital | July 2, 2021
Ensuring equitable access to relief funds
ImpactAlpha, July 2 – The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 channels nearly $20 billion in economic relief to small, mostly rural towns. …
Jocotenango, Guatemala | Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash
Latin America | July 1, 2021
Impact investors step up to the migration challenge in Central America
ImpactAlpha, July 1 – The confluence in Central America of extreme weather events, gang violence, corruption, and poverty – exacerbated by COVID – is …
Photo credit: PolicyLink
Capitalism Reimagined | June 24, 2021
Turning pledges into policies to invest in Black Americans and multi-racial prosperity
ImpactAlpha, June 24 – Investors and executives can lead in many ways as they seek to fulfill their often heartfelt pledges to do …
Capitalism Reimagined | June 22, 2021
Turning the renewed power of workers into a lasting pillar of stakeholder capitalism
These days, American workers could well be saying, as Richard Fariña wrote and Nancy Sinatra sang, “Been down so long it looks like …
Photo credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Capitalism Reimagined | June 3, 2021
Corporates emerge as new source of capital for community investment
ImpactAlpha, June 3 – With the closing of its $250 million Black Economic Development Fund, LISC showed off the opportunity to tap corporations as …
U.S. President Joe Biden | Photo credit: Numena Studios
Policy Corner | May 4, 2021
Agents of Impact see transformation – and trouble – in Biden’s first 100 days
ImpactAlpha, May 4 – More than 230 million COVID vaccine shots. Nearly $2 trillion in economic stimulus. A return to the Paris climate agreement. …
Increase in global CO2 emissions
Climate Finance | April 28, 2021
That feeling when investors realize carbon is going to $100 a ton sooner than they expected
ImpactAlpha, April 28 – Carbon hasn’t attracted as much attention as GameStop or Bitcoin, but the price of a ton of CO2 topped …
ESG | April 27, 2021
Regulators in the U.S. and Europe put ESG fund managers on notice for “greenwashing”
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 27 – A sure sign that environmental, social and governance performance has arrived: governments want to regulate it. In Europe, the Sustainable …
Image credit: Maurens, Dordogne/France
Clean Energy | April 22, 2021
2030 is the new 2050 as countries and companies compete on climate ambitions
ImpactAlpha, April 22 – Call it The Great Acceleration. Goals for cutting carbon emissions that seemed ambitious when the Paris Agreement was forged …
U.S. President Joe Biden | Photo: Nuno21
Capitalism Reimagined | April 8, 2021
Stakeholder-economy coalition presses White House for ‘new rules’ for American capitalism
ImpactAlpha, Apr. 8 – More than 50 business leaders and investor groups are calling on the Biden-Harris administration to implement new rules and incentives …
Corporate Impact | April 8, 2021
Jamie Dimon calls for a carbon tax, the end of the carried interest loophole and a modern-day Marshall Plan
ImpactAlpha, April 8 – In his 66-page annual shareholder letter, the JPMorgan chief lays out his views on the economy (get ready for …
Edisun Microgrids | Photo: Business Wire
Green Infrastructure | March 31, 2021
Transformation of electricity grids shows this isn’t your grandparents’ infrastructure upgrade
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The giant infrastructure investment plan to be unveiled by U.S. President Joe Biden today is expected to include as …
Oakland, Calif. | Photo: trekandshoot
Capitalism Reimagined | March 25, 2021
Spurred by stimulus checks, guaranteed income gains steam as an anti-poverty policy
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 25 – Dozens of mayors across the U.S. have committed to piloting guaranteed income programs that put regular, no-strings-attached cash payments into …
Community Finance | February 22, 2021
Opportunity Zones await makeover – and impact
ImpactAlpha, Feb. 22 – Tens of billions of dollars have been raised by opportunity funds. But most of the nearly 8,000 low-income opportunity …
Clean Energy | January 28, 2021
Say it again: climate action means job creation
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 28 – President Biden marked his first week in office with 30 executive orders aimed at tackling the climate emergency. “Today …
Photo credit: Workforce Connect Manufacturing Sector Partnership
Capitalism Reimagined | January 28, 2021
Opportunity Zone deals flow as investors eye new rules
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 28 – The Trump administration touted Opportunity Zones among its policy achievements. President Biden is proposing changes to make them work …
Climate Finance | January 21, 2021
And that was just Day One of Biden’s climate agenda
ImpactAlpha, Jan. 21 – It was the executive order heard ‘round the world. “Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!” tweeted French president Emmanuel …
Capitalism Reimagined | January 11, 2021
Biden’s nominee for secretary of labor is a champion of ESG investing in Boston
ImpactAlpha, January 11 – The Department of Labor in the Trump administration has issued a series of rules hostile to consideration of environmental, social …
Capitalism Reimagined | December 15, 2020
Impact investors are wonking out on policy
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The spate of recommendations greeting the incoming Biden administration is the fruit of years of work in the fields …
Climate Finance | December 14, 2020
Bumper crop of green policy proposals await Biden administration
Tis the season … for climate policy frameworks. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rejoin the Paris climate agreement on Day One and …
Climate Finance | November 10, 2020
How far will the pendulum of ESG guidance swing back in a Biden administration?
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 10 – Investors poured nearly $50 billion into ESG-focused exchange-traded funds in just two days last week as the U.S. election …
Climate Finance | November 2, 2020
Investor protests fail to stop Trump administration rule squelching ESG investing
ImpactAlpha, Nov. 2 – It’s final – at least until it’s reversed. The U.S. Department of Labor finalized an unpopular rule aimed at …
Capitalism Reimagined | September 9, 2020
Another rule from the Department of Labor, another attack on ESG investing
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 8 – The U.S. Department of Labor is seeking to sharply curtail the ability of private sector retirement funds to engage …
Industry News | July 14, 2020
Trump administration seeks to turn back the ESG tide
ImpactAlpha, July 14 – Investors are flocking to funds keyed to environmental, social and governance factors, or ESG. The Trump administration is trying …
Capitalism Reimagined | July 8, 2020
Preparing an impact investing policy agenda for the next administration
ImpactAlpha, July 8 – Eight small grants from the $14 million Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing suggest the outlines of a 2021 …
Capitalism Reimagined | August 26, 2019
Nine policy wonks on how to catalyze private capital for public good
ImpactAlpha’s What’s Next series, produced in partnership with the Global Impact Investing Network, provides a platform for practitioners and experts to reflect on the …
Entrepreneurship | July 30, 2019
From resistance to revival: Can the Democratic debates mobilize support for America’s inclusive economic agenda?
ImpactAlpha, July 30 – Democratic candidates have a chance to turn resistance into revival. In this week’s debates in Detroit, policy wonks will spot …
Impact Voices
Capitalism Reimagined | July 14, 2021
There’s no building back better without investing in underserved communities
Between record levels of government stimulus, an unprecedented vaccination campaign and a buzzing economy, it’s easy to see reasons for optimism as America …
Fabric shop owner | Photo credit: Mavo
Community Finance | May 19, 2021
A lifeline for relief, CDFIs are even more essential now for the recovery of under-banked businesses
When the initial COVID shutdowns hit a year ago, community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, were critical in getting small businesses quick relief …
Carmen Rojas of The Marguerite Casey Foundation | Photo credit: The Nonprofit Times
Impact Voices | May 4, 2021
100 Days of President Biden: Progress and peril on the road to a just economy
As the Biden administration completes its first 100 days, I am both surprised by the ambition of this administration and disappointed by its …
US Securities and Exchange Commission | Photo: AevanStock
ESG | April 27, 2021
Standards are on tap for ESG investing after a ‘risk alert’ from the SEC
Editor’s note: ImpactAlpha is partnering with Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC to provide timely market snapshots of trends and developments affecting the sustainable investing market. …
Annie Donovan, Local Initiatives Support Corp.
Capitalism Reimagined | February 18, 2021
How impact investors can challenge three fallacies of legacy finance
In The Price of Inequality, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz notes the moments in history when people rise up to say something …
Catalytic Capital | February 17, 2021
‘Pay for success’ can help the Biden administration build back better
With Democrats now in control of both the House and Senate, the Biden Administration has a once in a generation opportunity to “build …
Capitalism Reimagined | October 5, 2020
With policy prompts, private equity fund managers can drive social benefits, too
Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, an economy officially in recession, and a stock market that seems increasingly divergent from the experience …