This innovative finance concept might go a long way to solving the world’s biggest problems
0. Intro vignette Imagine the year is 2045. Humanity has: Solved the technical aspects of AI alignment, and most of the major companies developing AI are fully bought into ensuring that those solutions are built into any AI they produce;Massively improved the safety of BSL4 biosecurity labs, and taken other measures to significantly reduce the…
Why is there no “profit-washing”? The importance of incentives
In his book “White Man’s Burden”, William Easterly argues that there are two approaches to international aid: Planning: a top down approach. “A Planner thinks he already knows the answers […] A Planner [is willing to] impose solutions.”Searching: a bottom up approach. “In foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don’t motivate anyone to carry…
ESG investing needs thoughtful trade-offs
Thoughtful trade-offs: models for going beyond profit maximisation There is lots of talk about whether incorporating ESG factors could help improve profitability or returns. This post is not about whether or not this is true. Instead, I claim that this is missing the point. I’m sure there will be times when ESG thinking can lead…
ESG investing isn’t high-impact, but it could be
This article explores ESG/responsible investing. It identifies certain gaps which I believe could be valuably filled to help ESG investing do more good. This report is for those who are interested in a career to influence the finance system. If you are interested as an individual investor, there are other resources (e.g. the report by Hillebrandt and…
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Effective ESG finance 