TBLI BLOG The world will benefit when the economy supports well-being.

As the TBLI CONFERENCE™ ASIA 2010 draws ever more closer and we begin packing our things for Tokyo, I wanted to mention another of our keynote speakers this year: A. Karim Ahmed Ph.D. Dr. Ahmed is Secretary-Treasurer and Director of the International Program at the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) in Washington, DC. The title of his speech: The Role of Financial Institutions in Framing the Future Direction of the New Green Economy

To give you a sample of what we can look forward to having Dr. Ahmed as one of our esteemed keynote speakers, here is a clip from a 2008 interview recorded in Ljubljana, Slovenia on the topic of Climate Change on a Global Scale.

Amazing how the smartest people in the world can remember everything they are doing, clients, deals, income commissions, successes, most of the time. Why is is that when they get into trouble they all get alzheimer and can’t remember a thing? It would save everyone alot of time if their lawyers who advised them for legal purposes to claim ignorance, would testify instead.
I found the most disturbing part was listening to all the senior executives saying they were “market makers” and there is nothing wrong with their behavior. When Carl Levin asked “don’t you see a problem selling a shitty product and claiming it is fine and then shorting the investment”, and watching the reaction it was unreal to watch.
I kept thinking about that and realized that is the problem. Making junk, selling it as quality and hoping and betting it will fail doesn’t seem to be a problem for Goldman. That is the issue, nothing else.

I wonder if Alec Litowitz is seen as a hero by the financial sector and MBA’s in particular
Fantastic article by Propublica on how to make money pushing toxic investments and betting they would fail.

http://www.propublica.org/feature/all-the-magnetar-trade-how-one-hedge-fund-helped-keep-the-housing-bubble

Looking ahead to TBLI CONFERENCE™ ASIA 2010 we are pleased to announce our returning champion, Stewart Armer, will be one of our illustrious keynote speakers.  Head of SRI at BNP Paribas Investment Partners SA, Stewart is currently responsible for the management of a number of sustainable investment products including the S&P rated “FutureVision” global sustainable equity fund and “Fortis L Fund Equity Environmental Sustainability World” which focuses on investing in environmental technologies. He leads an international specialist SRI team, based in Frankfurt, managing a range of sustainable investment products including equity, bond, balanced and specialist global sustainability funds.

As part of our ASIA 2008 conference, Stewart gave a keynote address focusing on problems and solutions in the context of investment in Asia. Instead of trying to summarize his words here, I will instead recommend you listen to this recording of his talk.

As a bonus: His slides from that keynote address.