Is This Time Different?

From a market perspective, history has always favored the unfazed, the patient, the forgetful. Drastic action in times of great uncertainty is almost always the wrong move. Time and again—just like now—people convinced themselves of imminent disaster. And in nearly all cases, they were wrong. Financial writers and hardened optimists are right to remind us: “This time isn’t different.”

But I’ll be straight with you: This time might be different.

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James McHaffie: From Bold Climbing to Novel Writing

James McHaffie needs no introduction, at least in the United Kingdom. His approach to bold onsight climbing, particularly free solos, is unparalleled. He’s repeated the hardest sport climb in Wales, Big Bang (9a), sent Britain’s hardest sea cliff, Dave MacLeod’s The Longhope Direct (E10 7a), and made the first ascent of The Meltdown, a 9a slab in the slate quarries of his home in North Wales. And now he’s written a book. But unlike many books released by elite climbers, this is not an autobiographical account of hard climbs in the face of relative adversity. Caff, as he prefers to be called, has written a fictional account of Eleri, a young woman amongst the slate quarries of North Wales who in the aftermath of a family suicide takes aim at British politicians who pushed for austerity and the conditions that led to such suffering. 

This conversation was such a gift. I can see even through all that rage that James is brimming with humanity, a trait sometimes in short supply. I hope you’ll enjoy this one as much as I did.

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Sustainable Investing: Five Important Considerations

So…are you perhaps interested in investing but want to do right by the world? How do we weigh the obvious benefits of investing against the hypocritical feeling that we are funding the dark side of the capitalist system? Many choose a path of sustainable investing, choosing to forego certain companies or industries from their portfolio altogether. But are we accomplishing anything with this approach?

Today we take a wide-ranging view on the ethics of investing, the fundamentals of consumerism, human behavior, and the efficiency of economies to adapt to changes in consumer sentiment. In doing so, we examine five key considerations with sustainable investing.

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