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WCM ESG Week — Theme 4: The Business of Human Trafficking

June 17, 2021 / Julie Sorgi

“It’s really important that people begin to understand and have transparency when making purchasing decisions as consumers… what high-risk businesses are. When you are paying X, Y, or Z for a shirt or an outfit, there are people sacrificing their lives to bring it to that cost level.” (Bongiovanni, WCM ESG Week, 2021). In 2016, an estimated 40.3 million people were living in some form of modern slavery, whether through sex or labor trafficking or domestic servitude. Although declared illegal in almost every country, human trafficking or modern slavery persists at deplorable rates, even within developed nations like the United States. No community is immune, and no age, race, gender, or nationality is exempt from being exploited. Traffickers often use violence, manipulation, or false promises of high-paying jobs or romantic relationships to entice victims into trafficking situations. They target vulnerable individuals who may be experiencing economic hardship or emotional or psychological distress, or who may live in areas of natural disaster, political instability, or civil unrest (Homeland Security, 2020). In the United States alone, the FBI estimates over 100,000 children are victims of sex trafficking. Children in the foster care and welfare system are particularly vulnerable due to a lack of family support and stability. 60% of child sex trafficking victims recovered through FBI raids in 2013 were found to be on record in the foster care or group home systems (NFYI, 2015). But, our youth are not the only individuals at risk.

Globally, 46% of human trafficking victims are adult females, 19% young girls, 20% adult males, and 15% young boys. Human trafficking can take on many forms including forced marriages, prostitution, and domestic servitude. Trafficking even infiltrates private and public supply chains through forced labor and debt bondage, many within the sectors of construction, manufacturing, agriculture, mining, fishing, and forestry. Collectively, G20 countries (the intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union aimed at addressing major global issues) are responsible for importing $354 billion worth of at-risk products each year. The top products, by each country according to US dollar value include apparel and clothing accessories, sugar cane, coal, fish, timber, and laptops, computers, and mobile phones. Disappointingly, only seven G20 countries have formally enacted laws, policies, or practices to halt business and government sourcing goods and services produced by forced labor (Global Overview, 2020).

So, what can we do as consumers and investors to ensure that we do not contribute to or support the exploitation of “human capital”? “One of the most important first steps to addressing the problem is discovery and disclosure. Transparency will assist a variety of stakeholders, from customers and business partners to investors and lenders, to make more intelligent decisions about deploying capital. The end goal is to change how companies build those supply chains and wring slavery out of the system” (Sloss, 2019). Tune into our podcast WCM ESG Week Day 4: The Business of Human Trafficking with Michele Bongiovanni of HealRWorld and Distributed Data Network as we discuss the issue of human trafficking, its widespread and fundamentally objectionable consequences, its interwovenness in the Developed West, and what actions are being taken to weed out and eliminate trafficking within our supply chains.

https://nfyi.org/issues/sex-trafficking/

https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/what-human-trafficking

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/glotip.html

https://regenerativeinvestmentstrategies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Citywire-USA-September-2019-Breaking-Free.pdf

https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/

WCM ESG Week — Theme 3: Medical Justice and Access to Healthcare

June 16, 2021 / Julie Sorgi

In 2021 when we think of justice we may think of our court system, the disproportionately high incarceration rates of African Americans and Hispanics, inequalities of pay for women vs men, or a significant lack of funding for minority-owned small businesses amongst financial institutions and investment funds. One theme that may not be at the forefront of our word association is medical or healthcare justice, which refers to the opportunity for all to live a healthful life and access equitable and affordable quality care when it is needed.

In 2015 the United Nations launched the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; a plan of action to address universal peace and prosperity for people and the planet by 2030. In it, the United Nations outlined 17 Sustainable Development Goals to address and measure progress on our world’s most pressing issues threatening a healthy and prosperous future. Goal 3, “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” outlines 13 healthcare targets for equitable global health including reducing maternal mortality rates and ending the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc. (UN SDG, 2015). For a large percentage of the population in the United States, healthcare is an assurance provided by parents, universities, employers or government programs.

However, a study conducted by the Commonwealth Fund in 2020 found that 43.4% of adults aged 19 – 64 were inadequately insured; 9.5% were insured but had a gap in coverage within the last year, 21.3% were fully insured, however out-of-pocket or deductible costs were so high relative to annual income they were considered underinsured, and 12.5% were completely uninsured. Inadequate healthcare coverage exposes individuals and families to high health care costs which often accumulate into medical debt. Among those who reported a medical bill or debt problem, 37% said they had used all of their savings to pay their bills, 40% received a lower credit rating as a result of their medical debt, 31% were forced to transfer medical debt to their credit cards, and one-quarter were unable to pay for basic necessities such as food, heat, or rent (Commonwealth Fund, 2020).

When we consider health and wellness on a global scale, we must consider all the variables that comprise good health including access to quality nutrition, clean water, sanitation facilities and supplies, basic medical services, and education for disease prevention and treatment. 36% of the world’s population, roughly 2.5 billion people, lack access to improved sanitation facilities, putting them at risk of several preventable diseases including dysentery, cholera, and typhoid (WHO, 2015). Furthermore, nutrition-related factors contribute to approximately 45% of deaths in children 5 years and under. Malnourished children have a higher risk of death from common childhood illnesses such as pneumonia and malaria. Children in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 15 times more likely to die before the age of five than children in high income countries. In addition, 94% of all maternal deaths occur in low and lower middle-income countries. In 2017 alone, 810 women died each day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth (UN SDG, 2021). Focusing on what is just in terms of access to basic needs but also access to a clean, safe environment and workplace improves overall wellness and with it productivity and prosperity while reducing the social and economic burdens that come with unwell communities.

Tune into our Wilde Capital Management ESG Week podcast 3: Medical Justice and Access to Healthcare where we discuss the structural challenges to achieving a global basic level of wellness, and how companies both in and out of the broad medical industrial complex can contribute to achieving greater global health with Ingrid Dyott, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Neuberger Berman.

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/aug/looming-crisis-health-coverage-2020-biennial

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241564977

WCM ESG Week — Theme 2: Banking the Un(der)banked

June 15, 2021 / Julie Sorgi

Deposits in the United States are insured by one of two federal agencies: the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the National Credit Union Administration. In the first quarter of 2021, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reported 4,978 current FDIC-insured commercial banking and savings institutions in the United States providing banking and credit services. In addition, the FDIC acts as the federal supervisor to another 3,209 state-chartered banks and savings institutions in the United States that are not members of the Federal Reserve system. These FDIC-insured and supervised institutions serviced in total over $22 trillion in assets as of quarter one 2021 (FDIC, 2021). In the same time frame, the NCUA reported a total of 5,068 federally insured credit unions servicing $1.95 trillion in assets to over 125 million customers (NCUA, 2021). So, what does it mean to be underbanked or unbanked in one of the richest and most prosperous countries in the world?

Every two years since 2009, the FDIC conducts a household survey in cooperation with the U.S. Census Bureau on the use of banking and financial services in the United States. The survey collects responses from approximately 33,000 households to analyze trends in the financial services industry by geographical, demographic, and economic factors. The last survey, conducted in 2019, estimated 5.4% of U.S. households were unbanked, meaning that no household member had a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union. This percentage represents approximately 7.1 million households. Unbanked rates were higher amongst lower-income, less-educated, and Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native households. Among households reported as unbanked, 48.9% cited the reason for not having an account as, “don’t have enough money to meet the minimum balance requirements” (FDIC, 2019). Furthermore, according to a survey conducted in 2019 by the Federal Reserve, an additional 16% of adults are underbanked in the United States, meaning they have a bank account but still use other alternative financial service products such as money orders or pawn shop loans due to lack of affordability or access to traditional and more secure products (Federal Reserve, 2017).

On a global scale, 1.7 billion adults are reported as unbanked in 2017, with China and India accounting for almost 325 million unbanked individuals alone. Women disproportionally represent 56 percent of all unbanked individuals globally (Findex, 2017). Lack of access to traditional banking services hinders individuals’ ability to build emergency funding, execute financial transactions such as paying bills or cashing checks, and results in a lack of access to credit.

Tune into our Wilde Capital Management ESG Week podcast Day 2: Banking the Un(der)banked where we explore financial services trends with Justin Conway, Vice President of Investment Partnerships at Calvert Impact Capital.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2019-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2018-banking-and-credit.htm

https://globalfindex.worldbank.org/sites/globalfindex/files/chapters/2017%20Findex%20full%20report_chapter2.pdf

https://www.ncua.gov/files/publications/analysis/industry-at-a-glance-march-2021.pdf

https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/quarterly-banking-profile/statistics-at-a-glance/2021mar/industry.pdf

WCM Chart of the Week for June 14, 2021

June 14, 2021 / Doug Wilde

Consumers of lumber products may finally see an end to soaring prices. Lumber crack spreads (the difference in prices of finished lumber and raw timber) have been rapidly falling since peaking in early May. Specifically, the measure on this week’s chart uses the CME futures spot rate of random length softwood 2x4s used in construction minus the Timber Mart-South US Louisiana Pine Sawtimber spot rate. Both indices are falling with finished board prices falling at a faster pace.

There are a variety of reasons why finished lumber prices surged, ranging from a beetle infestation in western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest, strong pandemic-stimulated single family housing demand, glue shortages related to the storm-induced petrochemical plant shutdowns in Texas earlier in the year, and a lack of truckers and workers for sawmills. This confluence of events may be playing out in other industries and be part of why the Fed considers rising key consumer and producer prices transitory and not permanent. Nonetheless, inflationary concerns that recently unnerved the capital markets will likely continue to arise for some time to come. [chart courtesy Bloomberg LP © 2021]

WCM ESG Week — Theme 1: Regenerative Agriculture

June 14, 2021 / Julie Sorgi

Between 21–37% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributable to our global food system, from agriculture and land use, storage, transport, packaging, processing, retail, and consumption. As increased GHG levels further accelerate climate change, warming over land is occurring at a rate faster than the global average, with observable impacts on the land system. Traditional agricultural practices and arable land misuse have contributed to the degradation of roughly 75% of the Earth’s land area.

In addition to land degradation, the European Commission Joint Research Centre estimates 36 billion tons of soil is lost every year (Moyer, 2020). Depletion of soil nutrients, due to various natural and anthropogenic activities, affects people and ecosystems throughout the planet, and is both influenced by climate change and contributes to it. Warmer temperatures and changing precipitation patterns alter the beginning and end of growing seasons, contribute to regional crop yield reductions, reduce freshwater availability, and push biodiversity toward an unforgiving cliff (IPCC, 2019).

Recent studies indicate we are facing a biodiversity catastrophe, with 1,000,000 species at significant risk of extinction due to the climate crisis and habitat loss (Moyer, 2020). The frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events have also increased due to global warming and will continue to increase under medium and high emission scenarios (IPCC, 2019).

That is not to say that all hope is lost. Amid an abundance of dismal facts and figures, our species maintains both the responsibility and the capacity to discontinue extractive and degrading land use practices and implement large scale restorative and sustainable processes. Regenerative agriculture is a systems approach to farming that builds soil health by supporting biodiversity to return carbon and nutrients back to the soil. It is a holistic land use practice that can involve diversifying crop rotations, planting cover crops, green manures and perennials, retaining crop residues, using natural sources of fertilizer such as compost, employing highly managed grazing and/or integrating crops and livestock, reducing tillage frequency and depth, and eliminating synthetic chemicals (Moyer, 2020). Agro-ecology systems (systems that incorporate natural ecological processes with agricultural production) have many rewards to society, including increases in local income and nutrition, as well as a drawdown of CO₂ back into the soil (Chainlink, 2021). Regenerative agriculture focuses not only on reducing the carbon footprint and ensuring sustainability, but also on going beyond conventional practices to reverse the effects and progression of climate change. Indigenous and local ecological knowledge often contribute to the development of restorative agricultural practices and can enhance resilience against climate change and reduce land misuse (Moyer, 2020).

Tune into our Wilde Capital Management ESG Week podcast: Day 1 – Regenerative Agriculture to learn more. In this interview with Marc Ian Barasch, author and filmmaker, we discuss the ideas behind applying regenerative principles to the business of agriculture, providing for greater abundance for a population of nearly 8 billion people, caring for climate, water, and other systems that are failing as we speak.

https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/4/2020/07/03_Technical-Summary-TS_V2.pdf

https://rodaleinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Rodale-Soil-Carbon-White-Paper_v11-compressed.pdf

https://blog.chain.link/reversing-climate-change-how-hybrid-smart-contracts-incentivize-regenerative-agriculture/

WCM Chart of the Week for June 8, 2021 — UN World Oceans Day

June 8, 2021 / Mark Sloss

We held this week’s chart until today to coincide with UN World Oceans Day, which lines up well with SDG 14 Life Below Water as well as several other SDGs relating to climate, food and waste. The chart comes from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN’s 3^rd assessment of global marine fisheries discards (2019), illustrating the thousands of metric kilotonnes of discard by ocean region. Although with a variety of supervisory regimes and certifications and consumer scrutiny the amount of discard and bycatch in commercial fishing is believed to be on the decline, the reality is that the overall annual volume is still alarmingly high. From bottom-feeders to apex predators, the incidental injury to or death of sea animals is not only cruel, it risks destabilizing a critical part of the global food system for humans and irreversibly disrupting an essential part of the global climate system. Consumers and companies can and should continue to exert pressure on seafood businesses to improve the sustainability of their supply chains because it is good for people, planet AND profit. #worldoceansday #bycatch #SDG14

WCM Chart of the Week for June 1, 2021

June 2, 2021 / Doug Wilde

On Monday, China’s Politburo, the CCP’s top decision-making body, announced that all married couples could have up to three children along with expanded government support for child rearing and education. It is widely speculated that this is driven by deteriorating demographics in China. In this week’s chart we observe the continued and accelerating upward trend in the 65+ age group versus China’s total population. The Wall Street Journal reported that the prime working age population (citizens between the ages of 15 and 59) has declined from 70.1% in 2010 to 63.35% in 2020. Age distribution is critical to economic vitality and notoriously difficult to alter and in China, the one child policy that was lifted in 2016 may have created a new norm because it lasted so long. The effect may be a permanently lowered replacement rate. We can’t help but find it ironic that the directive comes from the Politburo which is dominated by 60+ year old men (we could only find one female on its current roster). Another significant point that Peter Orszag, a widely respected former Washington budget official, notes in his Bloomberg opinion piece of May 11th, a declining Chinese population could mean lower carbon emissions, which is material since China’s total carbon footprint exceeds that of the entire OECD combined (27% of global GhGs). [chart courtesy Bloomberg LP © 2021]

WCM Chart of the Week for May 25, 2021

May 26, 2021 / Doug Wilde

The US Fed and European Central Bank (ECB) continue to pursue aggressive quantitative easing while the two dominant Asian central banks, the Bank of Japan and the People’s Bank of China, have slowed their securities purchases so far this year. The ECB’s activity is of particular interest, not only because of the size of the balance sheet ($9.2T, €7.6T), but the pace that it has expanded over the course of the past year. The ECB’s monetary support continues at a critical time as the EU economy appears to be emerging from the pandemic-induced slump. Lock downs are slowly being lifted and infection rates are plunging from the March and April spikes. Another promising (gradual) trend emerging is in sovereign interest rates in the region, which appears to be an indication of stronger economic activity in the months ahead. [chart courtesy Bloomberg LP (c) 2021]

WCM announces ESG Week — June 14 – 18, 2021

May 19, 2021 / Mark Sloss

5 days. 5 topics. All ESG. How do we take steps toward a more prosperous, just and regenerative world? WCM ESG Week coming June 14 – 18, 2021. (1) Banking the Un/der Banked; (2) The Business of Human Trafficking; (3) Medical Justice and Access to Healthcare; (4) Regenerative Agriculture; (5) Climate Justice.

Watch our introductory video here, and follow us for more details to come on the week and each theme.

WCM Chart of the Week for May 17, 2021

May 17, 2021 / Doug Wilde

According to the US Federal Reserve, growth in the money supply, widely described as M2, peaked at nearly 27% at February’s month end reading and as of March it registered a 24% annual clip. To place those figures in context, the pre-pandemic average annual growth rate of M2 over the preceding 20 years [February 2000 – February 2020] was 6.1% according to Fed data. The previous peaks in M2 growth never surpassed 10.3%. Put another way, the entire US money supply, from the birth of our nation to now, expanded by around 25% in the past year alone.

This tremendous amount of additional liquidity is tied to quantitative easing and the numerous fiscal stimulus plans that have delivered direct payments to individuals and families that, for the most part, landed in bank deposit accounts. Commercial Bank Liabilities, the equivalent of consumer deposits, have swelled some 26% since the beginning of the pandemic, indicating that stimulus recipients have fortified savings as opposed to increasing spending. The good news is that consumers are in better shape than they have been in several years. The bad news, if it can be considered that way, is that there is likely pent-up demand that could ultimately fuel inflationary concerns.

The most recent annual headline inflation figure (CPI) reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for April was 4.2%, well above the consensus of 3.6% and over two times the Fed’s target rate. Our main concern is whether the recent upward trend in prices is reflationary or a more enduring inflationary trend. The Fed has stated that it considers current price conditions to be “transitory” and thus falling into the reflationary category. [chart courtesy Bloomberg LP © 2021]

Wilde Capital Management