6/5/2015: Norway drops coal stocks from endowment portfolio
Investors who are are investing in sanlam shares, Facebook shares, or in fact any shares will probably be familiar with certain companies dropping stock every so often. This is a common occurrence on the stock market and is something that happens when businesses make company changes or perhaps companies are competing with one another. Some investors can invest in various stocks whereas others may choose to invest in specific niches, such as environmental. First-time stock buyers may find it difficult to know which stock would be best for them to buy into, so a speculation period (Spekulationsfrist bei Aktien) may be implemented beforehand to see about profits and prices in the hope that they make the right choice.
I’m no environmental economics professor, but it seems like the UO Foundation’s Paul Weinhold and Jay Namyet might want to try and get in front of this trend, if only to maximize investment returns:
Norway’s $890 billion government pension fund, considered the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, will sell off many of its investments related to coal, making it the biggest institution yet to join a growing international movement to abandon at least some fossil fuel stocks.
Whoops, too late, that report is in the NYT here, and long since priced in:
If only Weinhold and Namyet had listened to UO’s students last year:
5/7/2014: Stanford drops coal stocks from endowment portfolio You can create your own stock portfolio by subscribing to a Stocktrades package. There are many other benefits too!
In the NYT, here. The UO student government has asked the UO Foundation to do the same, but has been rebuffed:
To [UO Foundation CEO Paul Weinhold], divestment from fossil fuel holdings in the midst of a carbon fuel-based economy sounds a little silly.
‘The Foundation has only about 1 percent of its holdings in fossil fuels, said Paul Weinhold, president and chief executive officer, adding, “I don’t see this as an issue at all, frankly.” ‘
Probably the second* weakest argument in the history of our species: “The impact of this policy is so small that you shouldn’t be concerned with it in the first place. But it’s important enough to me that I refuse to change it”.
*First, I would say, is: “because that’s way it has always been.”
The OSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution calling on the OSU foundation to similarly divest in December last year.
Resolution
Debate
Let me guess: UO Foundation probably holds coal mining and cigarette company stocks as well.
To the editor: Your sentence at the top of this story is confusing. Please fix.
I guess when your major natural resource is oil, as with Norway, you can afford to sell coal after the price has collapsed, rather than before. Peabody Coal looks like a future buying opportunity.
I’ll believe UO faculty on fossil fuels when the SUV’s in the faculty parking lots stop getting fatter. Oh, and when I stop running into friends at the airport on the way to conferences and swell vacations.
Has anyone noticed how hard it is to squeeze into some of the parking spaces?
I wouldn’t, I do notice how my office barely holds my bike and two students.
I wouldn’t, I do notice how I’m spending more on shoes than on gas.
I walk a lot too. But hard not to notice certain things, like all the big snazzy metal, friends have noticed too. Some things speak louder than senate resolutions.
The UO University Senate also passed a divestment resolution this year. According to Scott Coltrane’s report to the Senate, Paul Weinhold responded “Meh”, or a word to that effect.
I think we should be encouraging investment too. The marijuana industry is going to be way undercapitalized. Huge growth opportunity.