flâneur

I'm basically fine with investing in evil - The GiveWell Blog

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I have plenty more ranting to do on the Straw Ratio, but apparently blogs are supposed to discuss current events or something, and the big story in charity blogging (yeah, charity blogging is a thing–I knew it wasn’t going to take much more time to get going than food blogging) is “social investing.” Specifically, the LA Times articles that accuse the Gates Foundation of contradicting good works with evil investments. Here’s my summary of the debate: some people are upset that the Gates Foundation isn’t going to make any changes, and others claim that a foundation can’t make these kinds of “judgment calls” (which seems like a bizarre claim to me–what exactly are they supposed to be doing in picking grant recipients?) The first thing I want to point out, which I haven’t seen acknowledged enough, is how extremely, extremely minor the impact of a foundation’s investing decisions are on the companies it invests in. It’s one thing if it’s doing private equity and helping a startup, shoestri

This post is more than 19 years old I have plenty more ranting to do on the Straw Ratio , but apparently blogs are supposed to discuss current events or something, and the big story in charity blogging (yeah, charity blogging is a thing–I knew it wasn’t going to take much more time to get going than food blogging ) is “social investing.” Specifically, the LA Times articles that accuse the Gates Foundation of contradicting good works with evil investments. Here’s my summary of the debate: some people are upset that the Gates Foundation isn’t going to make any

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