New Hollywood blockbuster depicts a triumph for savvy retail investors but it’s just the beginning

Sept. 20, Christina Sautter, professor of law at Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, along with co-author Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci (University of Missouri KC), for a piece advocating for retail investors and encouraging them to use their influence by voting their stock. Published in Fox Business under the heading New Hollywood blockbuster depicts a triumph for savvy retail investors but it’s just the beginning: https://tinyurl.com/yx2hb73p

When you watch the movie “Dumb Money,” you realize people now have the unprecedented power to take back the corporate sector. The movie, which opened nationwide Sept. 15, ends with a clear statement: the movement to take on Wall Street has just begun. But the power of the movement goes much further.

The film takes its name from Wall Street’s belittling term for retail investors, who do not have the resources to analyze stocks as do institutional investors. There is nothing dumb about investing money in company shares and then exercising the additional benefit of voting those shares via proxy. That amounts to a retail investor superpower.

Continue reading “New Hollywood blockbuster depicts a triumph for savvy retail investors but it’s just the beginning”

Carbon taxes better than assigning artificial political risk

June 25, Michael Davis, economics professor at SMU Dallas Cox School of Business, for a piece recommending that green energy advocates would be better served by pursuing carbon tax policy than by calling for higher oil prices to combat fossil fuels. Published in the Orange County Register with the headline: Carbon taxes better than assigning artificial political risk: https://bit.ly/3B4nP0u

“Some investors are wagering that Wall Street’s preference for green energy will depress spending on oil extraction, setting the stage for supply shortages and higher fuel prices.” Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2021Wait, what? Oil prices are shooting up and likely to stay up, but “Wall Street’s preference for green energy” will depress spending on oil extraction?

Big if true.

And also more than a little weird. Investors tend to be a self-interested group. If there’s money to be made, they will try to make it. There’s a reason the fictional Gordon “Greed is good” Gekko owned an investment fund and not a chain of Burger Kings. If in normal times the price of a key commodity like oil went up, the Wolves of Wallstreet would be happy to supply the industry with loads of cash.

Continue reading “Carbon taxes better than assigning artificial political risk”