A Better Order

A reader responds:
Thank you for having written as you have. My dad, in the Great Depression, used his job loss as a printer in a minor newspaper, to go to Cornell University, and then to Columbia University, to become a physician. The Depression was the best thing in his life, because it forced [...]

By Greg Moses
According to Kantian ethical principles what counts is good will. This means that one acts in accordance with principles that can be willed as universal principles (the categorical imperative). For Kant, there is no moral content in actions that are based upon some estimation of return (hypothetical imperatives). So I [...]

By Greg Moses
As the introductory article at Seeking Alpha warns, Islamic investing is not always about selecting companies that purport to be be Islamic or that do business in predominantly Islamic markets.
In the case of a new Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) offered by Javelin Exchange Traded Shares (JETS) and known as the JETS [...]

By Greg Moses
“TIAA-CREF serves 3.6 million active and retired employees participating in more than 27,000 retirement plans and has $363 billion in combined assets under management (as of 12/31/08),” says the official website at tiaa-cref.org.
There are two “social choice” products offered by TIAA-CREF. First is the CREF Social Choice Variable Annuity founded on March [...]

According to the Green Century Equity Fund (GCEQX) profile at Yahoo Finance, the fund’s date of inception was Sept. 13, 1995.
“The Fund seeks to achieve its objective by investing in the stocks which make up the Domini 400 Social Index (the KLD 400 Index),” says the 2-page Fund Brief posted at greencentury.com.
For more info on [...]

Summary: KLD excludes tobacco. DSI excludes tobacco, alcohol, firearms, military weapons, gambling, and nuclear power.
By Greg Moses
According to background materials posted at Domini.Com, the first “social index” for investors was rolled out in 1990 by Amy Domini and her partners, Peter Kinder and Steve Lydenberg.
The Domini 400 Social Index was “an index [...]