Monday, October 15, 2012

Do your consumer / investor choices reflect your political choices?

Here is another interesting way to think about the presidential race. Given the influence of money in the race (leaving aside for the moment the topic of whether it is a good thing or not), it might make sense to look at which companies are donating to which campaigns. Motif Investing (https://www.motifinvesting.com/) has created indexes based on the stocks of companies who have donated more than 50% of their total donation to one or the the party. You can either think of this as "which companies' products do I prefer" or "which companies' stock would I buy" and then see if your consumer/investor choices agree with your vote (or, alternatively, do the reverse i.e. vote for the party where your money is going. Or adjust your consumer / investor choices accordingly.  Having this sort of disclosure, and user-friendly tools to help people make more meaningful choices based on that, are all good things.