Terror-free investing
Terror-free investing describes an investment strategy which seeks to maximize financial return while assuring investors that the financial instruments in the portfolio are "terror-free".[1][2][3][4]
The Center for Security Policy, a Washington-based neoconservative think tank, is a major force behind the movement. "Terror-free investment is a train that we believe is picking up steam," according to Frank Gaffney, Jr., a Reagan-era Defense Department official, and president of the Center for Security Policy. Gaffney claims that one fifth of the portfolios of the largest American pension funds are in companies doing business in countries listed by the US as state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria.[5]
The Global Security Risk Monitor of the Conflict Securities Advisory Group is a research group established to attract clients interested in "Terror-Free Investing," by assuring them that none of their investments will aid groups or states that are considered by the US as sponsors of terrorism.[6]
Eighteen American states have passed laws requiring the divestment of state pension funds from firms doing business with Iran,[7] due in part to accusations that Iran supports terrorist organizations, and partially due to its controversial nuclear program.
See also
- Socially responsible investing
- Definition of terrorism
- List of designated terrorist organizations
- U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations
- State Sponsors of Terrorism
References
- ^ 'Terror-free' investing gains ground in US; Howard LaFranchi Christian Science Monitor, March 26, 2007, [1]
- ^ Increasingly, individuals get into terror-free investing; Some financial-services companies have taken a while to realize there is demand for such an option, Christian Science Monitor, October 15, 2007, [2]
- ^ Investors avoid stocks with connections to rogue nations, Elizabeth Lazarowitz, Daily News, October 8th 2007 [3]
- ^ Terror-free investing keeps money out of companies that do business with rogue states, E. B. Solomont, Oct. 27, 2009, Jerusalem Post, [4]
- ^ 'Terror-free' investing gains ground in US; Howard LaFranchi Christian Science Monitor, March 26, 2007, [5]
- ^ The Pension Fund Attack On Iran, Niv Elis, 10.16.09, Forbes
- ^ The Pension Fund Attack On Iran, Niv Elis, 10.16.09, Forbes