Greed is good

Posted by Nixon on May 8th, 2008 filed in News

Starting with the theme AnythingVice is good, then, greed, for lack of a better word, is good

And if greed is good, then making money through investing is good. Problem is, there is a preponderance of “social” investing vehicles, which are differentiated from most investment vehicles in that they are not set up to make money, but to make the investor feel good. Most do not actually make people money at all!

Socialfunds.com gives hints on socially responsible investing, Socialinvest.org is advancing socially and environmentally responsible investing, you can’t look at a list of mutual funds without finding investments that make a difference like Calvert’s Socially Responsible Mutual Funds. But when investing, is being “socially conscious” your number one priority? Wouldn’t you like to make some money? Given that most “social investments” trailed the S&P 500 return significantly over the past year, there must be a better way.

Perhaps, if you subscribe to the greed is good theory, you should be looking at alternative investments such as the Vice Fund, which invests in companies, both domestic and foreign, engaged in the aerospace and defense industries, owners and operators of casinos and gaming facilities, manufacturers of gaming equipment such as slot machines, manufacturers of cigarettes and other tobacco products, and brewers, distillers, vintners and producers of other alcoholic beverages. The Vice Fund returned 4.4% last year and would have been beaten by only 1 out of 34 socially responsible investments listed on socialinvest.org. Charts don’t lie: