Green Transitions Scoreboard – April 2015 – Just in time for Earth Day!

Jay OwenGreen Prosperity, Trendspotting

Earth Day 2015 marks $6.22 trillion invested in the global green transition since 2007. This meets our Green Transition Scoreboard® (GTS) goal of $10 trillion privately invested in the green economy by 2020, easily on track to reach the 2020 goal to effectively scale innovations and reduce costs in green …

The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments by Ellen Brown Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? (See January …

China’s Trina Solar goes for a convertible solar bond: US$100m, 5yr, 4% coupon. It’s a challenging market environment for solar but the bonds keep coming.

Jay OwenGreen Prosperity

China’s Trina Solar is issuing US$100m of convertible bonds with 5-year tenor and 4% annual coupon, with semi-annual payments. An extra US$15m could be raised, as Trina has given the underwriters a 1-month window to buy additional bonds. Guess they are waiting to gauge demand. Underwriters are Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and Credit Suisse, with Roth Capital Partners as …

Colonization by Bankruptcy: The High-stakes Chess Match for Argentina

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

Ethical Markets  agrees with Ellen Brown that Argentina is right  to  resist the US court decision which tried to  force an involuntary default , by transferring the trustee for payment  from Bank  of New York Mellon to  Argentina’s own central bank.  The idea of an  international bankruptcy court , under …

Cry for Argentina: Fiscal Mismanagement or Pillage?

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance

Argentina has now taken the US to The Hague for blocking the country’s 2005 settlement with the bulk of its creditors. The issue underscores the need for an international mechanism for nations to go bankrupt. Better yet would be a sustainable global monetary scheme that avoids the need for sovereign …

PRI in Person conference in Montréal 24-26 September.

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance, Beyond GDP

JOIN US AT PRI IN PERSON IN MONTRÉAL I would personally like to invite you to this year’s PRI in Person conference in Montréal 24-26 September. As part of a whole week of responsible investment events in Montréal, PRI in Person is our annual conference and the responsible investment event …

GREEN BONDS MARKET OUTLOOK 2014

Jay OwenGreen Prosperity

  GREEN BONDS MARKET OUTLOOK 2014 The green bonds universe is growing by leaps and bounds with over $20 billion inissuance so far this year. Bloomberg New Energy Finance research provides the most objective insights into the broadest universe of environmental opportunities in the bond markets. To see the latest …

Taiwan’s ASE issues Asia’s first corporate green bond – $300m, BBB, 6yrs – and it’s SIX times oversubscribed!! Asian green bonds may be about to blast off.

Jay OwenGreen Prosperity

I’m in Cambodia, visiting the amazing Ankgor Wat, ancient religious centre of a city that apparently had a population of half a million people(link is external) in 1200 AD.  The temple’s bas-reliefs(link is external) are full of triumphal armies, marching through exquisite carvings of trees and forests. They liked their green. We haven’t yet …