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Jump to full article: New York Sun, 2008-08-14
Author: JULIE SATOW, Staff Reporter of the Sun
Intro: In a potentially devastating blow to the movement toward "socially responsible" investing, California's public pension fund system is considering reversing its policy of refusing to invest in tobacco companies. The California State Teachers' Retirement System, the nation's third-largest public pension fund with $162 billion in assets, could vote as early as this fall on a plan to start buying tobacco stocks, which it has shunned since 2000.
The $248 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest, is also monitoring the issue. . . .
"Investing in socially responsible stocks just because they are socially responsible is not -- underline not -- a valid investment thesis," a senior investment consultant for the Northern Trust Company, Steven Pines, said.
Socially responsible investing is a $2.71 trillion market, according to the advocacy group Social Investment Forum, but its performance has lagged behind the overall market.
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