In this episode, Chad Reed and Jeff Eckel sit down with Jeff Hooke, senior finance lecturer at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business and acclaimed author, to discuss his new book, The Myth of Private Equity, An inside Look at Wall Street’s Transformative Investments.

Jeff dives deep into his thesis that certain private equity funds aren’t nearly as successful as they claim to be and that, as a result, many of their investors, including the pension funds of public employees, are subject to more risk than they think—with taxpayers potentially and ultimately on the hook for unexpected underperformance. Jeff also explores a similar dynamic plaguing the ESG investment space.

While more financially focused than many other Climate Positive episodes, we chose to focus on this topic as we believe it is of increasing importance to both taxpayers and investors—including anyone with retirement savings—as we all look to put our dollars into investments that are both profitable and climate positive. 

Links

• The Myth of Private Equity: An Inside Look at Wall Street’s Transformative Investments
• Washington Post: Maryland is wasting its pensioners’ money
• Jeff Hooke Bio

Episode recorded: February 7, 2022

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Email your feedback to Chad, Gil, Hilary, and Guy at climatepositive@hasi.com or tweet them to @ClimatePosiPod.