The motto of the socially responsible investing (SRI) movement is “doing well by doing good.” But what does it mean to invest responsibly in the real world? To help answer this question, labor economist Randy Barber joins GIW to provide a historical review of the rise of SRI-targeted investments and explain how trustees and investors can put their money to work in a way that will benefit the larger society without compromising investment returns.

Since 1977, Randy has been the president of the Center for Economic Organizing in Washington D.C. which provides strategic financial consulting services to a range of labor union and public sector clients. He co-authored the influential 1978 book The North Will Rise Again: Pensions, Politics and Power in the 1980s and was named in 2004 by Pensions & Investments magazine as one of the 30 most influential people in the pension industry since the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974.

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Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard President Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and various lawmakers declare that the root cause of the current financial crisis stems from illiquid assets related to mortgage-backed securities. But what does this really mean? And how can this “radioactive waste” be purged from the balance sheets of financial institutions holding these toxic securities.

John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, responded to the original version of the bailout by describing it as “dangerous and ill-conceived.” Critics of the original proposal emphasize that the final plan must include limitations on executive pay and improved governance of public companies, taxpayer equity in distressed companies, independent Congressional oversight and a stimulus package designed to create more jobs.

Will the final $700 billion bailout plan resolve the fundamental cause of the crisis? What should the future relationship be between lawmakers in Washington DC and bankers on Wall Street? And how will the crisis impact the Presidential election? Dan Pedrotty, Director of the AFL-CIO’s Office of Investment, joins us to answer these questions and more.

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This is an interview with Adam Sterling, the Director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force. In this interview, Adam gives us an update on the current situation in the Sudan as well as a review of the latest report from the SDTF on companies doing business in that country.

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Mainstream investors for the first time are beginning to assess labor and human rights factors as a way of increasing returns and lowering risk, according to a study released today by Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program (LWP). “Incorporating Human and Labor Rights Risk into Investment Decisions” says a growing number of institutional investors and global lenders are widening conventional investment decision-making to incorporate assessments of the long-term sustainability risks posed by corporate labor and human rights practices. Pioneers in the field include leading European and U.S. pension funds as well as financial firms such as Goldman Sachs and Mercer.

The editor of our companion blog, Governance Notes, has recently conducted an interview with Aaron Bernstein, the principal author of this study. You can listen to the interview here.

In addition, you can read or download a copy of the report here.

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Robert Roach, General Vice President of Transportation at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), discusses his union’s public opposition to the Delta-Northwest merger. In two letters sent to shareholders, the IAM raised several concerns regarding the combination, citing the impact to consumers by higher fares and poor customer service, questionable cost synergies, termination of pension and health benefits for Northwest workers and management’s understatement of the significant challenges involved in integrating the two large carriers.

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In this, my first podcast, I am interviewing Rob Kellogg, my colleague at JMR Portfolio Intelligence and the editor of the GIW companion blog, GovernanceNotes.com. In this podcast, we discuss the resources available for shareholders using GovernanceNotes as a tool for proxy voting.

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