News Archives » Economic Justice
Seamus Finn, OMI on Nightly Business Report: Discusses Impact of Derivatives on the Poor June 7th, 2010
Fr. Seamus Finn’s work on derivatives is profiled on PBS’s Nightly Business Report.
Watch the Nightly Business Report from June 7, 2010…
How does
the financial system affect the poorest of the poor? Watch the June 7th issue of the Nightly Business Report for a segment on faith-based investors and efforts to rein in the derivatives market – a cause of the recent instability that has affected nearly everyone.
In an interview with Darren Gersh, Seamus Finn, OMI clearly draws the connections between decisions made by bankers and the lives of the poor. Fr. Finn talks about the need for greater disclosure of derivative risk – disclosure that a significant number of other shareholders have favored in recent Resolutions with Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. Up next is legislation on Capitol Hill that could force banks to spin off their derivatives business.
Watch the Nightly Business Report from June 7, 2010 on Vimeo…
Seamus Finn, OMI and Faith Consistent Investing Profiled in the Huffington Post May 27th, 2010
Fr. Seamus Finn, Director of the Oblate JPIC Office, along with three other ICCR members, will soon appear on The Daily Show, highlighting their work on banking and financial sector reform. Read this fine profile on Fr. Seamus in the Huffington Post written by Katherine Marshall, Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University: Mission Improbable: Priests on Wall Street.
Voting Your Proxy May 17th, 2010
Do you hold stock in publicly owned corporations? If so, you should receive information from those companies prior to their Annual General Meetings (AGM) with a proxy ballot enclosed. Bolster democracy in the Boardroom – join with others and support corporate change you care about.
Learn more in the Faith Responsible Investment section of this website…
Senate Urged to Include Derivatives Regulation in Financial Reform Bill April 25th, 2010
The Oblates joined a broad array of groups concerned about commodity speculation in urging the inclusion of a bill regulating derivatives in the larger Senate financial reform legislation being debated this week. Specifically, the groups are asking that the “Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act” (reported out of the Agriculture Committee on Wednesday by a bipartisan vote), be incorporated into the “American Financial Stability Act” (S.3217) – otherwise known as the comprehensive “Wall Street Reform” bill.
The Missionary Oblates signed a letter generated by the Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition, an informal alliance of industry groups, consumer advocates and academics, representing commodity producers, processors, distributors, retailers, and residential, commercial and industrial end-users. The signatories believe that policy in the commodity trading markets should aim to strengthen oversight, transparency and stability, and to address inadequacies in the existing derivatives markets, both regulated and over-the-counter. As faith-based shareholders, the Missionary Oblates have been pressing for better management of derivatives in discussions with the financial services sector for a number of years.
Read the letter… (Download PDF)
US JPIC Committee, Oblate Students Attend JPIC, VIVAT and AFJN Meetings in Washington April 22nd, 2010
The US JPIC Committee and the JPIC staff met in Washington, DC from April 14 through the 15th to discuss the JPIC policies and priorities.
Nearly all of the Committee members were able to stay to attend 
a meeting on Friday and Saturday that introduced VIVAT International to North American members of the association. VIVAT is an advocacy effort at the United Nations. The Oblates are presently Associate 
Members , with Daniel LeBlanc, OMI working closely with the group.
Several Oblate students from Zambia then arrived on Friday for the weekend meeting of the Africa Faith and Justice 
Network.
