This week in charts
Quantum computing, meme stocks and non-profitable tech driving YTD performance
Direct lending AUM evolution – U.S. vs. Europe
U.S. business development companies
Source of systemic credit event predictions
Gold
Historical U.S. dollar value in gold terms
Copper supply deficit
Household food consumption
Robotic automation added each year, by country
Glass Lewis to end benchmark voting recommendations on proxy issues
Glass Lewis said it would stop issuing single voting positions on proxy issues and instead offer multiple perspectives to clients, after facing criticism from Republicans over diversity and environmental criteria.
Starting in 2027, Glass Lewis will offer recommendations based on views that are oriented towards management, governance, activism or sustainability.
The firm’s move follows a similar decision by the other major proxy advisory business, Institutional Shareholder Services. Earlier this month, ISS introduced governance research services that do not include voting recommendations and provide customisable data, analysis and recommendations to its clients.
Glass Lewis said one of the primary drivers of the shift was the “growing divergence” between American and European institutional investors who have taken different approaches to fiduciary duty and sustainability. European clients already rely more on thematic policies rather than benchmark views.
Glass Lewis’s new voting practice comes as proxy advisers have become increasingly scrutinised by public companies and Republican officials over prioritising matters related to environmental, social and governance, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Glass Lewis and ISS are both suing Texas over a state law that limits the guidance that proxy advisers can give to shareholders on corporate governance, diversity and environmental practices.
The proxy adviser’s latest move could blunt some of the criticism that it provides “ideologically driven” recommendations as it moves to give clients more choice to vote in line with their own beliefs and priorities.
Glass Lewis already offers custom voting recommendations to clients but ending its benchmark guidance would push all of its customers under a custom framework.
This week’s fun find
Celebrating 10 years of partnership with CIBC Mellon.
The Quest to Save the World’s Rarest Pasta
In October 2021, Canadian chefs Rob Gentile and David Marcelli found themselves in the stark, mountainous countryside of Sardinia, surrounded by sheep. They were following in the footsteps that pilgrims had trodden for more than 300 years in pursuit of a pasta so mythical, so rare, that few have ever had the pleasure of eating it: su filindeu, or “threads of God” in the local Sardo dialect. Although there are currently around 350 recognized shapes of pasta, none are so shrouded in mystery as these ethereal strands. To make them, one must stretch a mass of nothing more than semolina flour, water, and salt into 256 “threads” barely wider than a human hair.
Historically, these labor-intensive noodles were made only twice a year for the Feast of San Francesco. They were reserved for faithful Christians who made the trek from the city of Nuoro to Lula for 20 miles in the dark of night.
For centuries, the art of making su filindeu was passed down through a single matrilineal line. Yet as with so many old traditions, the number of women who possessed this generational knowledge dwindled, until there were, at one point, only three left in the world. Gentile and Marcelli had come to Sardinia to meet Paola Abraini, one of the last masters.
