Our Solari Report this week features “Local Investing” with Michael H. Shuman. Local investments are uses of money that make communities, people, and ultimately the country more productive. Prison investments, in contrast, are an example of investment strategies that fund the decrease of productivity. Some would call this “cognitive dissonance.”

Our Blast from the Past is a letter Catherine wrote in 1999 to the New York Times about private prison investments. Through the introduction of new laws and prison sentences, the government had made sure that there would be more prisoners—and with them more prison profits. In terms of productivity, what’s the investment strategy? Is one part of the portfolio destroying the value of other parts of the portfolio?

Prison Investment

For related reading, please take a look at Catherine’s online book, Dillon Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits.