Well, as we go deep into Winter here in North America, we see some new trends developing, some expected and some not. It’s funny how one event can set off an avalanche of others that can gather momentum until it pulls in massive amounts of time, energy, and especially media attention. And that event appears to be the allegations that surfaced against the media mogul Harvey Weinstein.
We’re now seeing an ever- increasing series of similar accusations, every day, even every hour that is eating up our national attention. Most of these involve well-known personalities in the media, in Hollywood, and in politics, both national and local. Some of the most dramatic are the Kentucky legislator who apparently committed suicide after allegations surfaced claiming he raped a teenage girl in 2013:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/us/kentucky-state-lawmaker-death/index.html,
and this article written in the New York Times by Salma Hayek:
Indeed, newspapers are devoting entire sections to this topic:
http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/sexual-harassment
http://www.nydailynews.com/tags/sexual-harassment/161
A couple of interesting questions that come to mind are: how long will this trend last, how intense will it become, and are there investment opportunities associated with it ?
The only investment issue I could see are those that might be connected to the increased frequency of sexual harrassment/ discrimination related lawsuits that are no doubt coming.
One possible avenue is so-called ‘litigation finance’: that is, companies that loan money to plaintiffs in lawsuits, betting that they’ll win the case and be able to pay back with interest. It’s an intruiging investment idea: the risk is associated with how ‘good’ you think the person’s case is. And it’s a good way to hedge a portfolio, as it’s not tied to the usual metrics like the Fed’s Discount rate, the value of the dollar, gold, major global events, etc. Mighty Group is one such company, as described by a recent article in Forbes:
Dollar Delight 