Saker Nusseibeh: The ESG debate is guilty of muddled thinking

In a 2017 paper, I argued that the understanding of investment theory then - which seemed to frame the financial world as being almost entirely separate from the real world inhabited by ordinary investors and beneficiaries - was a significant factor that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Scroll forward a few years and ESG investing has exploded into mainstream asset management. In that sense, the responsible investing approach long advocated by myself and a handful of others has, I'm glad to say, been adopted. The industry has landed on an approach advocated by the 'Father o...