Who pays ESG Hound?

The answer will shock and amaze

May 01, 2023

I’ve gotten wind that several space journalists are asking around about “who” pays that ESG Hound guy. Since I guess this is seriously a thing now, here’s the part where I admit that all of my work over the past 18 months was funded by one Jeffrey Bezos as part of a cunning plan to delegitimize the greatest Space company in history.

I’m kidding, of course. But it is time I updated my financial disclosure statement. I left my job in the petrochemical industry at the end of last year to move into consulting, training, writing, and, most importantly: spending more time at home with my family. I am now spending the bulk of my days doing contracted equity-specific research for a small, private hedge fund.

It’s a great opportunity, but whereas my finances were quite simple before, now I potentially have conflicts of interest. So here goes:

ESG Hound Financial Disclosure

I have never, and will never, take money from a company to criticize an industry competitor
I hold a bulk of my personal and retirement funds in boring mutual funds and index ETFs.
I have no individual position, long or short, in any aerospace company, any chemical company, or any oil company.
I had no equity position, long or short, in any specific company I’ve written about to date at the time of publication. Should this ever change in the future, I will disclose it prominently.
I will never take money to promote something (a product, a company) without disclosing that I am receiving compensation.
My income is partially dependent on returns from other investors. I do not make investing decisions. I provide research. Any conflicts will be disclosed.

With that out of the way, I am finally ready to pull the band-aid off and drop a paywall on this site. This is a way for me to justify spending more time on regular updates and posts. Also, it turns out that paying for your own health insurance out of pocket sucks!!!

But have no fear! Stuff like the SpaceX research, work I consider to be vital for the public to be aware of: I do not intend to ever put behind a paywall. The wonky stuff, discussions of policy and regulation, is more likely to be paid subscriber-only.