ABSTRACT
Arguing that Modern Portfolio Theory is artificial in viewing investing as disjointed from the causes of value creation can be seen as innovative, but it reflects classical economics’ concern with the feedback loops that affect economic decision-making. The chapter begins with how five economists – Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, and Milton Friedman – allowed for robust real-world feedback loops. The authors then examine how risks and opportunities become financially material. They argue that materiality is not a “state of being” but a “state of becoming”; norms evolve in a “Values to value” progression. They then explore the how some jurisdictions define materiality to be singularly related to the potential impact on an individual company, even though the vast majority of investors are broadly diversified. Other jurisdictions define a system of “dual materiality” to include corporate-specific impacts, as well as those that affect the environmental, societal, and financial systems on which the capital markets rely. The chapter ends with a signature exploration of “extended risk” and “extended intermediation,” defined as considering the conditions in which financial returns will be expended and the result of intermediation on the providers and users of capital.
