Friday, April 10, 2009

Beat the Market - Invest With Jesus?

Looks like "investing in sin" - liquor companies, casinos, businesses involved with abortion activists, cigarette producers, porno sites - doesn't pay after all. Or at the very least, the sin market bubbles, much like housing, the internet, and any other commodity.

Interesting. If we can't count on Americans to sin, what can we count on? How about virtue? It's not making a ton of money either, but it's beating the crap out of the market:

...the Ave Maria suite of mutual funds, which invest only in companies that comply with certain Roman Catholic values, have done better. The Ave Maria Growth Fund is only down 33%. It's beaten Vice by nine points and the S&P by five.

As for the Ave Maria funds: These were launched earlier this decade by Schwartz Investment Counsel, and they are Catholic not in what they own but in what they avoid. The funds eschew stocks that breach a variety of precepts, mostly around things like involvement in abortion or giving money to Planned Parenthood.
The irony? Their rules have steered them clear of such disasters as
AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup and General Motors.

...the real standout in the group is the Ave Maria Growth Fund, which is managed by stock market veteran Jim Bashaw at JLB & Associates. Not only has it beaten Wall Street handily in the past year, but it has done so by a wide margin since it was launched about six years ago. During that time investors have made about 23%, compared to average losses of about 7% in the S&P 500.

Our Good Friday lesson? Don't be a skeptic. Sin may be good for a few quick bucks, but eternal returns seem more likely if you invest with God. Morality pays in the long run, as long as one has faith and patience.

As for the skeptics, like Chuck Schumer, seen here mocking "traditional values" (scare quotes his, see the video)? The value system he follows have already left him spiritually bankrupt. What further evidence do you need?

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