| |
Building a
Better America
Corporate Policy on "Staying Positive"
What are American Values?
Building a
Better America
When fifty-six
men signed the Declaration of Independence they pledged
their
fortunes (as evidenced by the last line of that Declaration)
toward the creation of a brave new nation. They knew
there was risk involved, but they were comforted because
they believed they were entrusting themselves and their
fortunes to “Divine Providence”. How wonderfully
ironic; they were not investing for financial reward
yet the return on their investment was much grander
than probably any of them ever would have imagined.
What an inspiring example for us as individual investors.
If our Founding Fathers pledged their worldly possessions
to build America, wouldn’t it be logical that we,
as citizens of the greatest country on earth, would pledge
our investments to build a better America?
We have been “taught” that the most important
questions to ask our stock broker are ones like, “What
will my financial return be?” or “How can
I get the most return for the least amount of risk?”.
These may be reasonable questions, but is there a more
important question to ask, first?
I propose that every investor in America ask himself/herself
and his/her investment professional, “How are my
investments building a better America?” If millions
of Americans who own trillions of dollars worth of stocks
would ask this question America truly would become a
better place.
After this important first question it is understandable
to ask, “What will the investment return be?” Although
our main concern is not investment performance, our experience
and our research has shown there is a good possibility
for reasonable financial returns. A more important benefit,
though, will be the opportunity for all Americans to
live in a better country as investors vote their values
with their investments.
I believe millions of Americans would choose to use their
wealth to build a better America (by investing in companies
that best reflect American values), if they only had
the chance. Our company was formed to give investors
that exciting opportunity.
Carter B. LeCraw
CEO
American Values Investments, Inc.
Back to top
Corporate Policy on
“ Staying Positive”
Little progress can be made by merely attempting to
repress what is evil; our great hope lies in developing
what is good. –
Calvin Coolidge
If you look for the bad in people expecting to find
it, you surely will.
–
Abraham Lincoln
We make a concerted effort to stay positive
and encourage what is good in corporate America. In
keeping with that fundamental objective, it is our
normal company policy to not publicly criticize or
bring to the attention of the public the objectionable
practices of any specific publicly traded company.
Some of our initial research is done to find out if
companies are involved in certain practices or products
which we feel could be harmful to our society. However,
this is a very small part of our research efforts,
and we have chosen, as suggested in the quote above
by former President Calvin Coolidge, to affect change
by encouraging what is good rather than criticizing
what is bad.
We recognize there are things that are objectionable
to us within corporate America and, if given the opportunity,
we might bring these to the attention of the company’s
management, but only in private.
Given our positive focus and our commitment to remain
positive in our comments about companies we do recognize
everyone’s right, including our own, to free
speech. Therefore, we do not restrict what our employees
or others might want to say whether it be negative
or positive, so long as it is within legal bounds.
Furthermore, we reserve the right to speak out publicly
in a negative way if we feel it will be beneficial
to society.
In keeping with this positive policy we will:
1. At our discretion, reveal a listing of some of our
American Hero companies to our clients and certain
other interested parties.
2. Reveal a list of corporate practices we deem to
be exemplary and worthy of commendation.
Carter B. LeCraw
CEO
American Values Investments, Inc.
Back to top
What are American values?
At American Values Investments,
we would like to suggest the adoption of the following
definition of our country’s
values . . .the values of faith, hope and love upon
which America was founded:
- Faith
in God
- Hope for the future, and
- Love for our fellow man
How
can we support and promote America’s values?
- Live them
- Give to organizations that promote them
- Invest in companies that reflect them
Carter B. LeCraw
CEO
American Values Investments, Inc.
Back
to top |
