The fiduciary duty of any corporate officer is to do what’s best for the company. That doesn’t always mean they must maximize short term profits, a colossual mistake demonstrated by many financial firms this past decade (tell me about the fiduciary duties of the CEOs of Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG, BofA, Citi, etc., all of whom booked short term profits that were imaginary in the long term). No actions by a corporation get executed in a vacuum – they must consider all second order effects of their decisions, and how customers respond to corporations’ behavior can not be ignored.

And if you’re thinking of questioning my classification of MTR companies as parasites, don’t. A parasite is an organism that feeds off a larger one, while giving nothing in return, often to the detriment of the host organism. That is exactly what companies like Massey are – they destroy streams, rivers, lakes, mountains, and communities, to extract a product that then distributes mercury and various forms of carbon into the atmosphere, all at great cost to the rest of society, while they get enriched. That’s a parasite, and aiding and abetting such a company is not in the fiduciary interests of JPM.

The fiduciary duty of any corporate officer is to do what’s best for the company. That doesn’t always mean they must maximize short term profits, a colossual mistake demonstrated by many financial firms this past decade (tell me about the fiduciary duties of the CEOs of Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG< BofA, Citi, etc). No actions by a corporation get executed in a vacuum – they must consider all second order effects of their decisions.

And if you're thinking of questioning my classification of MTR companies as parasites, don't. A parasite is an organism that feeds off a larger one, while giving nothing in return, often to the detriment of the host organism. That is exactly what companies like Massey are – they destroy streams, rivers, lakes, mountains, and communities, sell a product that then distributes mercury and various forms of carbon into the atmosphere, all at great cost to the rest of society, while they get enriched. That's a parasite, and aiding and abetting such a company is not in the fiduciary interests of JPM.

Why is it NOT JPM’s job to facilitate such activity, if it earns them a good return on their loan? Again, JP Morgan is not on this earth to make loans to ethical or environmentally responsible businesses, it’s here to make profitable loans (at least in the short term, until they blow up). They have absolutely no obligation to make a distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ activities of potential customers.

That’s how we set up the system. To come in and demand that banks suddenly act in responsible ways, when we didn’t, haven’t, and not looking likely to put in place, incentives and punishments for them to act in responsible ways, is simply wishful thinking!

It’s like me getting mad at my friends who regularly buy bottled water. Well, it’s cheap and convenient, so why shouldn’t she buy it? If we really want to discourage people from buying bottled water, we need to set up a system so bottled water become so expensive monetarily or so despicable socially that people like my friend stop. To simply blame my friend for being indifferent to the environment is a waste of time and energy, while both could be used more wisely.

If change is to be effected, shouldn’t the focus of the change be on regulation, not financing?

It makes sense to me to say that Massey has a moral obligation to go beyond the law to do what is right, and only pursue (relatively) environmentally responsible means of extracting coal. It makes sense to me, in fact, to say that JPM’s responsibility is less, because its involvement is less direct; one of the main points of a decentralized economy is that we have bounded capacity for gathering and processing information, so to a large extent we take care of our part and leave others responsible for their parts. It does not make sense, then, to say JPM is more morally culpable for something one of its customers is doing than it itself is.

It makes financial sense for the likes of JP Morgan Chase to provide financing to companies at a huge profit, irrespective of whether they harm the environment. That is what they do.

Come on Felix, you’re being lazy.