CalPERS can’t afford to put social strategy above returns

As the nation’s largest state retirement fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System doesn’t just influence Wall Street. In many ways, it is Wall Street. CalPERS has $366 billion in assets and such investment power has given it a bout of megalomania. For instance, it has long used its fiscal muscle to pursue an ideologically driven investment agenda.
Since the 1980s, CalPERS has been on the cutting edge of “social investing.” Back th