Posted on 12/11/2022 4:07:28 PM PST by george76
th this week’s announcement by the asset management giant Vanguard that it is exiting the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, a sub-unit of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, it is clear that the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) movement is no longer in unfettered ascension. Although we're still far from being able to claim that U.S. investors are free of the talons of ESG, it is clear that the voice of investors and industry leaders who have been the target of these evangelists can no longer be ignored.
Created to repair the purported damage caused by capitalism, the ESG construct is in reality, far more sinister. The scheme was created as a mechanism to reorient capital flows toward political and social objectives that its progenitors from the World Economic Forum deem important. With help from its less attractive, though equally mischievous step-brother, the United Nations, they together seek to coerce political and social change that many investors do not want.
Vanguard’s announcement came about a week after Consumers’ Research and 13 state attorneys general asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to review Vanguard’s request to own energy company stocks, and sought to intervene in Vanguard's blanket authorization renewal request that was pending before the commission. Their brief pointed out that collectively, Vanguard, State Street and BlackRock hold the largest voting blocs for most of the S&P 500, and are the largest investors in public oil, gas, and coal companies, having a combined $300 billion fossil-fuel investment portfolio.
But their membership in the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, created an intrinsic conflict of interest: support the decarbonization of the industries in which you invest, or do what is legally required and represent the best interest of their investors by maximizing returns. The decision was binary. For Vanguard, reason and legal obligation have won out over activism and social bullying.
Until now, asset-management firms have been happy to oblige the vision of these globalists because they believed they would benefit financially. Working in contravention of the sole interest rule and in defiance of legally mandated fiduciary obligations, the largest asset management firms have been attempting to force ESG adoption upon the boardrooms of publicly traded companies so as to transition them to the envisioned New World Order. Seeking power, wealth, and control, they have ordained themselves the arbiters of the acceptable, attempting to define which industries and companies should be permitted to participate in the capital markets and which should be relegated to a world they and their globalist masters unilaterally have decided should no longer exist.
But now, with Vanguard’s withdrawal from the Net Zero Alliance and BlackRock’s recent market thrashing, asset management meddling may have reached its apex. Beginning earlier this year, investors and states attorneys general and treasurers, like those involved in the Consumers' Research filing, began to assert that investors’ interests were not being fiduciarily represented. These asset management giants have until now believed that their sheer economic heft would allow them to coerce companies and investors into using the ESG yardstick while diverting capital into companies that would help shape the new world they and the global activists envision. With a combined portfolio of $15 trillion under management, they unequivocally represent economic heft. But economic scale aside, market returns and the legal protections conveyed to investors and codified in U.S. law remain an unforgiving reminder of reality.
This week Vanguard was reminded by business leaders and investors of its core business and related legal obligations. Its very existence was threatened by its ESG promises to impede returns. Likewise, BlackRock pension fund clients have reminded CEO Larry Fink that his annual pronouncements of the value of stakeholder capitalism and ESG are falling flat. In the face of abysmal returns and market conditions created by poor economic and monetary policy, investors are demanding an abandonment of the ESG eco-system.
BlackRock’s unprecedented $1.7 trillion losses in the first six months of the year has caused an exodus of pension fund clients worth nearly $4 billion. Arizona’s treasurer last February quietly pulled $543 million from BlackRock. Then in early August, 19 state attorneys general sent a joint letter to them expressing concerns that the company’s ESG agenda is impeding its ability to deliver a maximum return on investment for its shareholders. They wrote:
Rather than being a spectator betting on the game, BlackRock appears to have put on a quarterback jersey and actively taken the field. As a firm, BlackRock has committed to implementing an ESG engagement and voting strategy across all assets under management, and held over 2,300 company engagements on climate, the most of any category of engagement.
Then last month, Missouri Attorney General Scott Fitzpatrick divested $500 million in assets managed by BlackRock on behalf of the Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System. Louisiana’s treasurer, John Schroder told the Financial Times that he will divest $794 million. Utah and Arkansas likewise committed to pull $100 million and $125 million, respectively. Meanwhile, South Carolina’s state treasurer will remove $200 million of state retirement funds from BlackRock. And most recently, Florida announced it will pull $600 million of short-term investments, while freezing $1.43 billion of long-term securities, with an eye on reallocating the capital to other money managers by the start of 2023.
These state attorneys general and treasurers understand leverage. BlackRock assets under management dropped 16 percent year-on-year to $7.96 trillion, decreasing its net income by 17 percent. Meanwhile, shares in BlackRock are down roughly 30 percent this year ----underperforming the benchmark S&P 500 Index.
Vanguard has taken notice of BlackRock’s plight and correctly understands that the horizon looks stormy for those in the financial sector who choose to ignore their legal obligations to investors. Still, the ESG counter-revolution has only just begun. Whatever ESG ground that might be lost by private-sector asset management firms, one should assume that a doubling down by the Biden administration is already in motion. Whether through executive orders or regulatory mandates, ESG is the mechanism for governments and globalists to create the dystopic world they yearn for. Investors and states must maintain the pressure.
ESG = Corporate Fiduciary Negligence
All publicly traded companies should be held accountable for this.
UN Agenda 21 / 2030 / Great Reset . ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
uh, I doubt it
The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) movement plan to use our own money to enslave us
Is Vanguard’s s&p 500 fund esg-ed?
Hords need to sue for violating their civil liberties of free trade and expression. Would definitely have standing!
Larry Fink needs to spend the rest of his life in an 8’x10’ Supermax cell.
Please add me if not already added.
bury ESG. billionaire thanks to China (iron ore in particular) - Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest - clearly believes he can tap into the “trillions” available overseas (which includes huge pension funds), and the trillions in Australia’s private/mandatory pension funds, known as Superannuation Funds:
1m16s to 2m44s:
VIDEO: 6m27s: 7 Dec: Sky News Australia: ‘A very significant step’: Billionaire Andrew Forrest increases exposure to renewable energy with $4 billion acquisition
Andrew “Twiggy” said the $4 billion acquisition will help get Australia beyond fossil fuels, which should have happened “decades ago”.
by Joseph Huitson
In an interview with Sky News Australia Mr Forrest praised the leadership team at CWP and declared the move is a step in the right direction to move Australia beyond its fossil fuel reliance.
“To have this critical mass that dovetails so well with Squadron, we are already building out Australia’s largest connected green energy project,” he said...
“And we know the capital is there, we can access it and we have it. The rollout will be dependent on government policy at state and national level.”...
https://www.skynews.com.au/business/energy/a-very-significant-step-billionaire-andrew-forrest-increases-exposure-to-renewable-energy-with-4-billion-acquisition/news-story/6aee75aa191caf36b1fe34121fd9ead3
7 Dec: Australian Financial Review: Andrew Forrest is Australia’s biggest renewables player
by Brad Thompson and Colin Packham
Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest has become the biggest renewable energy player in Australia and now wants to tap into the billions of dollars in Australian superannuation funds to help fund a giant pipeline of wind and solar projects...
Squadron is working on a structure that will allow super funds to take equity stakes in its renewables projects, but not in the privately owned company itself...
Dr Forrest said trillions of dollars was available for investment in high-quality renewables projects that could transform economies, including those in the combined Squadron/CWP portfolio.
“People can participate with us, mums and dads can participate with us in what will be the most attractive long-term investment for them and in what has to become the largest industry in the world,” he said...
https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/andrew-forrest-s-squadron-energy-seals-4b-deal-for-cwp-renewables-20221207-p5c4dv
Wikipedia: Superannuation in Australia
As of 30 March 2022, Australians have AU$3.5 trillion invested as superannuation assets, making Australia the 4th largest holder of pension fund assets in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superannuation_in_Australia
15 July 2020: MoneyManagement: Australia taking ‘meaningful steps’ to integrating ESG in super
By Laura Dew
Australia’s superannuation system has taken ‘meaningful steps’ to ensure super is addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, according to research from the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
In its latest report, the organisation compared private retirement systems in Australia, the US and UK and their inclusion of ESG...
***Some 81% of for-profit super funds, it said, now had some form of responsible investment...
https://www.moneymanagement.com.au/news/superannuation/australia-taking-%E2%80%98meaningful-steps%E2%80%99-integrating-esg-super
8 Dec: Reuters: Vanguard quits net zero climate effort, citing need for independence
By Ross Kerber and Noor Zainab Hussain
One focus of criticism has been the effort known as the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, launched in late 2020 to encourage fund firms to reach net zero emission targets by 2050 and limit the rise in global temperatures. As of Nov. 9, NZAM counted 291 signatories representing some $66 trillion in assets under management...
Vanguard rivals including BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) have taken the opposite stand and said their NZAM participation does not conflict with their independence. A BlackRock spokesman said on Wednesday the company remains part of NZAM.
Daniel Wiener, chairman of Adviser Investments in Newton, Massachusetts and a longtime Vanguard observer, said the firm’s withdrawal showed it lacked a strong leader on ESG issues that BlackRock has in its CEO Laurence Fink...
https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/vanguard-quits-net-zero-climate-alliance-2022-12-07/
Crush these monopiles and throw the revolutionaries in charge in jail. Recognize that their leaders, fascist Clous Schawb, and the rest of his fascist minions, are in an existential war with the US and her allies. And act accordingly. Like WWII acting accordingly.
They're doing it because they're scared of being sued, not because they've suddenly grown a conscience and decided to do what's best for their clients.
You are added. Thanks.
Are you able to remove me from the Great Reset list?
I’d appreciate not being noticed the globalists and their governments.
The mfg company I used to work for seems to have gone whole hog into ESG. When I was there it was quite conservative and that was only a dozen years ago.
Somehow I don’t believe them. I think they’ll hide that they’re still doing ESG investment.
Should be only insofar as the individual component companies of the index are ESG. (Unfortunately they pretty much all are.)
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