How Larry Fink turned your pension fund into leftist activist machine

 

Pirate Fantasy, Swamp Monster

By Jo Nova

By forcing people to put money into pension funds in a form of investment that they weren’t necessarily comfortable with, governments created vast piles of money that was essentially left unguarded on the beach in a bay with a hundred pirate ships. Sure, there were regulatory agencies and accountants up the kazoo, but money is also power: the paper dollar would get returned to the owner, but the whole time it was out of his hands, its power was being used against him.

In a free market, millions of voters can vote with their wallet. It’s a form of democracy. But for hapless sleepy investors in a pension plan — sometime in the 1980s that power to choose the kind of industries and values they wanted to support was silently given away to a guy called Larry Fink and a few of his colleagues.

Snoozing-at-the-wheel, citizens voted for cheap energy every two years, while their money voted for “ESG” every day. And ESG is the expensive Environmental, Social, Governance kind of electricity which freezes your peas AND corrects the weather (in theory).

The size of the pension funds managed by the likes of BlackRock, Vanguard and StateStreet became The Financial  Swamp Monster:

BlackRock logo

BlackRock’s tyrannical ESG agenda

By John Masko, UnHerd

When the UN invited global financial institutions to sign onto the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2007, the total global assets managed by ESG-minded investing vehicles was around $10 trillion. By 2020, a mere 13 years later, that has grown to more than $30 trillion worldwide and more than $17 trillion in the US. New private equity firms and investment outfits devoted purely to ESG — such as Al Gore’s Generation Investment — were springing up every year, and most large US investment firms began offering ESG-mandated mutual funds, leading Bloomberg in 2021 to project $53 trillion invested in ESG by 2025.

This was years in the making:
BlackRock

As the ESG agenda took hold, the individual investor increasingly found himself shunted aside. Admittedly, the roots of this shift lay in the early Eighties, when federal proxy voting rules were changed to allow fund managers such as BlackRock to vote on behalf of their clients. The idea was a good one at the time, in that it recognised that few individual investors have the time to attend shareholder meetings or the wherewithal to make their views known to company leadership. But it handed vast power to investment companies — admittedly under the understanding that they would vote on behalf of their clients for one purpose only: the maximisation of profits and shareholder returns. It was, however, only a matter of time before this power was exploited.

Larry liked climate change, so BlackRock became the Monster Climate Police:

In 2020, BlackRock voted at 16,200 shareholder meetings on 153,000 company proposals. Frequently, these votes were against company management. According to the company’s own Investment Stewardship Annual Report: “In 2020, we identified 244 companies that were making insufficient progress integrating climate risk into their business models or disclosures. Of these companies, we took voting action against 53, or 22%. We have put the remaining 191 companies ‘on watch’. Those that do not make significant progress risk voting action against management in 2021.”

In the same report, BlackRock boasted of having voted against management more than 1,500 times for “insufficient diversity” in company management.

See how this works? All those crazy oil and gas companies who gave up without a fight were crazy for a reason.

Then Larry Fink realized he didn’t even need to control the votes. With $10 trillion in funds, BlackRock could be the Climate Mafia, and all he needed to do was write a letter every year telling the corporate world “nice business you have there, shame if something happened …”

In his words: “Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate.”

Allow me [John Masko] to translate: On behalf of millions of shareholders I’ve never met, I declare that they no longer truly own the companies they have invested in. Society does.

Remember how in October 2020 BlackRock told Australia to get rid of coal faster, and then the next year our conservative government agreed to commit us to Net Zero Targets that the voters didn’t ask for? That was the moment when our Treasurer effectively told us the Bankers bullied Australia into Net Zero. We know which banker he means. As I said then:

Australia is adopting Net Zero because the Global Financiers, who only want to save the world, would have refused to lend us money without jacking up our interest rates by 1.5%. The banker punishment would have meant a “17% investor exodus”.  Fancy a stock market collapse?

The good news is that 25 US States have realized the game, and are fighting back. And word is spreading that ESG is a dog financially….

 In 2022, eight of the top ten actively managed US ESG funds (including one of BlackRock’s) performed worse than the S&P 500. This demonstrates two things. First, that ESG funds are not some financial miracle. And second, that the performance of ESG funds is tightly bound to the tech industry, which had a terrible year in 2022.

Larry Fink has usually released his annual letter by now. He seems to be having trouble with 2023. Instead of a letter, the BlackRock CEO says attacks on ESG investing are getting ugly and personal.

Read it all at UnHerd.

h/t Reader

Pirate Fantasy:Image by 0fjd125gk87 from Pixabay

Photo by eflon on Flickr. Adapted. CC by 2.0.  | Second BlackRock Photo Jim.henderson

10 out of 10 based on 72 ratings

69 comments to How Larry Fink turned your pension fund into leftist activist machine

  • #
    John Hultquist

    In any extended period — 5, 10, 20 — years large low cost index funds beat actively managed funds, such as ESGs.
    For this and other reasons, Vanguard (chief of the low cost index funds) just pulled out of the scam. I cited the WSJ on this a day or so ago:
    Tim Buckley pulls out of the Net Zero Managers initiative and affirms his fiduciary duty to clients.

    380

    • #
      John Hultquist

      I forgot to mention, Al Gore was not happy. 😂

      310

      • #
        Scissor

        He’s not a fungi.

        50

        • #

          The reason they pulled out is due to the 25 US States that are considering pulling out their funds based on a lack of fiduciary responsibility, and that conflict of interest. The last thing the big funds want is for that idea to catch on. All three financial giants are playing games with other people’s money. If those other people take that money away the power for the defacto Climate Police would vanish. They are vulnerable and Texas and Florida are poking them where it hurts the most.

          They could lose, not just their profits but all their influence. That’s what they are really scared off…

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    • #
      Memoryvault

      Blackrock and Vanguard are two sides of the same coin, with ultimately the same principal shareholders. Pro ESG funds go to Blackrock, non ESG funds are invested with Vanguard, and the profits from both end up in the same privileged bank accounts.

      290

  • #
    David Maddison

    He is a favourite facilitator of the WEF.

    He is on their Board of Trustees.

    https://www.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance

    They have this to say about him.

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/larry-fink

    Laurence D. Fink
    Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock

    1974, BA in Political Science, and 1976, MBA in Real Estate, University of California, Los Angeles. Former Member of the Management Committee and a Managing Director, First Boston Corporation. 1988, founded BlackRock, a global leader in investment and technology solutions to help investors build better financial futures; currently, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Today, BlackRock is trusted to manage more money than any other investment firm in the world. Member of the Board of Trustees, New York University (NYU); Co-Chairman, NYU Langone Medical Center Board of Trustees. Member of the Board: Museum of Modern Art, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Nature Conservancy. Member of the Advisory Board, Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Beijing. Member of the Executive Committee, Partnership for New York City. Named one of the “World’s Greatest Leaders” by Fortune; named one of the “World’s Best CEOs” for 12 consecutive years, Barron’s.

    He has a BA in “political science” (sic) and an MBA in real estate.

    That must make him an “expert” in “climate change”.

    /sarc

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    • #
      Simon

      If I want medical advice, I go see a doctor. If I have car problems (which I don’t because I drive an EV 🙂 I go to a car mechanic. If I want advice about climate change I talk to a climate scientist or read the scientific literature, which appears to be quite difficult for some people.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Simon,
        who is your psychiatrist?

        280

        • #
          Tel

          Response that landed at the bottom:

          Tel
          March 3, 2023 at 6:38 pm · Reply
          Whoever it is has a heck of a lot of certificates on the wall … and that’s the only thing that really matters.

          https://discordia.fandom.com/wiki/Pope_cards

          With a laser printer and simple lamination setup … you can become a card-carrying official Pope … including the right to claim infallibility. Then you can say what you like and climate change, or anything else.

          60

      • #
        David Maddison

        Simon, since you are a true believer and proud owner of a coal-powered EV, I guess you are fully committed to the WEF’s “15 minute city” concept?

        330

        • #
          Leonard

          It seems that people like Simon cannot connect electricity to its sources (hydro-power, fossil fuel power, nuclear power, and ridiculously small and unreliable wind and solar power). Also, he should know that batteries sufficiently efficient for electric vehicles are dependent on rare metals.

          He seems oblivious to these RV problems and limitations, Perhaps he should study the energy cycle and the concept of friction. What lubricates the moving parts in an EV to lessen friction? Where do the lubricants come from? Are the lubricants based on petroleum? How about the tires on an EV, where do they come from?

          Understanding these sources and limitations are quite difficult for some people?

          50

      • #
        RickWill

        If I have car problems (which I don’t because I drive an EV 🙂 I go to a car mechanic.

        It is only a matter of time before you have problems with your EV. Note when you have roadside assist help you out of a predicament, they will not be driving an EV.

        My only trusted car mechanic will not be bothered by EVs simply because it is not worth the effort to look after them. Imagine having to convince an owner they need a $45000 battery replacement for they 8 year old vehicle. He leaves that to the dealers. He even sends hybrids back to the dealer if they have battery problems although he did have training on Prius when they first came out in his Toyota days.

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        • #
          RickWill

          I apologise if your EV is a mobility scooter. You did describe it as a car so I jumped to the conclusion it had something like 4 seats not just one.

          If your mobility scooter breaks down, you can get Ubers or taxis with scooter lifts that can take it back to the repairer. The Uber to taxi will not be an EV either.

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      • #
        TdeF

        What rot! If meteorologists aren’t Climate Scientists then it’s a cult. And in the Cook’s 97% of scientists fraud, all the 10,000 meteorologists he surveyed were excluded. More than half of all meteorologists disagree.

        After 35 years of total predictive failure a thousand times over, name calling and appeals to authority are the recourse of the bankrupt.

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      • #
        b.nice

        “read the scientific literature, which appears to be quite difficult for some people.”

        Yet in all your reading (LOL) you have been totally incapable of finding scientific evidence of warming by human released CO2.

        I doubt you have read or comprehended any real “science” in your whole life!

        60

    • #
      Lawrie

      I have a SMSF but I am affected by the companies I invest in being largely held by investment funds. The common factor seems to be the investment fund which consists of the monies deposited by many millions of individuals. To destroy the investment fund it will be necessary for individuals to take their money out and I stress “their” money. As Jo has noted some US states have taken their pension funds away from Blackrock but it will be necessary for individuals to regain their money to completely bankrupt the big funds. Here they are the union controlled Industry funds which are heavily protected by the Labor party. It is something that is within the power of you and me. Nothing to stop money being withdrawn from union funds and either self managed or put with smaller funds. It would only take a consistent outflow of funds to make the industry funds change course.

      140

  • #
    dumb jaffa

    It only works downstream from the captured education system.

    I guess there is a known [ if incomplete ] pathway to where this is possible :-

    “I don’t want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers”

    https://quotefancy.com/quote/1388060/John-D-Rockefeller-I-don-t-want-a-nation-of-thinkers-I-want-a-nation-of-workers

    Rockefeller Education Foundation…..
    CLUB of ROME >
    Trilateral Commission + UN >
    Maurice Strong’s the 1992 Rio Party>>>

    The Apple iSpy>>> instant 24/7/365 Propaganda Font + Psycho-graphics + Greta + governments addicted to power>>>

    =

    ” Would you like Bugs with your ICLEI/GetUp Premier [ Daniel Andrews…..] & your Smart City?”

    All brought to by the City & the Street via Vanguard, Blackrock & State Street.

    The real Question is: In this UBI, Social Credit Score, Cashless 15 minutes world, where whatever serves as ” Central Banks ” can push the “consumers” into spending by negative interest rates to stimulate ” their economy”, would there be ANY possibility of independent NON PPP enterprise if those unknowns would make the planning or tendering for private or government contracts impossible?

    Is it really a design where the end game is really a Complete Fascist Takeover, where it is not even a real partnership between Government & Enterprise, but in fact a complete Global Business in which Humanity is the Raw Material & the Source of Energy?

    210

    • #
      David Maddison

      the captured education system.

      QUOTE
      “The most erroneous assumption is to the effect that the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its aim everywhere else.”
      H.L. Mencken
      END QUOTE

      120

      • #
        Ted1.

        Education already has a bad name. And not just because it has been captured. The captors have so far lowered the standards that the finished product fails to satisfy even their requirements.

        To cure this disease it is necessary to thoroughly discredit the education system in the eyes of the electorate. That should not be difficult.

        70

        • #
          Gary S

          A bit of a conundrum here. Whilst I realise that for some, wielding power for power’s sake is what drives them on, I have trouble seeing the end game. After the so-called elites have reduced the world population by billions, and dumbed-down the rest as well as destroying the economies of every nation, eliminated agricultural enterprise, power generation, etc., etc.,
          Just what do they inherit? There’s nothing worthwhile remaining for them to rule over.
          Yes, I know about the ‘reset’ and various other agenda, but it doesn’t seem to be worth all the effort and aggravation to me. Year zero didn’t work out too well for one Pol Pot did it?

          70

          • #
            KP

            I think the plan is to make it impossible for you to save money as you earn it. Those in charge of laws will be happy when they can tax everything you don’t spend on necessities, and those billionaires selling goods & services don’t need you to save, you must spend! The only thing you need to save for is your retirement, and the combination of the two sectors mentioned above will make giving your money to one of them compulsory, by the other.

            This will leave those in charge of the laws safely in charge forever, and those in charge of goods & services in a crony-capitalist monopoly.. rather like we have now! If you have nothing to leave your children, they will have to enter the rat-race as consumers at the same level. Advancing civilisation with great inventions is now irrelevant, the current level of comfort is enough to make politicians and billionaires happy.

            60

            • #
              Lawrie

              Only if you give them your money.. Keep it out of their grubby little paws and like all lefties when deprived of your money they will fade away.

              30

          • #
            Ted1.

            “I have trouble seeing the end game.”.

            They can’t see it either. It’s the coke that drives them on.

            20

        • #
          Lawrie

          I see that Jason Clare has signed a deal with India so that qualifications gained in Australian universities will be recognised in India and vice versa. Someone should tell the Indians that our graduates can barely read let alone hold debates so will be a burden rather than an advantage.

          90

  • #
    David Maddison

    https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/larry-finks-crusade-runs-resistance

    Larry Fink’s Crusade Runs Into Resistance

    Feb 7, 2022

    Only a few years after “woke capitalism” was touted as the wave of the future, its supporters are getting a wakeup call of their own.

    Just ask BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. The tone of his 2022 letter to CEOs is very different from his previous two, both of which pushed Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment criteria and “stakeholder capitalism” relentlessly. As far as Fink was concerned, ESG, “sustainability,” and the agenda for what we have termed “woke capital” would dominate the markets for years, while he and his $10 trillion asset management behemoth would, in turn, dominate them. Fink was to be king of the stakeholder world.

    But then something fascinating happened.

    Shortly after Fink’s triumphant 2021 letter, Encounter Books published “The Dictatorship of Woke Capital.” The book turned out to be the tip of the proverbial iceberg, heralding a massive backlash that was already building against ESG, woke capital, and the hubris that animates top-down, anti-democratic efforts to undermine free-market capitalism for partisan ideological ends.

    By year’s end, the resistance to ESG and woke capital had increased in size and variety. Everyone from shareholder activists to U.S. senators, state treasurers, legislators, and governors, as well as the former director of “sustainable investing” for BlackRock itself—were charting various forms of pushback against the newly woke masters of the financial universe.

    State officials, in particular, have started resisting the notion that unelected and unaccountable functionaries—such as Fink, World Economic Forum executive chairman Klaus Schwab, Federal Reserve Bank Governor Lael Brainard, or SEC Chairman Gary Gensler—can legitimately substitute their progressive beliefs and fixations for the will of the American people.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    210

  • #
    Graham Richards

    The latest onslaught on our Australian Superannuation funds leads me to believe that Larry Albanese has some surprises in store for the country as a whole.
    The current wish list of superannuation changes are just the first slice of that “ salami “.
    There will no doubt be many slices, & thicker slices, of that “ salami “ further down the track. I do hope the Coalition are waking up & surely getting up a lot earlier in he morning to keep track of the ALP & their socialist “ wet dreams”.

    Their whole agenda stinks of financial skulduggery to hobble the country in preparation for total socialism in Australia.

    410

    • #
      David Maddison

      Note that the superannuation (retirement) funds of politicians and public serpents will be safe.

      230

      • #
        Adellad

        Note that you are incorrect. Defined benefit schemes are being reviewed – albeit late and only because of the furore that has erupted pointing out the disparity between defined benefit schemes and private funds over $3m. This is a complex mire, but public anger will ensure some kind of equitable outcome must eventuate.

        54

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Adellad:
          Read the fine print very carefully. Any agreement between politicians and those on the public purse won’t necessarily be what you think.

          140

          • #
            Adellad

            We’ll have to wait and see. I know our betters have no shame, but to go ahead and treat the two types of super completely differently would seem too brazen even for them.

            22

            • #
              David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

              “…would seem too brazen even for them.”

              Even after Covid, the EUA, HCQ, IVM, and CO2?

              I must disagree.

              Cheers
              Dave B

              100

        • #
          Graham Richards

          The ALP/Greens/Unions Coalition intentions are easily seen. The semantics surrounding the intentions are but a cleverly disguised smokescreen which 80% of the electorate can’t, or, won’t see!

          120

      • #
        dumb jaffa

        Nah!

        All through that period of low interest rates, the Super Funds & Insurance pools all chased any returns in dodgier directions.

        Unless Pollie Super is tied up outside the Derivatives & particularly ForEx, Hypotheticated Paper gold & silver & all those bonds that have been devalued by the new ones at higher interest rates, they too are on the same leaky boat.

        Keep a weather eye on Credit Suisse.

        [ their brown paper/ shopping bags of cash will also be subject to the same hyperinflation in the gap till the BIS tells us all to go cashless – Karma !]

        Only the Smart Pollies [the Pirates of Port Jackson] have their Buried Treasure[ Golden Sacks] in the Caribbean!

        I wonder how Carbon Futures would be going? Toilet Roll Futures may yet again be worth a punt.
        /sarc.

        40

  • #
    Ross

    I saw a report yesterday quoting Fink’s equivalent over at Vanguard, that their investments are now NOT adhering to ESG rules. So, maybe that tide is turning?

    190

  • #
    Ross

    The same disregard for basic human rights that was exposed by nearly all our public health officials during COVID seems also evident with our Treasury officials. Did it not dawn on them that a largely foreign investment company was dictating economic (energy) policy to Australia? Where was their responsibility to our country, whose income is largely based on energy exports? I don’t fully blame the clueless politicians, because they largely take advice from their ministry. Hence, the LNP running around like headless chooks proclaiming that future finance for gas/coal projects could not be assured under ESG/Net Zero guidelines.

    170

    • #
      Adellad

      The public service, especially in dark green Canberra, is unremittingly “progressive.” This infects all aspects of governance, from DFAT to ATO to Health and even Defence. Of all aspects of the Long March Through the Institutions, this is one of the most damaging.

      200

    • #
      Simon Thompson ᵐᵇ ᵇˢ

      The New World Order is up and running. Democracy? Sovereignty?- non existent.
      Look at the “Ukraine incursion” where billions of USD are directed to protect Ukraine’s border. Then consider the southern US border- Jo could not collect her award (but if she wore a sombrero and spoke spanish she could wade the Rio Grande to a welcome party!).

      Blackrock (ESG) Vanguard (no ESG) are two side of the same coin owning approx 15% of any stock of not in the whole world. This is like the CCP- there is effectively a uniparty EVERYWHERE. We change the side of the chamber our pollies sit on but the pollies still schmooze with the big end of the universe- The Larry Finks of the world. Which is why we pull our hair out at the electricity generation capacity being vandalized. Nothing will happen- the Miserable ghost is still on the Goldman-Sachs “Sustainable” party.

      These massive funds have the ability to steer every and any company to their goals instead of reality via financial ratings and bullying. They have been propped up as “too big to fail” but the upcoming financial apocolypse will see them shredded.

      120

  • #
    Simon

    Companies that ignore Environmental, Societal, and corporate Governance concerns are much more likely end up in trouble and go bust. This makes them much more risky to invest in and why private equity and pension funds either steer clear or force management change.
    So-called ESG funds are more long-term focused. Comparing one year in isolation isn’t particularly meaningful. A lot of these funds is marketing, most large corporates these days have ESG policies.

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    • #
      bobby b

      Bull. The point of ESG is not to serve shareholder interests, but to serve “societal” interests. Sometimes those interests will coincide, but not always. To the extent that ESG factors get prime place, the fund is stealing from shareholders by not maximizing every penny possible to shareholder pockets.

      310

    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Berkshire Hathaway Inc. – Class A
      As of 3 March 2023 • $466,790.01 a share.
      Years of ignoring Green propaganda. Yes, they own wind farms “but only for the tax breaks”.

      140

      • #
        Simon

        Berkshire Hathaway Energy has an ESG policy which includes ‘striving’ to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions and car replacement with EVs:
        https://www.brkenergy.com/esg-sustainability/environmental#:~:text=Berkshire%20Hathaway%20Energy's%20core%20principle,the%20benefit%20of%20future%20generations.

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        • #
          b.nice

          LOL.. Of course they have an ESG “policy”…

          Otherwise their funding would be restricted.

          Once this ESG and Zero emissions nonsense is over… back to proper operation without the need for the extra “policy statement”

          70

          • #
            Bruce

            By then, the “spillage” will have been of monumental proportions and the “guilty parties / usual suspects” will have long-before bought their way into opulent obscurity, laughing hysterically at the folly and gullibility of the peasants.

            The next wave of “saviours” will be worse.

            As C. S. Lewis put it:

            “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience”.

            See also: H. L. Mencken:

            “The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule”.

            It’s a “tag-team” assault on REAL PEOPLE.

            60

        • #
          Leo G

          BHE operate coal-fired power stations and gas pipelines and has embraced Green Financing and wind farming (probably less than 15% of it’s energy generation (as opposed to capacity). They’re striving for sure- to build new super-critical generators.

          30

    • #
      RickWill

      Companies that ignore Environmental, Societal, and corporate Governance concerns are much more likely end up in trouble and go bust.

      Every company in the developed world is at risk of going bust. The strong businesses in the developed world are serving Chinese industry. Iron ore continues to be the prime income for the Australian economy followed by coal. It enables the import of the junk needed for the NutZero craze.

      Most large motor vehicle manufacturers are now set up Chinese based manufacturing. And the arrangements with China are quite different to other countries because China has control of the JVs.

      ESG in developed countries is a catch all for handing control of the global economy to China. UK is a basket case already. Germany is shutting down its heavy industry. US has been in a downward spiral for decades but it is hidden by its monopoly on the global currency – something China is slowly relegating.

      Your mobility scooter was mostly made in China.

      130

    • #

      Pure opinion, try filling in some evidence next time.

      55

  • #
    bobby b

    This was all quite the violation of the principal/agent relationship which funds are – or, were previously – obligated to honor. When you represent yourself as working as an agent on behalf of your principal, you promise that your efforts will be on their behalf, and the rewards will belong to them.

    When you arrogate from your principal the benefits generated from the use of their money, you are a thief. ESG practice steals the power produced by the holding of money and transfers it into the agent’s hands.

    110

  • #
    Rupert Ashford

    I see those funds are actively starting to play in the Aus Superannuation industry as well now. Question for experts: Will the likes of Blackrock, Vanguard etc be able to buy or “take over” existing Aus Super Funds or are there regulations about foreign ownership of those funds that prohibit it?

    60

    • #
      Graham Richards

      One would expect that the opposition would be keeping an eye on that & no doubt many other possibilities. One also worries about those in the coalition which have very leftist tendencies and favour ALP policies.

      [Little snip, see your email for explanation]

      31

  • #
    Leo G

    Companies must benefit all of their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which they operate.

    This reads like the Critical Theory concept of intersectionality in play. The social and legal construction of profitability advances the interests of shareholders and discriminates against stakeholders.

    40

    • #
      bobby b

      Might as well say, companies need to make shoplifters feel safe and welcome.

      “Stakeholders” is just another word for hitchhikers and parasites.

      70

      • #
        RickWill

        companies need to make shoplifters feel safe and welcome

        Shoplifting is an overt demonstration of affirmative action doing its job – supporting the disadvantaged in society. We saw this form of affirmative action on steroids with the BLM riots. It was a common form of affirmative action in South Africa in the 1990s.

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  • #
    TdeF

    While in this context it is the insanity of Woke culture, the more worrying picture is that this mechanism will be used for any crazy thing, religion, fad, product. Weaponized corporate cancel culture.

    It is an attack on capitalism, the essential enemy of the Marxist left. Unelected bankers can rule society with politically motivated control of investment. They could for example refuse finance for homes unless you have three children. Or you must buy an electric car because they say so. Or a particular pharmaceutical brand. Or only if you vote for their favorite political party.

    As such it is an example of the power of bakers which control more money than government and so control your life. Today that would include Google, Apple, Corporate China and many more. The power to deny you access to funding takes people back to the Dark ages unless they agree with your politics and you must obey ESG in this case, but who said it will stop there?

    If you can break people up by identity, race, social strata, you can play favorites and impoverish whites and promote blacks. Isn’t that being attempted at the moment? In Ivy League universities, 75% of students with perfect SAT scores are being refused a place based on race and anti meritocracy. In Australia we are facing changes to the very Constitution based solely on race.

    Right now the US Congress has passed a bill to ban ESG controlled investment. And the bill with die with Joe Biden’s Veto.

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  • #
    KP

    BOM is putting the solar panel back!

    “Sydney heading for hottest day in over two years
    Anthony Sharwood, Friday March 3, 2023 – 15:12 AEDT

    A 35-degree day for a mainland capital city wouldn’t normally be news in the first week of autumn, but when it comes to Sydney, it’s a different story. Sydney is heading for a top of 35°C this coming Monday, which would be the first time the mercury at the city’s Observatory Hill weather station has reached 35°C since Australia Day (Jan 26) 2021. If you’re a regular reader of Weatherzone’s news feed, you’d know that Sydney just went 331 days between 30-degree days, the second-longest such streak on record.”

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  • #
    Philip

    Not me. I buy rare guitars.

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  • #
    Tel

    Whoever it is has a heck of a lot of certificates on the wall … and that’s the only thing that really matters.

    https://discordia.fandom.com/wiki/Pope_cards

    With a laser printer and simple lamination setup … you can become a card-carrying official Pope … including the right to claim infallibility. Then you can say what you like and climate change, or anything else.

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  • #
    Phil O'Sophical

    They think they are winning. They no longer care to keep it secret.

    From the horse’s mouth. Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock:
    https://gettr.com/post/p29feu269f0

    “Markets don’t like uncertainty; markets like actually totalitarian governments where you have a [sic] understanding of what’s out there.

    “The whole dimension is changing now with … a democratisation of countries. And democracies are very messy as we know in the United States where you have opinion changing back and forth.”

    Oh and don’t forget Obama:
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/jsb0aKpiRC0/

    “ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs.”
    “progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all powerful sovereign.”

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    Phil O'Sophical

    Reposted with DOT in the links. Perhaps that will get through.

    They think they are winning. They no longer care to keep it secret.

    From the horse’s mouth. Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock:
    https://gettrDOTcom/post/p29feu269f0

    “Markets don’t like uncertainty; markets like actually totalitarian governments where you have a [sic] understanding of what’s out there.

    “The whole dimension is changing now with … a democratisation of countries. And democracies are very messy as we know in the United States where you have opinion changing back and forth.”

    Oh and don’t forget Obama:
    https://wwwDOTbitchute.com/video/jsb0aKpiRC0/

    “ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs.”
    “progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all powerful sovereign.”

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    Kjay

    Don’t forget that a few years ago…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/blackstone-said-to-reach-4-7-billion-deal-to-buy-ancestry-com

    So your DNA information submitted to ancestry.com is where exactly?? (Considering the Blackrock/Blackstone linkage).

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    Keith Macdonald

    I’m glad to say I found a way of contacting my personal pension hosting company, and got them to switch the portion that was “invested” in Blackrock to a FTSE-Index tracking fund instead. I’ve lost 5% on the initial purchase price, but considering the direction Blackrock is heading, and “it costs to learn” I consider myself fortunate to be out now.

    30