You know all about ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing from reading this site regularly. Most of the attention ESG gets is for the E, environmental. But the S and G are just as dangerous. The push for ESG has enriched Biden's union allies and hurt the retirement security of Americans. F. Vincent Vernuccio of the Institute for the American Worker and Sam Adolphsen of the Foundation for Government Accountability explain in the NY Post: In 2022, the Department of Labor rolled out a rule letting private-sector investment managers prioritize ESG, which sacrifices the financial … [Read more...]
Search Results for: ESG
ESG Pushback Lands in Europe
You have watched as American politicians and business leaders have pushed back against the ESG movement to protect shareholder returns. Now, the movement to put shareholders ahead of politics has made it to Europe. Niall O'Shea and Hugh Wheelan report for Reuters: March 14 - Ignored, ridiculed, embraced, sanctified, attacked. If you’ve been living it for long enough, it’s hard not to see the grim humour in the parable of ESG. That catch-all term, which covers “sustainable”, “responsible” and “impact” investment, is nursing a splendid hangover, and having to contemplate the consequences of … [Read more...]
Companies Are Erasing ESG
After years of experimenting with the woke agenda, many companies are deciding they've had enough of ESG and all the baggage it comes with. Chip Cutter and Emily Glazer report in The Wall Street Journal: Many companies no longer utter these three letters: E-S-G. Following years of simmering investor backlash, political pressure and legal threats over environmental, social and governance efforts, a number of business leaders are now making a conscious effort to avoid the once widely used acronym for such initiatives. On earnings calls, many chief executives now employ new approaches. Some … [Read more...]
Disney Signals Problems with the ESG Agenda
You have read about Disney's war against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and parental rights. Now, it appears that Disney is realizing the error of getting involved in America's culture wars in order to boost its ESG rankings. Johnathan Turley writes in The Hill: In recent filings, Disney appears to acknowledge that Smith’s invisible hand is giving the “House of Mouse” the middle finger. In a new corporate disclosure, Disney acknowledges that its controversial political and social agenda is costing the company and shareholders. In its annual SEC report, Disney acknowledges that “we face risks … [Read more...]
ESG Bankers Worried about Legal Blowback for Greenwashing
Only recently, you read about BlackRock's ironic backpedaling on ESG because of its effect on supply chains for electric vehicles. Now, some more ESG chickens are coming home to roost as ESG bankers are becoming worried that the borrowers they've been lending to aren't quite up to the ESG standards they had claimed. Now the bankers are adding clauses to loans allowing them to strip the loans of their ESG designations. Greg Ritchie and Alastair Marsh report for Bloomberg: Bankers servicing one of the world’s biggest ESG debt markets are now actively seeking legal protections to guard against … [Read more...]
Some ESG Chickens Come Home to Roost
After years of hammering the mining industry with negative press and exclusion from ESG funds (meaning more difficulty in raising capital for the miners), BlackRock is backpedaling because it has finally realized how many minerals go into electric vehicles and other green technologies. The ESG chickens are coming home to roost as the scarce minerals become more expensive. ESG was always really just a way for the big dog mutual fund companies to charge higher fees and to put CEOs' politics in your portfolio. Now, firms like BlackRock must reconcile with the world they've created. Harry Dempsey … [Read more...]
Presidential Candidate Calls Out ESG Agenda
In a recent speech, GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called out the "ESG agendas" of corporate boards. Watch his speech below: BlackRock, State Street, & Vanguard represent arguably the most powerful cartel in human history: they’re the largest shareholders of nearly every major public company (even of each other) & they use *your* own money to foist ESG agendas onto corporate boards - voting for “racial… pic.twitter.com/FhCfmEsDdp — Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 20, 2023 Action Line: Your Survival Guy has been warning about ESG for years. See a … [Read more...]
HOT POTATO: S&P Drops Its ESG Rankings
You may have seen that ESG is becoming a hot potato for companies as the scrutiny of both its philosophy and methodology are rising. Now S&P Global (the firm known best for its S&P 500 stock market index) has decided to discontinue its ESG ratings for corporate borrowers. Patrick Temple-West reports in the Financial Times: S&P Global has stopped handing out scores to corporate borrowers on ESG criteria, at a time of rising questions about their utility and political attacks on such metrics. The debt rating agency has since 2021 published scores from one to five for a company’s … [Read more...]
Investors Souring on ESG
You have watched as ESG has become a force in markets, propelling the desires of woke money managers to the forefront of the conversation in markets. Now there are signs that investors have had enough, or almost enough, of "environmental, social, and governance" focused products that give money managers all the control that is supposed to belong to shareholders. A new survey of investment professionals by Bloomberg finds that they're not very interested in ESG at all. Tim Quinson reports for Bloomberg: The outlook for ESG is getting bleaker based on the results of Bloomberg’s latest … [Read more...]
ESG’s New False Choice
Investors buying index funds with ESG mandates from managers like BlackRock have their shares voted for them, and usually without their input. This has raised a red flag among shareholders who don't appreciate the political agendas being pushed by BlackRock and other firms via their corporate voting. In what amounts to a false solution to the problem, BlackRock has enlisted proxy advisors Glass Lewis and ISS as surrogates for index fund owner voting. The problem is, as The Wall Street Journal's editorial board explains, Glass Lewis and ISS are voting exactly like BlackRock, so what seems like … [Read more...]
End of ESG?
James Freeman suggests in The Wall Street Journal that the ESG movement has peaked. Your Survival Guy's take is that there's a lot to like in that news. Freeman writes: The so-called ESG movement has had a very disappointing week, and that’s great news for the world economy and human flourishing. “Environmental, social and governance” activists try to shame companies into adopting destructive political agendas that voters reject. Now it’s clear that shareholders reject them too. In March this column asked if ESG had peaked, and the answer appears to be yes. On Thursday the Journal’s Collin … [Read more...]
The ESG Cartel
In an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall exposes the behavior of big financial institutions that have created what could be described as an ESG cartel. He writes: Proponents of ESG—environmental, social and governance—investing are posing as champions of the free market. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and I testified earlier this month before the House Oversight Committee regarding our continuing investigations into several global financial alliances that aim to impose ESG policies on American businesses and consumers in defiance of our … [Read more...]
Pushback Against ESG Is Working
Your Survival Guy has been talking about the dangers of ESG to investors for years now, and slowly investors and politicians have been catching on. In Florida, Louisiana, Texas, West Virginia, and more, politicians are fighting back against ESG. But it's not only elected officials who are tired of ESG; it's corporate board members too. But the most powerful constituency of all pushing back against ESG are the shareholders themselves. Axios's Emily Peck explains the number of anti-ESG shareholder proposals is rising rapidly. Companies don't want to talk about their environmental, social and … [Read more...]
Republicans Sue to Block BlackRock ESG Plans
You know Your Survival Guy is concerned by BlackRock's ESG push. It's not great when you invest, and they win, using the voting power you bought with your money to push their agenda. Now GOP Attorneys General from 17 states are pushing back against BlackRock's ability to influence policies at utility companies. Eric Revell reports on Fox Business: A group of Republican attorneys general filed a motion Wednesday with a federal regulator to block BlackRock from imposing its environmental, social and governmental (ESG) policies on utility companies. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset … [Read more...]
DeSantis Signs Anti-ESG Legislation
Your Survival Guy doesn’t like the fact that pensions for retired teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc. are used to fight the ESG movement. Using other people’s money (OPM) when they don’t get a vote is not cool. Ron DeSantis signed legislation in Florida today to push back on the use of ESG in the state. DeSantis's office released this: JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed comprehensive legislation to protect Floridians from the corporatist environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) movement — a worldwide effort to inject woke political ideology across … [Read more...]
ESG, Digital Currencies, Too Big to Fail, U.S. Dollar and…
These are troubled times. ESG, digital currencies, too big to fail, U.S. dollar reserve currency status on shaky ground; what’s next? I’ll tell you. It’s time to batten down the hatches. Invest where you get paid. Save ‘til it hurts. Live within your means. Work for as long as you can. Get multiple streams of income in your portfolio. My goal for you is to take advantage of cash flow. It’s why I want you to have some dividend religion and a fixed income strategy for times like these. I want you to own your stocks and bonds outright. I don’t want you in the mutual fund kiddie pool with the … [Read more...]
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR: Biden’s ESG Veto “Absolutely Infuriating”
After both the House and a bipartisan group in the Senate passed a bill to strike down Joe Biden's executive order encouraging the use of ESG in retirement accounts, Biden used his first veto to kill it. The veto angered Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who called the veto "absolutely infuriating." Al Weaver reports in The Hill: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) teed off on President Biden’s decision earlier on Monday to veto a bill that would have nixed a Labor Department rule on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. Manchin, who was one of two Senate Democrats to … [Read more...]
ESG: Are Markets Ready for “A Needed Dose of Reality?”
You have been reading for years here on YourSurvivalGuy.com about the dangers of ESG investing. Here's a small sample of what Your Survival Guy has been telling you about ESG investing and its proponents: You Invest, They Win: ESG Is a Money Grab The Woke ESG Investing Money Grab is Falling Apart Your Survival Guy Never Buys ESG Funds Ever EXPOSED: ESG’s Biggest Con Explained Is Your Financial Advisor Hiding the Truth About ESG? ELON MUSK: “ESG Is the Devil” ESG, Richard Young, Jack Bogle, and You ESG Money Managers Are Feeling the Heat ESG Is Another Way to Attack … [Read more...]
Was Silicon Valley Bank a Victim of ESG?
You know that markets need a dose of reality when it comes to ESG investing. But was Silicon Valley Bank brought down by ESG? That's the question Kimberley Strassel asks in The Wall Street Journal. She writes: While the main reason SVB failed was its decision to buy bonds at the top of the market (it got hit when it had to sell), it had also in the past few years further stretched itself by sizably increasing its loans and lines of credit to subprime firms. How much of that would have happened if not for the Biden pot of gold at the end of the green-tech rainbow? A Washington Post story … [Read more...]
Congress Rebukes Biden’s ESG Push
Your Survival Guy's been fighting ESG from the beginning. Stick with me. Anti-Carbon Crusaders in Davos Talk ESG and OPM Political Establishment Irate over Conservative Challenges to ESG ESG, Richard Young, Jack Bogle, and You Florida Dumps BlackRock in Fight Against ESG ELON MUSK: “ESG Is the Devil” Regulators Investigating ESG Funds for “Greenwashing” The Woke ESG Investing Money Grab is Falling Apart Your Survival Guy Never Buys ESG Funds Ever EXPOSED: ESG’s Biggest Con Explained Is Your Financial Advisor Hiding the Truth About ESG? DeSantis: Standing Up … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 9
- Next Page »