Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has warned fund companies that ESG investing is "dead on arrival" in Florida. Watch the governor explain Florida's position on ESG: ESG is a threat to the American economy and the individual freedoms that our country is built upon. It is dead on arrival in Florida. pic.twitter.com/ZqrdklbUvW — Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) February 13, 2023 You know Your Survival Guy wants you to avoid ESG, and to avoid governors and financial professionals who would use your money to pursue their political aims. Read more about ESG here: Anti-Carbon Crusaders in … [Read more...]
Search Results for: ESG
Anti-Carbon Crusaders in Davos Talk ESG and OPM
Dear valued investor, There was a time when you could buy an index mutual fund, set it, and forget it. That time is gone. When Jack Bogle founded Vanguard, he wasn’t thinking about politics. Hardly. He wasn’t envisioning an 800-pound gorilla like BlackRock using your money to vote your shares for its political agenda. Please. The mutual fund, in Bogle’s mind, was a low-cost, diversified (not exactly the case anymore in a lot of funds), tool for the individual investor. Now funds are acting like Super PAC influencers with a Great Reset agenda. It would be one thing if the S&P 500 made … [Read more...]
Political Establishment Irate over Conservative Challenges to ESG
In RealClearEnergy, Rupert Darwall explains that the establishment, both Democrats and Republicans, are circling the wagons to protect ESG investing from conservative challenges. He writes: This month, conservative critics of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing had something of a surprise – an almost-simultaneous attack on their views from both Left and Right mounting remarkably similar arguments. Writing for CNBC last week, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the Senate’s climate-denier-witch-finder-in-chief, together with Senators Brian Schatz and Martin Heinrich, … [Read more...]
ESG Money Managers Are Feeling the Heat
You may be wondering if relatively small measures like GOP states pulling their pension funds from BlackRock can make a difference when the company's business dwarfs any withdrawals. Despite the small relative size of withdrawals by states like Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and West Virginia, CEOs of ESG-pushing money management firms like BlackRock's Larry Fink are paying attention. Fink is distressed that investors don't want their money used to push his personal agenda. Ben Zeisloft reports for the Daily Wire: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink denounced criticism of the ESG movement and expressed … [Read more...]
ESG, Richard Young, Jack Bogle, and You
Vanguard, one of America's largest mutual fund companies, is, according to Will Hild in The Wall Street Journal, violating an agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) by meddling in the affairs of regulated utilities with its ESG policies. Hild writes: Americans are paying sky-high electricity rates and companies like Vanguard are making the problem worse. This week my organization, Consumers’ Research, joined 13 state attorneys general in a complaint against Vanguard at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. With more than $7 trillion in assets under management, … [Read more...]
Florida Dumps BlackRock in Fight Against ESG
You have watched state after state push back on ESG investing as money managers use their power over the funds to pursue increasingly political ends. Florida has now joined others in pulling money out of funds at BlackRock, the money manager best known for doggedly pursuing its green agenda using ESG fund power. Angel Au-Yeung reports for The Wall Street Journal: The backlash continues for BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced Thursday that the state’s treasury would begin pulling out $2 billion of assets that are currently … [Read more...]
ELON MUSK: “ESG Is the Devil”
You have been reading a lot in the news about Elon Musk lately. His leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, and now Twitter make him perhaps the most famous billionaire on earth. You would think that Musk's most famous company, Tesla, which builds electric cars, would be a darling of environmentally focused investors, especially those pushing the "environmental, social, governance" (ESG) indices. Instead, Tesla has found itself being tossed from ESG funds, coincidentally as Musk has become more vocal in his criticisms of the left wing of American politics. Over the weekend, Musk responded to a tweet … [Read more...]
Biden Rewards ESG Managers with New 401(k) Rule
The Biden administration plans to undo a Trump-era rule that prevented 401(k) managers from taking ESG factors into account when they picked investments. Instead, the Trump-era rule from the Department of Labor required plan managers to use actual financial metrics to judge the quality of investments for plan participants. Biden's new rule will allow managers to use ESG factors to weigh on their choices, and of course, big ESG money managers like BlackRock will be the beneficiaries. Biden's economic advisory staff is loaded with former BlackRock employees. The company acted as a virtual … [Read more...]
Regulators Investigating ESG Funds for “Greenwashing”
You have had a front-row seat on YourSurvivalGuy.com to the ESG investing trend, where you invest, and they win. Now, after years of money managers rebranding their high-fee funds as "ESG" to get in on the action, regulators are beginning to step in and investigate. Frances Schwartzkopff reports in Bloomberg: Asset managers have dramatically reduced the number of new ESG funds they’re rolling out, as a tougher regulatory environment makes it harder to make claims of environmental, social and governance investing. Reclassifications that add an ESG element to conventional funds are down 84% … [Read more...]
THE UNWOKENING: Corporate Executives Signal Big Step Back on ESG
Two surveys of corporate executives signal that the era of unquestioning corporate obedience to ESG goals may be over. The 2022 KPMG CEO Outlook survey found that 59% of CEOs plan to "pause or reconsider their organization's ESG efforts in the next six months." Paul Bergeron reports for Globest.com: As CEOs in the US prepare for a recession that a majority believe will not be mild and short, the newly-released 2022 KPMG CEO Outlook found that in an uncertain economic environment, they are adjusting their business strategies around ESG. They are committed to investing in transformational … [Read more...]
Louisiana Joins West Virginia, Texas in Targeting BlackRock’s ESG Activism
The Treasurer of Louisiana, John Schroder, has announced that his state will divest all its assets managed by BlackRock because of the money manager's anti-fossil fuel policies. Once complete, Louisiana will have removed nearly $800 million from BlackRock funds and accounts. Louisiana's actions join other states, including West Virginia and Texas in an attempt to stop the harm BlackRock and other firms are doing to their vital industries. The Daily Caller's Sarah Weaver reports: Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder announced his state will divest funds from the multi-trillion dollar … [Read more...]
The Woke ESG Investing Money Grab is Falling Apart
ESG investing, pure and simple, is a “woke” man’s arrogance. It’s investing based on a company’s environmental, social, and governance record, something easily manipulated by companies in a process known as “greenwashing.” And now it’s coming apart at the seams. Perfect. Let it. The lemmings are racing each other to jump off the cliff, not wanting to fail alone. ESG was all the talk in a rising market. Then the market cracked, and ESG was seen for what it truly is: a money grab to charge higher fees. Along the way, a little thing called Covid happened. Staff at big firms left for greener … [Read more...]
Corporate Borrowers Giving Up on the ESG Market
Corporations issuing bonds are finding that it's simply not worth the savings on interest in the bond market to jump through the hoops demanded by the ESG-industrial-complex. Natasha White and Greg Ritchie report for Bloomberg: Bond issuers appear to be reviewing the merits of tapping the ESG debt market, based on an assessment that the lower financing costs the label generally brings aren’t worth the risk of being exposed to greenwash accusations. “There’s a number of issuers that are reconsidering the cost benefit trade-off,” Jason Taylor, the managing director for sustainability … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy Never Buys ESG Funds Ever
You’ve been reading about my concerns with ESG investing for a while now. Mutual Funds and ETFs that virtue signal about this stuff are taking their eye off the ball. If you’re in some of these fee gathering mutual funds/ETFs maybe it’s time to look for greener pastures. Andy Kessler writes in the WSJ: Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, which has around $10 trillion in assets under management, wrote in a letter to CEOs, “We focus on sustainability not because we’re environmentalists, but because we are capitalists.” Let’s look inside. BlackRock’s ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF has almost the same top … [Read more...]
EXPOSED: ESG’s Biggest Con Explained
You've been told that ESG is in the best interests of investors. And you've probably heard that ESG managers are just doing their fiduciary duty to investors. At Real Clear Markets, Scott Shepard exposes the lie in both those theories. He writes: Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not “woke.” It is capitalism, driven by mutually beneficial relationships between you and the employees, customers, suppliers, and communities your company relies on to prosper. This is the power of capitalism. As has been discussed before in this space, … [Read more...]
The Virtue of Trump Supporters vs. Antifa and ESG Investing is Like This…
Wouldn't it be nice if you could invest without the ESG virtue signaling? Well, you can if you own your own stocks, not a mutual fund or ETF. How about someone speaks some truth to the waste of money called ESG? Hold the press. That's exactly what HSBC executive Stuart Kirk did in a presentation last week. How'd it go? Not great, as the editors of The WSJ explain. HSBC executive Stuart Kirk gave a presentation at an investor conference last week, taking banking regulators to task for overbaking the financial risk of climate change. What was he thinking? As punishment for his heresy, the … [Read more...]
Is Your Financial Advisor Hiding the Truth About ESG?
Is your financial planner, advisor, wealth manager, CPA, CFA, CFP, or whatever else they slap onto their business card on the same page as you? Are you all rowing in the same direction? Have you asked them about ESG, for example? Do they ask you? Because if you don’t know, it’s probably time you do. This is no time to be politically correct when it’s your money on the line. You know where Your Survival Guy stands on ESG. I hate it. And yet, in my conversations with you, a prospective client, you told me you asked your “guy” about ESG the other day, and you didn’t get a straight answer, as … [Read more...]
ESG Is Another Way to Attack Conservative Principles
You know from here, here, and here how I feel about ESG investing. It’s a politicized money grab for finance and government to extract more fees from investors and to choose winners and losers subjectively. It’s good to see Utah is standing up against the mob. Utah’s treasurer, Marlo Oaks, is fighting back against an effort by S&P Global Ratings to issue credit ratings for states and municipalities partially based on ideological criteria. S&P wants to apply ESG to muni bond ratings. It doesn’t take much deep thought to realize that rewarding or punishing democratically elected … [Read more...]
The Anti-ESG Movement Has Begun
You have read here, here, here, and elsewhere from Your Survival Guy about the dangers posed by ESG investing. Now a movement of investors is working hard to push back against it. An initiative fostered by the Job Creators Network Foundation, the Free Enterprise Project, and Second Vote, has created The Boardroom Initiative "to defend shareholders, employees, and communities from “woke” policies at corporations and ensure corporate accountability." In a press release they explain: By increasingly wading into the culture wars, companies threaten shareholder returns and retirement security for … [Read more...]
The Painful Truth for ESG Investors
You have undoubtedly seen the glossy product brochures for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) funds. They promise strong performance and the chance to impact the world for the better. But it turns out, that neither of those promises is being kept. Sanjai Bhagat reports in the Harvard Business Review: As of December 2021, assets under management at global exchange-traded “sustainable” funds that publicy set environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment objectives amounted to more than $2.7 trillion; 81% were in European based funds, and 13% in U.S. based funds. In the fourth … [Read more...]
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