You saw Joe Biden demonize fracking and the oil industry throughout his campaign until the debates when Donald Trump cornered him on it, at which point he denied it all. Then, once he moved into the White House, Biden began his war on oil and helped to drive up prices on everything Americans need. At UnHerd, Ashley Rindsberg explains Biden's war on oil and the mistakes he made that led to Americans paying so much for fuel. Rindsberg writes: One of the many ironies of the Just Stop Oil movement is that, for the past year, their protests have been positively correlated with the price of oil. If … [Read more...]
Search Results for: ESG
GREENWASHING: What’s in a Name?
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.” — Juliet Capulet What's in a name? It turns out the SEC demands that the names of funds be descriptive of at least 80% of what the fund is doing. This new rule was adopted after many funds added language to their names suggesting they were part of the ESG movement but didn't follow up by changing their portfolios to match the strategy. This is a technique known as "greenwashing." The SEC has had enough of the practice, and has acted to purge the misnamed funds. Douglas Gillison and Michelle Price report for … [Read more...]
Investing Mistakes to Avoid: #2 Tomorrowland
When I was a kid, some of my favorite memories were vacations to Walt Disney World and going on Space Mountain—repeatedly. Then after every ride, I’d stand on the conveyor belt and look at Tomorrowland and think about how cool it would be to someday live in space. That’s a long time ago now, and here I am writing to you from Earth, still wondering if that will ever happen. Maybe. But a lot of investing days and years have passed since then, and if we could time travel from the 70s, investing in stocks would have been a good move if—and that’s a big if—you had time. Just … [Read more...]
BlackRock’s Funds Are Under Attack
What happens when a massive hedge fund takes on the world's largest money manager? They go to war. Hedge fund Saba Capital Management is trying to buy up shares of BlackRock's closed-end funds trading at discounts to net asset value (for less than the value of the underlying shares) and then install new board members who will make changes to the funds to realize their value. If the strategy works, it could give Saba plenty of profit. So far, the attack on the funds by Saba has failed, and now the hedge fund is suing BlackRock. The Wall Street Journal's Jack Pitcher reports: “The truth is … [Read more...]
A Job Boom for Corporate Culture Warriors
You know Your Survival Guy doesn't want company executives mixing their culture war initiatives with their fiduciary duty to shareholders, but they do it anyway. You invest, and they win. Now, new regulations and corporate DEI and ESG mandates have created a job boom for corporate culture warriors. The Wall Street Journal's Allysia Finley explains: This boom owes in part to Biden administration regulations. But the bigger drivers are progressive employees who demand that their employers indulge their politics as well as ESG police like BlackRock that order corporations to produce detailed … [Read more...]
Expect Your Advisor to Fight Tooth and Nail for You
When Your Survival Guy sees major financial institutions asking how they’re doing (in the form of a questionnaire), it makes me think their complaint box overfloweth. Service is key in times like these. It’s my belief investors want their money fought for tooth and nail, not fighting political ESG and DEI wars. Investing Mistakes to Avoid: #7 DEI DOA Your Survival Guy puts in a solid effort to recycle his trash weekly. Rolling out the blue bin to the curb makes me feel good and a bit anxious, wondering if they can track me down for misallocated debris. But, when it comes to my money, I don’t … [Read more...]
Investing Mistakes to Avoid: #7 DEI DOA
Your Survival Guy puts in a solid effort to recycle his trash weekly. Rolling out the blue bin to the curb makes me feel good and a bit anxious, wondering if they can track me down for misallocated debris. But, when it comes to my money, I don’t want ESG (environmental, social, and governance) or DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) separated from the fiduciary responsibilities. Sure, ESG and DEI might feel good and provide good copy during PowerPoint presentations. But it’s more sizzle than steak. And what about their job as fiduciaries? It’s why I look at all this ESG and DEI as dead on … [Read more...]
Serving Two Masters is No Way to Invest
Are you working with a fiduciary? What is a Fiduciary? In “The Fiduciary Principle: No Man Can Serve Two Masters,” the founder of The Vanguard Group, John (Jack) Bogle, explained the fiduciary duty as follows: “The fiduciary is expected to act at all times for the sole benefit and interests of the principal, with loyalty to those interests.” Nowhere in Bogle’s full definition (here) does he mention allowing a firm’s politics to guide it. But that’s exactly what has happened with ESG. The ESG Cartel Is Vanguard Voting Against Your Political Beliefs? Was Silicon Valley Bank a Victim … [Read more...]
Insurers Now Fleeing the Net Zero Insurance Alliance
A number of European insurers are fleeing the Net Zero Insurance Alliance, which pushes firms to use their financial muscle to enforce the E—environmental—activism of the ESG trifecta. Two French firms, AXA and SCOR, along with Allianz from Germany, have decided to leave the UN-backed group focused on pushing the climate change agenda. Reuters reports: A United Nations-convened climate alliance for insurers suffered at least three more departures on Thursday including the group's chair, as insurance companies take fright in the face of opposition from U.S. Republican politicians. At least … [Read more...]
What Does That Have to Do with Your Dividend?
You know Your Survival Guy loves dividends and values his fiduciary duty to clients. But Richard Vanderford writes in The Wall Street Journal that this year companies will be voting on issues like "abortion, guns and climate change." What does any of that have to do with your dividend? Vanderford continues: A backlash against companies taking on issues ranging from climate change to abortion rights is helping to push shareholder proposals to record numbers this year. More advocacy groups are using these resolutions to try to inject their voices into the corporate agenda, questioning … [Read more...]
Make America Florida
Your Survival Guy can get behind Gov. Ron DeSantis's pushback against ESG investing in Florida. The Wall Street Journal reports that DeSantis's reforms mean that "State and local investment decisions must focus on maximizing returns, not factors related to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria." The Journal's editors explain some of DeSantis's other legislative achievements in Florida, writing: • Taxes and spending: Florida has no income tax, but it does have a 6% sales tax, and there are new exemptions for such “family-focused” items as “diapers, wipes, children’s clothing, … [Read more...]
The Grades Are In: Schwab Scores a D
You have been reading here that ESG managers are using investor money to pursue their own political goals. They do that by stripping investors of the rights to control the voting on their own shares. This isn't only done with ESG funds though, many index funds are setup to give money managers the voting power. And even with funds that aren't earmarked for ESG strategies, managers are pursuing proxy votes that prioritize political agendas over shareholder value. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board reports: If Americans want to make investment decisions using environmental, social and … [Read more...]
Survive and Thrive May 2023: “I’m Having Major Surgery Tomorrow,” He Said
Dear Survivor, Life comes at you fast. One minute you’re living your retirement life. The next, you need major surgery. “I’m having major surgery tomorrow,” a client said to me yesterday. “Take care of things for me,” he said. “I will,” I said. We’ve been working together for over 20 years. He’s been trusting Richard C. Young for many more. He’s financially fit because he invested in himself at an early age and was smart with his savings. He realized a long time ago that saving money and investing are two different things. He needed help with the second one. I know his family because … [Read more...]
April RAGE Gauge: A Private Spa Not the Public Pool
OK, my latest RAGE Gauge is in, and it’s not pretty. What did you expect me to say? The black swan isn’t gone for the season. Hardly. But, with interest rates you can sink your teeth into, it’s time to get your banking life in order. Look at the yield curve below and see what I’m talking about. Get your lazy cash off the couch. Get it working for you. No more banker’s hours. As you can see, we’re in the midst of a generational opportunity in bonds. As Your Survival Guy, I want you off the bench and in the game. Don’t let crusaders for the “perfect” get in your way. Inertia is a terrible … [Read more...]
BlackRock and Vanguard: Controlling Interest
"Who owns the world?" asks Dr. Joseph Mercola on his blog, Mercola.com. You can find all over the internet that BlackRock and Vanguard own nearly everything, with major percentages of many public corporations listed as being owned by the two money managers and, to a lesser degree State Street. To an extent, these assertions are correct. Ownership of shares in those companies are registered to accounts maintained by BlackRock or Vanguard. But the investors who own the accounts are the true owners of the shares. The question is, who is in control? Mutual fund and ETF shareholders give up their … [Read more...]
Your Easter Money Can Yield Close to 4.5%
Is your lazy cash sitting around eating all your Easter candy? Murdering Peeps and defenseless chocolate bunnies? Well, after this weekend, that needs to stop. No más. With Fidelity’s Treasury Money Market (FZFXX) yielding close to 4.5%, it’s time to get your lazy cash off the couch. A little spring cleaning, if you will. If you’ve been living in a cave, and I don’t fault you for that, then you know the village is in an uproar over the banks. This is nothing new to Your Survival Guy, and I hope to you. Since the beginning of time, the “smartest guys” in the kingdom have been reckless with … [Read more...]
Inside the Wreckage of a Dystopian Financial District
Imagine you’re walking through the wreckage of a dystopian city. An empty financial district. Streets littered with white papers. Forgotten studies about ESG, woke capital, and DEI. You pass the shuttered storefronts of banks that were supposed to be too big to fail. Net Zero and WEF membership stickers are coming unpeeled, next to signs that read “FDIC Insured” and “CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies) Only.” It’s a ghost town. And then there’s you. My hero in this story. The lone survivor. Standing amidst the carnage while the so-called experts are gone away. They failed to … [Read more...]
Survive and Thrive April 2023: Will the Black Swan Usher in Digital Dollars?
Dear Survivor, What’s most disturbing about a black swan event is how it affects the rest of us. What will this non-bailout, bailout of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature usher in? Will we have a new way of banking where the Fed gets to call the shots? Will digital dollars be their way to control us? Because it’s times like these when those in power usher in change in the name of following “the science.” Will this give them the extra inch they need to tell us that currency digitization is for our “protection?” One thing’s for sure, we’re not going back to the way life was. Sitting in … [Read more...]
Schwab Down 30%, Fidelity, Vanguard, BlackRock, and You
You have every right to wonder what’s going on with Charles Schwab. Its stock is off 30% this month. Its banking unit’s sweep account is bleeding deposits. Thankfully, dear reader, you’ve been with me through thick and thin, and by now, you know the deal. Schwab is a publicly traded company. It gobbles up smaller companies to help it grow. To help it meet quarterly earnings estimates. Sometimes they don’t pan out. Your Survival Guy doesn’t think you need your broker to “grow.” Just keep the money safe. And forget a broker/wealth manager. I want you to be with an advisor held—by law—to a … [Read more...]
Did SVB Fail Because of Climate Change?
Did Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) fail because of climate change? Maybe. But not because the sea level rose or the rivers went dry. It may have been that the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank's hyperfocus on climate change and other progressive issues made its regulatory arm miss the signals at SVB. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board writes: Congress will hold hearings this week on the role of regulators in recent bank failures, and let’s hope they’re instructive. One question that deserves probing is whether misplaced priorities at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank caused it to … [Read more...]
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