Dear Survivor, What’s Your Survival Guy investing in right now? Bullets, beer, and Burgundy (the three Bs). What about gold you ask? I love gold, but we’ll save that for another day. For now, I want you to improve your chances of survival by the end of the weekend. How? Well, with all the above, what comes to mind? Barter. Yes, cash is king but partnered with any of the above, and you can elevate yourself to royal status. You do that by always sweetening the deal, so they have a reason to work with you again, and again, and again. In my conversations with you, you’re telling me how … [Read more...]
Search Results for: ESG
Your Survival Guy: Fast, Furious End to Fiefdoms
You live in a world where you don’t know who to trust. Look at the disaster in Afghanistan where common sense tells us we should not be there. This truism was known by you and me years ago. It would be a boondoggle. And yet, here we are. You have Navy SEAL boots on the ground, with real-time intelligence telling us the end of the Afghan war will be a disaster because we lost the hearts and soul of Afghanistan a long time ago—if we ever had them. You have the Deep State lying to your face, saying the intelligence agencies never predicted this. Sure. And you have Biden left hanging in the … [Read more...]
Index Funds Put Politics Ahead of Shareholders in the Boardroom
When most shareholders invest in funds, they assume the decisions made by fund managers will be fiduciary in nature. That means the decisions should benefit the investors, not the fund managers, or their CEOs' EGOs. But as fund managers like BlackRock gather more power in ESG funds, they're becoming more active in boardrooms, pushing political agendas, not those of the shareholders. Dawn Lim and Justin Baer report in The Wall Street Journal: Investors have flooded into index-tracking funds in the past decade in hopes of getting broader access to the market at a lower cost. One unintended … [Read more...]
BlackRock Wants Investors with a “Shared Vision”
Do you share BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's "vision?" BlackRock wants investors committed to a "shared vision to transfer to a low-carbon economy." The company's ESG guru for its iShares subsidiary, Sarah Kjellberg explained how she's implementing this vision to ETF Trends. They reported on the interview: Looking at how investors have integrated climate awareness into their portfolios, Kjellberg explains how BlackRock has integrated climate risks into their capital market assumptions. Kjellberg adds, “while we’re seeing institutions in the world take pretty significant action to address … [Read more...]
COAL STRIKES: BlackRock the New Kingmaker?
You know that BlackRock's Larry Fink has taken on the role of arbiter of corporate ethics. He's feeding his own EGO. His push to use investor money to sway board decisions on so-called environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG), has had major effects on how corporations are being run. Instead of focusing on returning value to shareholders, CEOs, whose pay is often tied to the company's short-term stock price (not long-term performance), are focused on making sure company stock ends up in BlackRock's latest ESG index fund offering. If it's included, the CEOs can expect a major bump in … [Read more...]
Bogle Warned: 800 lb. Gorillas & Greener Pastures
UPDATE: The numbers are in. BlackRock is pushing around boardrooms to focus on everything BUT profits and shareholder return. Politico reports: At companies across the globe, BlackRock supported 64 percent of environmental proposals and about a third of social and governance resolutions put forth by shareholders in a year when workforce diversity and climate risk rose to the top of investor concerns. With $9 trillion in assets under management and ownership of more than 7 percent of shares on the S&P 500, BlackRock voted against corporate management at 42 percent of shareholder … [Read more...]
Good or Bad? Vanguard Makes First Ever Corporate Acquisition
You can file this under the heading that index investing is now a commodity as you’ve read here, here, here, here, and here. All Vanguard is exposed to man-made indexes, and with this move looks to vacuum up some more fees for its own survival against BlackRock. Whether it's good or bad, Dawn Lim discusses the acquisition here: Vanguard Group is buying JustInvest LLC, a smaller investing upstart that helps financial advisers build personalized portfolios. The deal marks the first ever corporate acquisition by the world’s second-largest asset manager since Vanguard’s start in the … [Read more...]
Beware Billionaires Selling Salvation: You Invest, They Win
You know I have been warning you about the big business billionaires who sell ways to save the world, like ESG funds, while really they're just charging you higher fees for a repackaged index fund. For them, it's all about their EGO. Now, The Wall Street Journal's Simon Clark reports on another example of investors being sold the idea of saving the world, only to be bilked by another pretender. Clark writes: “It’s a crucial moment in history. It’s an opportunity to immutably and absolutely change the course of innumerable lives.” Arif Naqvi, a silver-haired man of soft, bearish charm, … [Read more...]
America’s Scorched Earth: Where Energy Goes to Die
You and I know ESG investing is all about EGO and more fees. Like anything, just follow the money, and the truth unfolds right before your very eyes. You and I have been on top of this theme like no other. You understand the implications for your future will be enormous. It’s why I want you to be on the right side as history unfolds. Take this winter’s disaster in Texas, for example, when temps dipped to arctic levels, and there was no wind but for the frozen exhalations of shivering residents huddled together in the darkness of their homes. It was a third-world country. And this was … [Read more...]
Big Tech Spends Investor Dollars on Green Energy
Investors in tech companies may think CEOs are focused on inventing the "next big thing" that will turn out amazing profits. That used to be true. But now, many of the biggest tech companies are more focused on getting their stocks in ESG funds. Rather than focus on innovating new technologies, they're spending loads of investor dollars building renewable energy projects to offset emissions in the hopes of building their reputation with woke ESG fund managers. Meanwhile, investors get charged higher fees by the fund managers. So the investor is losing money both ways. Here's what the … [Read more...]
Fire! Run for the Exits! Carbon Credits Explode
Fire! Run for the exits! Another big bank has entered the carbon credit markets. I bet this is more about EGO than saving trees. It’s a perfect Wall Street creation: offer a way for the elite to offset their private jet wash by scrubbing it clean with carbon credits. What’s a carbon credit, you ask? It’s basically a way for you to give money to tree owners, for example, to not cut them down, and to save the environment. I’m serious. But you and I know it’s more about “what’s in your wallet?” Or as the Discover card double points rep says: “More money, more money!” The big boys know how to … [Read more...]
Profit and Power Drive Environmentalism on Wall St. and in Washington
It used to be rare that regulators in Washington D.C., and money men on Wall St. would find common cause, but that has changed in an era when the government is so big, its subsidies alone drive the profits of many businesses. Big Wall St. firms like BlackRock have found a way to turn Washington into a profit machine. The Biden administration is loaded with former BlackRock employees. Do you think they left their high-paying jobs on Wall St. to do what's best for the farmers of Iowa or the fishermen of Maine? No, they came to Washington to grease the skids for policies that will make … [Read more...]
EGO: BlackRock CEO Goes Woke with Investor Money
You have read about Larry Fink using your money for everything but profit. His use of ESG investing, i.e. using investor funds like a piggy bank to push his environmental and social agenda, hurts Fink's trustworthiness. It's not about investors, it's about Fink's ego. At Real Clear Markets, Peter Flaherty has written a brutal takedown of Fink and his self-promotional behavior. He writes: Last week, Exxon Mobil, one of the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas companies, lost a critical board fight with Engine No.1, a “woke” small investor group. The win was predictably … [Read more...]
You Invest, They Win: America’s Woke Money Men
While Joe Biden wants to raise your taxes, even when you're dead, the woke hedge fund and endowment managers are reaping the rewards of their special treatment. They're using your money for everything but what you need, profit. In a lengthy piece at The American Mind, J.D. Vance, (author of Hillbilly Elegy, and probable candidate for Senate in Ohio where he grew up and runs his business) explains how endowments and funds avoid taxes and use that subsidy as ammunition to attack America itself. He writes: Finally, the allocators of capital themselves are going woke. Across our country we have … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy’s Conversation with Gov. Scott Walker
You can imagine Your Survival Guy’s surprise when my cell phone rang while Becky and I were driving to dinner. Not recognizing the number, I picked up anyway. “Hi E.J., this is Scott Walker.” • You may recall it was Gov. Walker whose yeoman’s work broke the back of the unions and collective bargaining in Wisconsin. Now he’s the president of Young America’s Foundation whose mission is: “[E]nsuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.” Gov. Walker and I … [Read more...]
World’s Largest Asset Manager Is Using Your Money for Everything But Profit
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is run by Chairman and CEO Larry Fink. Fink has decided that with the power of his position, he's going to force companies to support his political goals. Is this really who you want running your money? He's acting like it's his money, not yours. Pay attention to what's going on here. Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker and Annie Massa report: If BlackRock Inc.’s Larry Fink ever had second thoughts about injecting his voice into such weighty issues as climate change and voting rights, he doesn’t anymore. “I’ve been very loud at what I’m saying and … [Read more...]
Don’t Miss the Boat: Meet Your Money Stewards
Are you burning down your city? How about looting? I didn’t think so. Most civil Americans look at what’s happening around their country and wonder, “What are these idiots doing?” But not the corporate titans, wealthy elites, Hollywood, progressives, etc. They’re living in shame, dealing with guilt, and want you to pay for it. “Hey, why don’t we sign a letter?” wonders another empty suit on bended knee to communist China. Behind closed doors, the corporate elite, you know, the ones with the huge stock options—they look at shareholders with disdain. Why? Because in board meetings, it's those … [Read more...]
Why Service Is King in 1(800)# Teenage Wasteland
Service is King, even today when many financial firms treat it like the Joker. Try getting a copy of your 1099, or figuring out a K-1. What you’re faced with is, perhaps, hours in a phone queue maze with no satisfactory answer. Some of these firms, not Fidelity, are too big and end up failing simple tasks. Other’s are left offering funds that are too big (like some of Vanguard’s) and then fail to meet the needs of investors (such as ESG funds from BlackRock and others) while trying to save the world. All you want is what you asked for, is that so hard? For some, in a word, yes. Action Line: … [Read more...]
Are You Investing To Stop Climate Change, or To Generate Income?
You may have made many investment decisions in your life, but did you ever invest in a company to prevent climate change or to achieve social justice? That's what ESG (environmental, social, and governance-oriented) funds want you to do. In fact, there are activist shareholders who attempt to force corporate boards to include ESG goals in their missions. The SEC under the Trump administration gave some level of cover to corporate boards focused on performing their fiduciary duties to shareholders. The Biden administration may do the exact opposite, emboldening activist shareholders who want … [Read more...]
Survive and Thrive February 2021: Troops in D.C. & Your Authoritarian Virtual Panopticon
Dear Survivor, “In the 1600s a series of civilization-threatening plague epidemics gave birth to one of the most heavy-handed surveillance states in the Western world,” writes Annie Jacobsen in First Platoon. “In order to impose the rule of law, the government ordered the full-scale cataloging of people.” You felt like you were being watched because you were, especially by your neighbors. Historian Michel Foucault draws the parallel between the surveillance state during the plague, in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, and a prison called the Panopticon or “all seeing.” It … [Read more...]
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