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...]

Keep other people’s politics away from your money. Your Survival Guy favors the selection and ownership of individual stocks to avoid the ESG crowd. In The Wall Street Journal, Matt Cole and Jeff Sherman discuss what they call "the charities hiding in your 401(k), writing: Environmental, social and governance investing is like the wrinkle in the rug; stomp it down and you shift the problem somewhere else. As investors and lawmakers push against ESG’s presence in portfolios, it is infiltrating index funds wearing a new disguise: the public-benefit corporation, or PBC. Unlike a standard … [Read more...]

“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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]

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...]