The Judiciary Committee wants documents and communications from the investment firms related to how they “advance ESG policies,” according to letters from committee chairman…“appears to have entered into collusive agreements to ‘decarbonize’ its assets under management and reduce emissions to net zero in ways that may violate U.S. antitrust law.”
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Brawndo - It’s got electrolytes.
I am really feeling like Idiocracy is a documentary.
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This is McCarthyism all over again. It keeps coming back because it is a strong thread in their delusions.
Andy
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NEWS FLASH! Funds advertised as being all about the environment and sustainability does not invest in polluting non-renewable fossil fuels! Film at 11!
What did we expect? This is coming from Gym Jordan after all. Who wants/needs desperately to keep the focus off his efforts to over-throw an election with TFG.
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How are discussions not to support polluters now collusion? That is not price fixing. That is not market manipulation.
If you have a stake in a company large enough to call the shots you call the shots.
The GOP is outlawing private corporate ownership rights. In order to be a moron who pollutes.
If your paymasters are in the oil and gas industry… I remember a POTUS proposal, a few years ago, to mandate that electric utilities source a minimum percentage of their power from sources where fuel is stored at the plant site, which means either nukes, or coal, because gas is piped to the nat gas plants, rather than stored on site. iirc, there had been a lot of campaign promises about “saving jobs” (and the vested interests) in the coal mines.
Steve
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The house will have to be more than a pretzel to figure out how to pass outlawing common sense. The senate won’t be bothered discussing it.
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The “woke” narrative seems to work pretty well in some areas.
Steve
I would only want to be “woke”.
Regardless of the Holodeck not working yet or fully and scientifically developed woke offers some interesting outcomes.
The opposite is “dead”. So yeah I will stick to woke.
As usual, the pols are late. The market has already thrown the gavel on the ESG hype, without the grandstanding clowns Jordan and Ramaswamy.
Investment rating firms are shutting down their ESG rating/research operations. Fund managers are not interested, really, and ESG is a decreasing niche from what it was even 2 years ago.
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That is not true. Yes, the agencies have shut down under pressure. Nothing changed though.
When elites face total ignorance the message changes. But total ignorance does not win. Total ignorance was never designed to win. ESG is completely alive and well.
https://www.pionline.com/money-management/blackrock-assets-fall-34-91-trillion
BlackRock AUM falls 3.4% to $9.1 trillion but up 14% YOY
What is BlackRock’s stance on ESG?
The firms’ strong support of ESG investing in recent years has led some financial advisory firms and a segment of the public to question whether financial institutions should concentrate on financial performance rather than other considerations. BlackRock and Vanguard have a reputation for backing ESG initiatives.Sep 13, 2023
Of Vanguard’s USD 7.6 trillion in global assets under management in March 2023, non-U.S. investors owned less than 10%, a figure that has changed little in recent years.
That isn’t the issue. The issue is the “clowns” seek to dictate how you run your investment portfolio.
Steve
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Just imagine how bad it would be if these guys didn’t believe in small government.
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Yes. At least they are not passing laws prohibiting women from escaping the morality Dictates of their righteous home states… for starters.
d fb
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Their faith is not leaving with the feeling these guys are the good guys.
Actually, Leap, it is true.
The operation I was part of until Q1 of this year was selling detailed ESG rating data and value-add services over bespoke web databases and applications to brokerage houses like Blackrock, Vanguard, etc. They had spent millions purchasing and integrating several companies’ data collection and analytics services into a platform that was intended to collect and house detailed information on thousands of global companies.
The investment houses didn’t want to pay for it, and the companies in the ETFs or mutual funds the Blackrocks were investing in didn’t want to either, or self-report the information and PAY for the privilege.
The company (rhymes with Booties) shut down the entire operation last quarter. Let everyone go except a few untalented VPs.
I have no idea how the Blackrocks of the world are generating those esg ratings now. You can be sure that the statistical quality of those ratings is declining.
Booties is tiny compared to Blackrock and Vanguard. Merely an extra point of reference.
Blackrock and Vanguard are simply laying low.
“Conscientious Capitalism” (same difference)
Fink just does not want to be in a political debate.
Oh all the crying about ESG is total garbage Blackrock and Vanguard have shown no substantial losses of capital under management.
Having a rusty pickup truck and a half-dead hound dog sitting by you as you watch Fox News does not make you an investor. It does make you an ejit.
Keep moving. We will just skip over the ejits.
I am looking directly down my nose at people choosing stupidity.
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No conspiracy, just a regular ripoff. I briefly listened to a conversation at an event last Thursday night and heard a Wall Street type summarize it in a few sentences. I won’t quote what I heard directly both because I don’t remember the exact wording, and because I need to avoid profanity here. Basically, he said that they were paying ESG consulting service companies for determining what makes the cut and for their ESG ratings and that the outfits providing these services were charging them a lot and raising their fees every year. Finally they got tired of being “[f****n] ripped off” and ended all the contracts. The other interesting thing that I heard was the use of “ESG” as a verb, literally “can you ESG it?” in reference to some sort of investment vehicle. Apparently some of the consulting companies also advised about how to structure something existing such that it might pass the ESG filters.
In general, at events with lots of people, I’m a listener, not a talker. That’s the introvert in me, I suppose.
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The issue is the government, or at least a faction in Congress, is trying to make a criminal conspiracy out of ESG principles.
Steve
Flows into U.S. sustainable funds remain positive. Sustainable investing consists of three primary areas: environmental, social, and governance. ESG covers all 3 areas, and so ESG investing is a subset of sustainable investing. Fossil-free investing only covers environmental.
Morningstar (February 2023) says “U.S. sustainable funds ended 2022 in positive territory—a departure from the broader U.S. fund universe, which suffered the worst flows year on record—their $3.1 billion net annual inflow was well below the average $47 billion annual collection these funds had enjoyed over the previous three years.”
Anyone here feel they are deprived of the chance to invest more heavily in oil and gas? This “antitrust” probe is just another Big Oil subsidy. There are plenty of oil investment options, just as there are tobacco investing options. Investors should be left free to invest in any legal endeavor.
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