There’s a new acronym that young professionals in finance are saying these days. No, it’s not a new pop song lyric or Saturday Night Live skit. It’s called “ESG” and it stands for “Environment, Social and Governance,” a new form of woke, progressive investment strategy that is increasingly becoming popular on Wall Street. In fact, it is becoming so popular that many Main Street investors like you and me may have our pensions, retirement savings and mutual funds already invested in these ESG schemes without us even knowing about them. SO what is ESG and why do you need to know about it?
According to Investopedia, “environmental criteria consider how a company safeguards the environment, including corporate policies addressing climate change, for example. Social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates. Governance deals with a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.” In essence, ESG modeling is used to “screen investments based on corporate policies and to encourage companies to act responsibly.”
What they don’t tell you is that Wall Street portfolio managers at some the nation’s largest firms are allegedly using our hard earned savings and investment dollars to fund ESG schemes at the expense of Joe the investor who can and should have his pension investing in companies and funds based on economic fundamentals like cashflow, sales, overhead, profit margins, and growth. One target of ESG practices is the fossil fuel industry, which is a major economic engine for states like Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, among others.
Word has reached Capitol Hill, however, and Republicans are preparing to take on ESG investing and financial services more broadly in the 118th Congress. The message from GOP lawmakers to big financial firms: stop appeasing progressives with ‘woke’ business practices, continue financing fossil fuels and cut ties with China. GOP Senators are already targeting law firms who are apparently advising clients on ESG investing. In November, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN.), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to 51 law firms detailing the possible antitrust violations the law firms’ clients may commit if they pursue ESG initiatives.
The letter advises the law firms that they and their clients should preserve documents relevant to the clients’ ESG practices in preparation for Congress’s oversight of antitrust violations due to ESG collusion.
“The ESG movement attempts to weaponize corporations to reshape society in ways that Americans would never endorse at the ballot box. Of particular concern is the collusive effort to restrict the supply of coal, oil, and gas, which is driving up energy costs across the globe and empowering America’s adversaries abroad,” the Senate letter states.
“Over the coming months and years, Congress will increasingly use its oversight powers to scrutinize the institutionalized antitrust violations being committed in the name of ESG, and refer those violations to the FTC and the Department of Justice. To the extent that your firm continues to advise clients regarding participation in ESG initiatives, both you and those clients should take care to preserve relevant documents in anticipation of those investigations,” the lawmakers warned.
State’s are getting in on the anti-woke ESG action too. For example, Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) administration is looking at ways to divest state pensions from those very financial firms. “If Larry (Fink) and his friends on Wall Street want to change the world, they should run for office, start a not-for-profit and go donate to the causes they care about. But using our cash — the state of Florida’s cash — to fund BlackRock’s social-engineering projects isn’t something Florida ever signed up for,” Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) said when announcing his states’ intention to divest from BlackRock. Should Republicans use their new power in the House to push back against woke ESG? Do your own research and let us know what you think in the comments.
Bob Carlstrom is President of AMAC Action
Disinvest from any Woke busiess A-Z
Devalue the stock
another “repackaging” of marxist communism
We literally just had a very similar article on this same topic a few days ago.
Bring it on. We can show Russia and Canada we can outdo them 10 to 1 on Communisium. m Kyle L.
Yes, this is the one world government, that is planning on taking people’s minds, taking their free will away by injecting something into them. All the world’s leaders attended, including Biden, including Musk, it was scary. It uses AI technology and infuses it with humans-forcing them to work for the government or other facilities. We won’t have free will to worship God, Allah or any other belief as we choose. We won’t have political choice other than the one world government. All will be as the leader’s want. It’s very scary.
ESG = Expect slower growth.
Yes. The House should definitely push back against ESG. This is just another government over-reach by the Democratic Communist Party without the consent of the people. .
Excellent article.
ONLY COMMUNIST use ESG.
Other definition of ESG is POLICE STATE.
ESG The true meaning is Elites, Socialist, Goons. If you look up the synonyms for Goons you will see how this truly defines these leftist American haters!
ESG, Extreme Socialism Guise. It sounds like a harmless plan but it is an extremely disguised ploy.
Making up euphemisms is the trick of the woke to “sound important”. Every time I see things like this I demand the words behind the “short form” which exposes the truth they want hidden. This has to stop. If people would stop swallowing information rather than delving into what is being said, they might learn something. The woke is expecting no questions asked mentality.
Yes Congress should go after these so-called woke ESG investment firms! And yes, we should divest every penny from these a..hole woke firms!
To Bob Carlstrom, Important article, you covered the topic well. Yes I believe Congress should push back against the ESG strategies, which are not something new, with some slightly different terminology, and definitions, have been around for decades. As indicated in your article what Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis ( R – FL ) said on the topic makes right good sense , suggesting that these ESG outfits that want to change the world, should run for office, or start a not – for – profit and go donate to the the causes they care about . So, the Ron DeSantis administration gets some more things right yet again. I’m thinking Florida looks like a great example setter for the rest of the country. In doing some research on the topic I came across something written in 2014 by a professor of business and international law Salar Ghahramani , I can’t say what his political loyalties are, but what he wrote indicated that as I mentioned above these strategies have been around for decades and the economic, and foreign affairs, and international law connections have been well established for decades . What makes it important now for Congress to push back on is the far left, ultra liberal element involvement behind these strategies. The American way of doing things that respects an ethical approach , an open, honest approach to dealing with these matters needs to be defened .
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A stock brokerage which focuses on non-NSG stocks is Stirm in Columbus Ohio.
ESG needs to die before it gets entangled in our
society. Let those who are woke or far left fund it !
Love the way the left keeps trotting our their new attacks. Every 2-3 months they release a new one – ESG, wokeness, reparations, anti-MAGA, transsexual rights, Defense of Marriage Act ( thats a cute one) …… On and On. They are constantly on the new semantics attack while the right sits and waits for the next one. Count on it. In Feb, there will be a new normal defined by the left while the right sits. The right knows nothing other than staying on defense. No new ideas from the right. How about Preserve Tradition, homosexual rights, no-freebies ( to fight reparations). Can’t do it can we ? It takes energy.
Another liberal love-phrase. “Alternative sources” What are they ? wind ? how close is the nearest windmill to you. solar ? Ask your local solar panel residents what they think. What is their total annual electric ( electric is bad) bill ? geothermal ? cool technology. How many
geothermal installs are in your neighborhood ? The left wants to shut down oil and electricity tonight. They don’t care if we are suddenly cavemen. As usual, we just sit there and take it. We love to think of ourselves as poor victims. Bust somebody in the mouth or they will bust you. Sorry.
This is a somewhat informative article, there are more details on this on an AMAC video. AMAC sent an email with “The ESG THREAT: The New Biden Rule Could Endanger Your Retirement by the End of January” in subject, trying to find it on this website is, as usual, a challenge! Why aren’t these topics, which are emailed, easy to locate?