Bad Term at BlackRock

By MARK ANDERSON

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has grown weary—he claims—of using the increasingly loaded term “ESG,” or Environmental, Social and Governance, and wants to distance himself from that trio of concepts, since they represent rigid globalist criteria for investments that Fink supports but some state governments find disgusting.

State attorneys general have filed complaints because, if private companies and public employee pensions want to participate on the huge financial playing field on which BlackRock—as the world’s largest asset manager, managing $9.2 trillion—serves as the ultimate referee, then those participants can only ignore adopting ESG guidelines at their own peril. In other words, the playing field could not be more un-level.

“Fink said he’s no longer using the term ‘ESG’ (environment, social and governance) because it is being politically ‘weaponized’ and he’s ‘ashamed’ to be part of the debate on the issue,” according to Axios online writer John Frank. Importantly, Frank added: “How the world’s largest asset manager frames its investment approach is a leading indicator for the market.”

Frank continued: “BlackRock’s bullish outlook on responsible environmental, social and governance investing is being blasted by conservatives as ‘woke capitalism’ and has drawn boycotts from Florida and Texas. Fink has been a major proponent of factoring in climate change risks to investing strategies and corporate leadership. In a conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival … Fink acknowledged that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to pull $2 billion in assets hurt his firm in 2022, but [he] made [it] clear last year was his company’s best with net flows of $200 billion from US clients.”

Yet, while Fink initially stated that he’s “ashamed of being part of this conversation” regarding ESG, when asked again about this matter later, he quipped: “I never said I was ashamed [Yes, he did]. I’m not ashamed. I do believe in conscientious capitalism.” He went on to say: “I’m not going to use the [acronym] ESG because it’s been misused by the far left and far right,” to which he added, “We talk a lot about decarbonization, we talk a lot about governance … or social issues, if that’s something we need to address.”

Historical Lessons

Long ago, such pretensions, and the swindles and sins of the uber-rich, were copiously documented by the potently accurate super-critic of the world’s monetary mattoids, Ferdinand Lundberg, whose hard-hitting books, “America’s 60 Families,” “The Rockefeller Syndrome” and “The Rich and the Super Rich” unmasked the robber barons disguised as the philanthropists and practitioners of “conscientious capitalism” of Lundberg’s time.

Clearly, Fink would have fit right in during Lundberg’s heyday in the early to mid 20th Century as another super-capitalist interested in nothing but “prosperity” for his investors for whom he’ll do his blueblood-best to ensure that no one is ever muscled out of “the market,” or otherwise swindled or short-changed. But don’t get government involved to bust trusts or protect the vulnerable, because that would be “protectionism,” a cautionary message that Fink has included in his verbose letters to his investors.

Thus, Fink is riding the propaganda wave that Lundberg defined and exposed—the never-ending grand-crusade that portrays capitalism (there are many variations and hues of capitalism, but all we get is the monopoly-crony brand) as the flagship of freedom for all, buoyed by the notion that if a few people get insanely rich, the “invisible hand” of “the market” will float all boats, eventually.

But maybe not. Fink’s contradictory statements barely mask his key place in “the system” of making everyone march to his ESG tune, lest they hit the skids. States like Texas and Florida saw through this. It’s way past time that many more states, investors and the general public digest the hard fact that BlackRock’s adherence to ESG spells trouble for the entire economy. Yes, you can have environmental concerns, which may have validity, but you cannot just bluntly cast away those who may not buy into your concerns when the economic fate of countless companies, aging retirees and many others are at stake.

In the final analysis, however, Fink is simply another creature of monopoly capitalism, a rigged system that, contrary to popular assumptions, has little in common with actual free enterprise and which, over the decades, has concentrated wealth in ever-fewer hands, leading to the BlackRocks of today—a true monetary dictatorship.

Mark Anderson is a veteran journalist who divides his time between Texas and Michigan. Email him at truthhound2@ yahoo.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 1, 2023

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