ESG Is a Whale of a Betrayal
How Woke Investments by Asset Managers are Hurting Your Bottom Line
We all want our communities, our country, and our earth to be a better place. After all, what fool wants to live in a dirty, crime ridden, slowly self-destructing environment? No one.
The problem is that the approaches to making our environments better, cleaner, and safer have become divisive. And while perhaps no one has the right answer in this moment, the moves being made in the interest of diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing are doing much more harm than good.
They are also hurting the bottom line in the financial industry.
Woke Investing
For those not in the know, the directions taken in the interest of diversity and ESG investing tend to look on the surface like they are healing past hurts or preventing future hurts, either to people or to the environment.
And much of the moves made are made by foundational institutions, major corporations, and mega wealth holders in the US – the organizations that are supposed to set the tone for our country and affect all of our financial bottom lines.
Universities across the country have implemented safe spaces and trigger warnings on campuses, presumably to keep students from getting their feelings hurt.
Corporations are passing “diversity mandates,” either on their own or at the behest of their cities or states, to ensure their executive offices and boards include a percentage of women, people of color, and people who identify as coming from the LGBTQ+ community.
And wealth management companies like Black Rock, Vanguard, and State Street are prioritizing environmental and social issues over maximizing returns for their clients.
We are now in position to say that while these decisions may seem great at face value, they not only do not help promote diversity, equity, and inclusion or environmental or social governance, but that they actually cause a great amount of harm.
Today, we focus specifically on the violation of anti-trust laws, the harm done by the net zero campaign, and the devastation to the financial bottom line of wealth management clients.
Violation of Anti-Trust Laws
As the bulk of wealth holders in the US prepare to transfer their wealth to the younger generations, investment firms have begun to pay attention to the demands of millennials.
Millennials, without really understanding the circumstances involved, have been inundated by fear mongering over issues like climate change and have been socially conditioned to believe that we live in a racist and exclusionary country.
Thus, they have taken to the streets and to social media to demand things like green movements, calling for companies to be entirely eco-friendly, and like social justice, calling for actions like defunding the police.
Due to these demands, investments firms have made moves that include divesting from so-called “unclean” companies and funding organizations that pressure banks not to lend to those companies.
As a privately owned, publicly traded company, these actions violate anti-trust laws, which prohibit companies from colluding on group boycotts or conspiring to restrain trade, even to advance political or social goals.
In short, it is not the job of investment firms to push for funding or defunding of another company based on the company’s political or environmental position but to make money for their clients. Period. Doing anything other than that is illegal.
Net Zero is a Deadly Campaign
Not only are these actions illegal, but they are also deadly.
The “net zero” campaign, which has pushed for companies to have zero emissions or harmful impact on the environment, has killed thousands if not millions.
Take the country of Malawi as an example, where the people currently have little access to energy or infrastructure. Establishing this energy and infrastructure would obviously require the burning of fossil fuels, but it would also save countless lives.
It is in modern, industrialized countries that people are able to stave off diseases like Malaria thanks to running water and modern medicine, both of which require fossil fuels.
The idea that the countries that have not modernized yet cannot do so because they might burn fossil fuels is outrageous.
DEI and ESG Are Hurting Your Bottom Line
In the end, the companies that hold the majority of wealth in our country, and indeed globally, are often the ones we invest in so they can help us grow our own wealth.
That is, after all, their promise.
But it seems that lately their promise has changed.
Instead, now they promise to have purpose and add value to our lives.
Recently, the big three mega wealth holders discussed here have released letters to their CEOs providing guidance on a corporate culture that leans heavily toward diversity and a movement toward Net Zero. In short, our biggest financial investment companies are placing their focus not on growing wealth for their clientele as a whole but on the feelings of a select few.
Sadly, those two areas of focus do not often intersect, which means that by making this shift, the bottom lines of all clients holding wealth with companies like these are being hurt.
We are making less money, and perhaps far less money, than we could be were the aims to grow wealth rather than DEI fans.
It is time for those of us with our heads on straight to petition our wealth management companies to do their jobs, which is to ensure our finances are invested in organizations that will grow our capital over time.
It is not their job to invest our money for political purposes. And in fact by doing so, they are violating much more than anti-trust laws.
They are violating our trust.
