Anti-woke investing opportunities

If they’re privately held, how are they discriminated against? I guess if they don’t shake their fists or cuss enough at Trump, DeSantis, or non-woke abhorrences, that could certainly lead a wokester to have a legitimately triggered fear or urge to retaliate.

This is a start but it’s a tiny fraction of the $8 trillion managed by Blackrock. They have some of my money in iShares ETFs

Florida Pulling $2 Billion From BlackRock As Company Pushes ‘Social-Engineering’ With Taxpayer Dollars

The state of Florida will divest $2 billion from BlackRock due to the asset management company’s efforts to advance the environmental, social, and governance movement, also known as ESG.

Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis announced that the Florida Treasury “will be taking its business elsewhere” for $1.4 billion worth of long-term securities and $600 million worth of short-term overnight investments by the beginning of next year. The official contended that the mission to “change the world” promoted by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink exposes the state’s resources to risks.

“Whether stakeholder capitalism, or ESG standards, are being pushed by BlackRock for ideological reasons, or to develop social credit ratings, the effect is to avoid dealing with the messiness of democracy. I think it’s undemocratic of major asset managers to use their power to influence societal outcomes,” Patronis remarked in a press release. “Using our cash, however, to fund BlackRock’s social-engineering project isn’t something Florida ever signed up for.”

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good news

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Yes indeed. Another article on the topic.

Turns out that Vanguard was getting in trouble partially because of anti-trust concerns

Closely held Vanguard did not make executives available for comment. But its statement addresses a criticism from some investors and U.S. Republican officials that efforts like NZAM go against antitrust rules. That concern that had already led NZAM’s U.N.-affiliated parent to soften a policy on fossil fuel financing.

And also breaking rules aganst meddling in utility company operations

Under FERC rules, asset managers aren’t permitted to meddle in a utility’s operations. Vanguard is aware of this; that’s why the company promised FERC at its August 2019 authorization hearing it would be a passive investor in the utilities in which it holds shares. The commission granted authorization, and Vanguard’s investment has been anything but passive, actively pushing corporate managements to pursue net-zero targets and shutter coal and natural-gas electricity generation.

…FERC should investigate Vanguard’s activities to determine exactly what the asset manager has been telling utilities. The commission might also audit BlackRock’s compliance with the similar authorization it received in April. If these issues go ignored, consumers will continue to pay, both in higher energy prices and increased dependence on our adversaries. That’s a risk the U.S. can’t afford to take.

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Fascinating to follow the cross currents of wokeness and reality.

TSLA is down 13.7% on1/3/23 at 1242 EST

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/tesla-had-record-2022-sales-but-still-didnt-match-elon-musks-promises/ar-AA15USml

Take a look at the Tesla stock price, and you’d be convinced the electric car company had a disastrous 2022.

In fact, Tesla managed to shift (sic ship) a record 1.31 million vehicles over the last 12 months.

The company reported a production increase of 47 per cent, delivering over 405,000 vehicles in its fourth quarter – up from 308,600 in the same period last year.

I believe that part of Tesla’s fall from grace is Musk’s commitment to transparency on Twitter, and particularly Twitter’s sins of the past. Since he is now making Twitter honest (or at least more open), a lot of his former supporters feel betrayed, and would like to have nothing to do with him, or at least want an excuse to get out of Tesla.

I’m pretty sure 90% of Tesla investors were betting on the come. With the economic doldrums on the way, I give credit to the people bailing out now.

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While not pointing directly at the financial industry, this article points at the feds, who regulate it.

“Value and center lived experience,” the presentation says. “Do not demand data in order to accept a person’s individual perspective or to utilize that perspective in decision-making.”

Facts don’t matter when we rule on “feelings”.

The focus on subjective experience extends to the Army, where two separate trainings, one for “commanders” and another for “special staff” feature a vignette about a soldier who wants to “discuss his newly confirmed pregnancy.”

His confirmed pregnancy, whether new or 75 years old, is not confirmed.

The lessons don’t come cheap: From 2020 to 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alone spent over $300,000 on dozens of diversity trainings, including “Let’s Talk About Systemic Racism, Unconscious Bias, and Privilege,” “Silence is a Statement: Understanding Race in the Workplace,” and “Bambi vs. Godzilla: Dealing with Different, Diverse, and Sometimes Difficult People.”

What about the poor people living in ghetto’s and in food deserts (soon to be drugstore deserts too) who have been denied the opportunity of being given enough money to get out of poverty? Can’t we just keep giving it to them? It’s worked well for 50 years. I know that people laugh at the war on drugs and call it a huge failure. How much bigger of a failure is the war on poverty?

I would quote more, but don’t care to raise my BP any further. The gingerbread idiot is enough for me.

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From my post

In fact, Tesla managed to shift (sic ship) a record 1.31 million vehicles over the last 12 months.

Yes, their market cap cut got out of line but Tesla is a real company shipping a large number of real product. The cars are well engineered and built.

As an aside, a story much in the news here in Norcal is that a Tesla’s passengers survived a crash hundreds of feet off the Pacific coast highway onto the beach. It turns out the driver deliberately drove off the cliff and he’s being charged with attempted murder but that’s another story.

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But less than predicted, by Tesla. I think Tesla was way overvalued. I don’t yet think it’s undervalued.

Fink has become a lightning rod for controversy over ESG—short for environmental, social, and governance—investing as last year’s spike in energy prices and Europe’s dependence on Russian energy highlighted years of underinvestment in traditional energy sources such as oil and natural gas. Many conservatives describe ESG as “woke capitalism” and accuse its proponents of advancing a leftwing political agenda disguised as an investment strategy.

In an opinion piece for Breitbart News, Louisianna Attorney General Jeff Landry singled out BlackRock and Fink:

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is actively using your hard-earned investment dollars to vote in support of his personal social justice warrior goals. Ironically, this is done in the name of “preserving democracy” while Fink actively circumvents the courts, legislatures, and will of the American people to not only dictate national policy from the board room but also change human behavior through a social credit score known as ESG.

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And while Larry’s got his crying towel out …

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I think it’s more than $4 billion. Florida alone pulled $2 billion. However, still pretty small compared to their $8500 billion assets under management.

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The left hates Elon so I’m enjoying this from the sidelines. Investing in Tesla is like closing the barn door after the horse gets out. TSLA is up 61% in the last month. $44 billion for Twitter is pocket change to Elon.

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The Biden regime is not amused.

Overall earnings and cashflow were up pretty significantly year on year," Exxon Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Mikells told Reuters. “So that came really from a combination of strong markets, strong throughput, strong production, and really good cost control.”

The results may set up another confrontation with the White House. President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday blasted oil firms for pouring cash into shareholder payouts rather than production.

Windfall profit taxes are “unlawful and bad policy,” countered Mikells. Slapping new taxes on oil earnings “has the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve,” she said, adding that it would discourage new oil and gas production.

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First, hasn’t the Biden administration hamstrung production expansion?

Second, investing in more production only results in even more of that evil profit.

Far too many people are angry that they bet on the wrong horse. And much like with education, where they eliminate accelerated programs because it makes other students look bad, the obvious answer is to punish the successful business for making it clear the less successful ones are…less successful.

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See the article I quoted about Exxn’s record profits. Their competitor BP went woke and is doing much more poorly.

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Now that it does not matter, Manchin may vote with the Republicans a few times

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No wonder the stock is going up like a (edit. SpaceX) skyrocket

Austin, Texas-based Tesla sold 87,257 Model Y electric sport utility vehicles and 78,934 Model 3 electric sedans last year, while Toyota sold 59,794 units of its RAV4 SUV and 55,967 of its Camry sedans, the California New Car Dealers Association said in its report.

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That was before he became the “hated” one. Until he leaves Twitter, his trajectory will be toward Putin’s/Trump’s/Bush’s/Reagan’s numbers. At least among Californians who can afford Teslas. :smile: