Current Events > financial giant Blackrock is sending lobbyists to state governments

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-28/red-blue-and-blackrock-larry-fink-navigates-a-divided-america

They have this goal of net-zero emission standards, and what theyre doing is theyre leveraging their massive amount of capital to, in many times, change companies from the inside out, and then also at the same time impress their values and standards of the way they see the world, Moore said in a phone interview. What if we dont want the same shape of society that BlackRock does?

Im just very concerned in the direction that this ESG movement of which certainly BlackRock, with $10 trillion in assets under management, has a tremendous amount of influence on, Moore said, using the acronym for environmental, social and governance investing. Their goals, I think, are detrimental to my states goals and a lot of different states.

ugh wall street scum

Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics

Bullshit. It's nothing but.
Let up on the circle-jerk for a little bit, and your stakeholders dump and obliterate your value.

Blackrock is a nice person

I feel like this portion is telling:

BlackRocks chief executive officer has become a prominent voice in business over the past decade in urging companies to think about more than just profits. His annual letters on stakeholder capitalism have drawn a lot of attention, as well as criticism from both sides. Liberals say Fink is failing to back up words with action, while conservatives say hes pandering to the woke mob.
Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics, Fink wrote in his latest letter to fellow CEOs, released on Jan. 17. It is not a social or ideological agenda.

Trouble hit, and fast. Within 48 hours, the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, was accusing BlackRock of being hostile to the states oil and gas industry. Never mind that BlackRock has many billions invested in the fossil-fuel industry, including its huge stake in Irving, Texas-based Exxon. BlackRock is the oil giants second-biggest shareholder, after Vanguard Group.

Trouble hit, and fast. Within 48 hours, the lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, was accusing BlackRock of being hostile to the states oil and gas industry. Never mind that BlackRock has many billions invested in the fossil-fuel industry, including its huge stake in Irving, Texas-based Exxon. BlackRock is the oil giants second-biggest shareholder, after Vanguard Group.

Patrick called for BlackRock to be added to a blacklist that the state is compiling of companies that supposedly boycott the energy industry. Under a 2021 law, Texas can restrict state business with companies that end up on that list. The state comptrollers office, which is still drawing it up, stressed that it isnt targeting any companies in particular.

It is perfectly reasonable for a state to defend a key industry, BlackRocks McCombe said in his statement. This is important to get right for all parties involved and we dont want to be portrayed as not being supportive of energy companies. We are working with them, not against them.

To mitigate any damage, McCombe and Dalia Blass, a former senior Securities and Exchange Commission official who heads external affairs at BlackRock, have met with Texas officials in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter. BlackRock executives have also met with local energy trade groups.

BlackRock has stressed that far from shunning oil and gas, the firm is one of the worlds biggest shareholders of energy companies and doesnt have a policy of divestment -- a position that might quiet some red-state critics only to enrage blue-state ones. More than one third of BlackRocks $260 billion in global energy investments is in Texas, according to a company spokesman.

In short, the government is using its might to demand a private company refrain from even criticizing the fossil fuel industry, even as that company takes roughly zero concrete steps towards ending ties with the industry.

Antifar posted...

In short, the government is using its might to demand a private company refrain from even criticizing the fossil fuel industry, even as that company takes roughly zero concrete steps towards ending ties with the industry.

The purpose of a politician is to get into power and stay there.
Blackrock may be throwing fucktons of money around, but in the end it has vastly less votes for governor than the rest of the population of Texas, and "OMG look at this asshole, vote for me!" is easy pandering.

Questionmarktarius posted...

The purpose of a politician is to get into power and stay there.
Blackrock may be throwing fucktons of money around, but in the end it has vastly less votes for governor than the rest of the population of Texas, and "OMG look at this asshole, vote for me!" is easy pandering.

On the other hand, ESG/sustainable investing is only getting more popular. How many Blackrocks can Texas live without?

Bump

g980 posted...

On the other hand, ESG/sustainable investing is only getting more popular. How many Blackrocks can Texas live without?

That will be very obvious, when the critical mass occurs that caused all the politicians who abhor [thing] suddenly declare they supported [thing] all this time.

Politicians never change, until the polling number tell them to.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

It's all just capitalists making a fuckton of money by claiming they hate capitalism.

Questionmarktarius posted...

It's all just capitalists making a fuckton of money by claiming they hate capitalism.

lol where did you get that from

because it's the opposite of what blackrock's CEO is saying

Nobody has better non-sequiturs than our man Question Mark

Questionmarktarius posted...

It's all just capitalists making a fuckton of money by claiming they hate capitalism.

@Questionmarktarius can you rationalize this, its not what Fink is claiming at all

g980 posted...

@Questionmarktarius can you rationalize this, its not what Fink is claiming at all

"Gotta save the world, but nobody look too closely at my ledger, please"

Sorry Texas. Blackrock already owns all of your houses. They'll just evict your voters.

Jiek_Fafn posted...

Sorry Texas. Blackrock already owns all of your houses. They'll just evict your voters.

ohdamn

Still sounds a lot like crony capitalism aka corporatism, just with 100% more lipstick and blush.

Paragon21XX posted...

Still sounds a lot like crony capitalism aka corporatism, just with 100% more lipstick and blush.

How so