Dangers of ESG - Environmental Social Governance

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
ESG is an acronym that stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. One application of ESG criteria is a measurement system for private corporations and even private citizens that produces a score. Invariably, these systems force the preferred policies of the radical left on issues like climate change and social policy. By capturing capital and corporate America, the left can implement its preferred agenda without ever going through a legislature or the courts.

Still, understanding how ESGs can negatively affect individuals can be hard to track. The impact is evident in some cases where banks and payment services cut off an individual or group. However, how ESG investing and policies impact every American at the grocery store and the gas pump is less obvious. So the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) announced a new campaign titled “Our Money, Our Values” to educate the American public on the dangers of ESGs.

The “Our Money, Our Values” campaign was officially launched during the SFOF National Meeting in Washington, D.C. It builds on the work of state financial officers from across the nation who have taken significant actions to prevent ESG from harming the citizens of their respective states. To date, state treasurers and attorneys general have focused on the effects of ESG investing on state pension funds and banking. ESG investing prioritizes climate change and other social issues, not maximizing investors’ returns.

“As SFOF members continue to fight for their constituents, it’s important the American people have an honest understanding of what ESG really is,” said SFOF CEO Derek Kreifels. “Our money should not be used to push policies that don’t align with our values and have nothing to do with maximizing the value of our retirements and pensions. We are launching ‘Our Money Our Values’ to help educate Americans everywhere who are being used by massive corporations like BlackRock, Vanguard, and StateStreet.”


 
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GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Behind the scenes, Mr. Miles said that companies getting involved in social justice messaging are primarily being driven by newly introduced metrics like the “environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) corporate equality index,” which is becoming systemically embedded as a process “used to hold companies to this woke ideology.”

“If they don’t tow the line, or if they don’t push the right messaging or use the right spokesperson, then they’re going to be doxxed somehow on their ESG score, and that’s going to affect their access to liquid capital,” Mr. Miles said of the current corporate landscape, which he believes needs to be dealt with at a policy level.

But as has become apparent with the protest against an anti-Christian performance by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light saga, this is where the American consumer has a significant role to play in setting America’s cultural landscape.

Mr. Miles was speaking in relation to the recent decision by Major League Baseball, when the Los Angeles Dodgers chose to honor LGBT activist group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, known for their anti-Christian satire, at the team’s LGBT Pride celebration on June 16.



 

Hessian

Well-Known Member
This is a unique cousin to Social Marxism that was the brainchild of Gramsci in the 1930's fascist Italy.
The ESG's goal is to manipulate investments into LOWER returns for investors while making them "feel good" about their emerging wokeness.
Kipplingers magazine went through a spasm of ESG exploration and the readers (generally) said...NOPE--just stop the agenda of failure!

The more people who invest...should be kept up to speed on this insidious Low/non-performing ETFs who's goal is to reduce the productivity, competitiveness, and profitability of corporations...while trying to sell it to the naive & progressives.
SAY NO to ESGs.
 
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GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

New SEC Rule Could Eliminate Environmental, Social, and Governance Funds


SEC is trying to address “greenwashing” and “climate washing” manipulations as investors strive to make profits. Meanwhile, billionaire Bill Gates is slamming the brakes on climate panic.



The last time I reported on environmental, social, and corporate governance, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink, whose firm has attempted to foist these standards on the global business community, had stopped using the term, whining it has become too politicized.

Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced a rule that may pull the curtain back on the content of these funds, which may drive a stake through the heart of ESG inanity.

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced a rule requiring environmental, social, and governance funds to be 80% aligned with the funds stated goals. This could reveal a long-held secret of ESG funds: to be competitive, they are packed with more profitable investments that are not green.

…The growth of ESG has sparked regulation for sustainable reporting standards for businesses. The European Union was the first, with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards that were approved in July and set to go into effect January 1. The ESRS will require publicly traded and large privately held companies to report greenhouse gas emissions, actions taken by the entity to reduce GHG emissions, and other green policies. Eventually it will expand to small and medium-sized enterprises. While reporting will be mandatory, no environmentally friendly action is required. The SEC is set to release similar standards for the US in October.
The increased interest in ESG caused fund managers and businesses to adjust their practices. This sudden shift raised concerns of greenwashing, or the exaggeration of environmentally friendly initiatives to appear greener than they actually are. A new term, climate washing, has recently developed that is specific to the exaggeration of climate change initiatives.

As elite investors attempt to stay profitable while still presenting themselves as morally righteous, ecologically sensitive, social justice warriors, many have attempted to veil profit sources that are not deemed pure enough. The discovery of this “sin” is now leading to fairly significant fines.

Deutsche Bank-controlled (DBKGn.DE) investment firm DWS will pay $25 million to settle charges over misstatements regarding its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and failures in policies designed to prevent money laundering, U.S. regulators said on Monday.

DWS Investment Management Americas made “concerning” misstatements regarding its ESG investment process, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement.
The firm marketed itself as a leader in ESG investing, but from August 2018 until late 2021, failed to implement certain related policies as they were billed to investors, the regulator said.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

ESG: HEADED FOR THE ASH HEAP OF HISTORY?




That could be true, although I can’t imagine how you could demonstrate it empirically. But of course, defining “ethically” is fundamental.

A key moment came in 2019 when a powerful Washington lobbying group run by JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon, called Business Roundtable, declared that the purpose of a company was no longer just to deliver profits for investors but also to look after other “stakeholders” such as staff, suppliers and communities.
Suddenly, businesses were responsible for keeping a huge range of people happy – opening the door to politics and climate science.

If you assume that a company has duties that can prevail over its obligation to maximize return to shareholders, while operating legally–and, I would say, ethically, in the real sense of the word–you open the door to all manner of corruption.

A year later, BlackRock boss Larry Fink, who sits atop an investment company controlling $9 trillion, declared that “climate risk was investment risk” and said he would make protecting the planet one of his biggest priorities.

Cynically or not, the investment industry seized upon this shift in tone.
Between 2020 and 2023, almost 3,000 ESG funds were launched, according to Morningstar, promising investors the ability to save the planet by backing ethical companies that also made money.
The funds attracted $600bn of investment globally in the three years to the end of 2023, according to Barclays. In 2021 alone, net inflows were about $300bn.

ESG operators promised to maximize returns while also behaving “ethically.” But that didn’t happen:

ESG investment promised it could change the world for the better, while also delivering strong financial returns. Drawn in by the promise of no downside, investors around the world poured billions into these funds. … It spawned a cottage industry of advisers, fund managers and so-called experts.

[I'm shocked a gaggle of ' experts ' appeared .... I'm sure not working for free]

But today many are rethinking ESG. While Carney’s group is still going, investors are increasingly sceptical that finance can save the world.
Financial returns have been disappointing: ESG funds have underperformed a simple UK tracker fund every year since 2020.

[ One of verticals funded has been Entertainment ... The S part of ESG Social - is funding Woke NonSense - Gender swapping characters, uglyfying Females to appease Trans Females - Laura Croft Tomb Raider has a man jaw, is flat chested and NO LONGER Raids Tombs - Star Wars Acolyte disaster - Race Swapping The Little Mermaid ... and so on ALL FLOPS ... the average normie DOES NOT WANT woke content so billions are wasted on these companies ]

That is the efficient cause, as Aristotle would say, of ESG’s collapse:

Globally, investors have pulled around $38bn out of ESG funds since the start of the year. 2024 is set to be the first year on record when ESG-labelled funds have seen more money withdrawn than added, according to Barclays.
After years of strong-growth, the ESG gravy train is coming to a juddering halt.

Beyond all of that, ESG was largely fraudulent, even on its own terms:

Investors have also become jaded by a series of ESG-linked scandals. A steady beat of news stories have exposed the fact that many ESG funds are not as ethical as they claim.
US regulators last year fined Deutsche Bank’s fund management arm DWS $19m for “greenwashing” after making “materially misleading” statements about how much it cared about ESG.
In another egregious example, following press reports about poor working conditions at factories Boohoo relied on, it emerged that many ESG funds had backed the fast fashion retailer. An independent report subsequently found “endemic” issues.
 

Hessian

Well-Known Member
Perhaps Kipplingers would find the courage to weigh the performance of the ESG stocks after 5 years...against Indexed funds and quietly write the eulogy for ESGs (that they dedicated two cover articles to!) Their agenda driven attempt to promote it cost them subscribers and perhaps impacted their impartiality. Would be nice to see ESGs collapse gradually.
 
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