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If the Feds Will Not Protect Us, Maybe the States Will
The number of betrayals and disappointments that we’ve experienced with the federal government are impossible to count, especially over the last two years: lack of border protection, the lawlessness of the FBI, inflation, and the incompetence of the CDC, just to name a few. Lately, however, I’ve seen signals that our state governments are finally taking the Constitution seriously and are stepping up to use the powers they have had since the founding of the country. One of those areas where we are seeing effective Republican state governance is the refusal to accept involvement with organizations that support ESG, or “Environmental, Social, and Governance” programs:
Nineteen Republican-led states are launching an investigation into six large U.S. banks that will examine their involvement in the United Nations’ ‘Net-Zero Banking Alliance,’ which they say is ‘killing’ American companies.
The states, led by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, oppose the UN’s environmental, social governance (ESG) policies that require banks in the alliance to set carbon dioxide emission reduction targets in their lending and investment portfolios, and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
The states involved are Missouri, Arizona, Kentucky, and Texas, taking the lead in the investigation. Other participating states include Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, and five other states that cannot be named due to confidentiality requirements.
The six companies that have been targeted are BlackRock (who appears to be the ringleader), Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. The states can make civil investigative demands which serve as subpoenas. The reasoning for these actions was expressed very clearly by AG Schmitt:
‘The Net-Zero Banking Alliance is a massive worldwide agreement by major banking institutions, overseen by the U.N., to starve companies engaged in fossil fuel-related activities of credit on national and international markets. Missouri farmers, oil leasing companies, and other businesses that are vital to Missouri’s and America’s economy will be unable to get a loan because of this alliance,’ Schmitt told FOX Business.
BlackRock has protested these complaints, stating that they are not only being environmentally responsible but are meeting their fiduciary responsibilities to their clients. Unfortunately, the financial outcomes of using these criteria are a mixed bag.
Louisiana has already acted to divest from BlackRock:
Louisiana will liquidate its investments with BlackRock, totaling $794 million, in order to ‘protect’ the state’s Treasury funds ‘from ESG,’ according to a letter to the investment manager released by State Treasurer John Schroder.
According to a statement from the Treasury, the divestment comes in response to reports that ‘BlackRock has urged companies to embrace ‘net zero’ ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) investment strategies,’ which would harm the state’s fossil fuel industry. Louisiana is a top-10 crude oil producing state, and the third largest U.S. producer of natural gas.
The treasurer of South Carolina, Curtis M. Loftis, has also acted against BlackRock:
‘For the past five years, I have worked systematically to remove BlackRock managed funds from our state’s various investment portfolios,’ Mr. Loftis, a Republican first elected in 2010, said. ‘I realized early on that ESG (environmental, social and governance) had the potential to seriously undermine our state’s economic model from one that values fiduciary responsibility and sound financial judgment to one that pushes the left-wing political agenda of ‘stakeholder capitalism.’’
We have plenty of economic instability already, much of it a result of actions by the federal government. It’s good to know that the states are proactively holding accountable those who are determined to damage the country further to meet their own agendas.
Thanks to all the governors and state treasurers who are aggressively acting on our behalf!
[photo courtesy of unsplash.com]
Published in Economics
Federalism!!! Woohoo!!!!
Whether the states of Arizona, Oklahoma, and Kansas will continue to protect their citizens in this way really depends on the outcome of the election, doesn’t it?
Isn’t it great to see. Blondie?! Now we need to get rid of the Dept. of Education–we need to think BIG!
Positive thoughts, VTK! Let’s at least hope . . .
Arizona has blocked un-fenced sections of the border with shipping containers. I’m interested to see if the Feds will force them to remove those containers, or if they will successfully resist.
They may just leave them alone, since there are so many other ways for the U.S. to be invaded. Sigh.
Good for Loftis, SC.
Glad to see my adopted state, Tennessee, engaged as well.
I read something the last few days that stated the feds asked AZ to remove them but the AZ Gov said no. Hope he sticks with his policy.
UN-led acts such as this could cause a horrendous amount of lives lost and economic destruction worldwide, all to protect mankind from the far off risks of climate change. What happened in Sri Lanka this year should give pause to all national leaders and persuade them not to follow UN recommendations related to the environment. The science doesn’t support the UN beliefs.
I watch and listen to podcasts from hedge fund guys about the economy all of the time. 99% of them are totally cynical about E.S.G.. They are going to ride it up and then ride it down when I destroy the economy, basically. This is the best one I have ever seen. Most of it is in plain English. The discussion is at the beginning.
Those of us holding investments through one of these companies – Morgan Stanley for me – should make our objections clear.
We have completely divested from Chase.
Banking has long been used as a weapon against people and countries that do immoral things.
This is an old weapon in the hands of the New Moralists. Prolly should have beaten it into a plowshare years ago.
This may be another thread, but where did you go? I’m wondering if a much smaller company would make sense.
I did some research and discovered that almost all banks, even small ones, have a version of ESG. And I’ve been angry with Chase for a while, beginning with their support of the Southern Poverty Law Center, to which Dimon gave a large donation. And then we could never get them on the phone–ever. And it is such a hassle to change banks. But South State Bank was recommended by a neighbor. It’s a regional bank and is very involved with its communities. So I went to their website and saw the DEI stuff there, but when we went into the local branch, no one knew what we were talking about. I actually considered that a good sign!
So we bit the bullet. I like everything that South State has done so far, and the manager was wonderful; she actually set up our accounts because everyone else was busy. They have all the same services that Chase has. The changeover was not as difficult as we expected. We figured out who had to be notified; one of the easiest changes was social security. We had a couple of other automatic debits. And we just left the Chase accounts open until everything was changed. We are so relieved that we made the decision, and in a small way did our part to put a dent in this insanity.
The three big things the people in the States need to get control of are education, healthcare, and banking. The Republican Congress needs to take care of federal law enforcement and immigration. And the next Republican POTUS needs to clean up the State Department and the intelligence functions.
I should hope so.