BlackRock: Blasted by the Left and the Right

 

When I first wrote about the machinations of BlackRock, a financial investment firm, I reported that 19 Attorneys General had focused on the company for its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) programs, because it was targeting companies in the fossil fuel and related industries. Ultimately, BlackRock could be putting companies out of business due to discriminatory lending practices, as well as other illegal actions. BlackRock backpedaled, trying to explain and justify their positions to these Republican AGs.

As a result, angry and activist Leftists protested BlackRock and their justifications, claiming they were not doing enough for the environment:

Climate activists have gathered inside the headquarters of financial investment firm Black Rock to protest what the company’s investment in fossil fuels.

This is the third straight day of climate protests in New York City, led by activist groups like New York Communities for Change (NYCC) and the New York chapters of the Sunrise Movement and Extinction Rebellion.

It seems like BlackRock can’t get a break. Do I hear schadenfreude? Do I see being stuck between a rock and a hard place? The protestors were adamant about their efforts to promote climate change, and declaring that BlackRock was abusing its position in the financial world:

Several protesters wielded pitchforks, while others carried green-and-white banners saying, ‘How dare you plunder the Earth,’ ‘Your investments are killing us’ and ‘Your greed = climate chaos,’ according to the video. At one point, the footage showed a person pouring rocks on the descending escalator.

The NYPD confirmed to FOX Business that there was a demonstration at the location. There were 10 arrests, the police said.

As if these protests were not disturbing enough, the Comptroller for the City of New York, Brad Lander, piled on.

‘Unfortunately, despite these repeated proclamations, in its September 6 response to the attorneys general, BlackRock now abdicates responsibility for driving net zero alignment in its own portfolio by saying that it does not ask companies to set specific emissions targets, and that its participation in NZAMI does not mean BlackRock is setting or meeting any net zero targets,’ Lander wrote, condemning the company for going ‘so far as to tout its continued investment in fossil fuels.’

‘The fundamental contradiction between BlackRock’s statements and actions is alarming,’ Lander continued. ‘BlackRock cannot simultaneously declare that climate risk is a systemic financial risk and argue that BlackRock has no role in mitigating the risks that climate change poses to its investments by supporting decarbonization in the real economy.’

BlackRock’s dilemma is a great source of satisfaction to me. It’s easy to focus on their situation where they are squeezed between the Left and Right. But there are also hundreds, even thousands of people, whose lives have been decimated by the Biden climate decisions and the uncertainty about the future. People who had worked in fossil fuels and related industries have been forced to look for work elsewhere due to the impractical, foolish, and economically instituted policies of the federal government and those virtue signaling by jumping on the ESG bandwagon. And, of course,  hundreds of thousands of people will struggle to pay their fuel bills this winter.

Let’s see what BlackRock and its cohorts try to do next.

Published in Domestic Policy
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  1. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Chris O (View Comment):

    DMak (View Comment):

    A few days ago, I was watching some news clips on YouTube when a BlackRock advertisement popped up several times. A little unexpected, as I’ve never seen any advertisements from BlackRock or any other investment firm before. Perhaps some investors withdrew their funds after all.

    May be an ominous sign as they lost, what? $1.3 trillion of their clients’ assets last year? Not sure how anyone has confidence in them. You have to be fully committed to ESG to hire them now, I would think.

    Edit: to clarify, I’m imagining a need for a stopgap infusion of new assets to counteract the outflow of both accounts and capital.

    $1.3 trillion? What did they do; short oil futures?

    • #31
  2. Chris O Coolidge
    Chris O
    @ChrisO

    Percival (View Comment):
    $1.3 trillion? What did they do; short oil futures?

    Oh, sorry, it was $1.7 trillion, and it only took them six months.

    The amount in that time period, I can only guess they were heating the building by burning currency.

    In all seriousness, it’s not just a loss for investors, but for businesses needing capital. It’s hard to fathom the lack of a correction in strategy somewhere along the way. Failing that, one might suspect it was deliberate.

    • #32
  3. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):
    One of the issues at least some of the AGs are looking at is that there are several layers between BlackRock and the actual investors, such that the investors don’t have the opportunity to select BlackRock versus some other fund manager. Often it’s employees putting money into their employer’s 401k plan, the management of which 401k plan the employer outsources to some benefits management company, which benefits management company in turn hires BlackRock.

    That would explain a lot.

    I don’t see this as a Blackrock issue.  In that scenario, they are only accepting money from others.  The burden is on those funneling the money to them.

    • #33
  4. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Chris O (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    $1.3 trillion? What did they do; short oil futures?

    Oh, sorry, it was $1.7 trillion, and it only took them six months.

    The amount in that time period, I can only guess they were heating the building by burning currency.

    In all seriousness, it’s not just a loss for investors, but for businesses needing capital. It’s hard to fathom the lack of a correction in strategy somewhere along the way. Failing that, one might suspect it was deliberate.

    I don’t understand that number. Is it market cap?  It seems unlikely that their assets under management (AUM) would not crater if that was true.  As noted above, they just received 150 billion from AIG.

    • #34
  5. Chris O Coolidge
    Chris O
    @ChrisO

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Chris O (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):
    $1.3 trillion? What did they do; short oil futures?

    Oh, sorry, it was $1.7 trillion, and it only took them six months.

    The amount in that time period, I can only guess they were heating the building by burning currency.

    In all seriousness, it’s not just a loss for investors, but for businesses needing capital. It’s hard to fathom the lack of a correction in strategy somewhere along the way. Failing that, one might suspect it was deliberate.

    I don’t understand that number. Is it market cap? It seems unlikely that their assets under management (AUM) would not crater if that was true. As noted above, they just received 150 billion from AIG.

    I’ve been trying to piece it together. What I can tell you is the losses are all from the passive investment side and that comprises a third of their assets under management. They have big positions in Meta, Amazon, and other Big Tech firms. Larry Fink says the losses are due to the worst calendar-year start for stocks perhaps in history, but that if you step back and look at these accounts on annual return they are up on the year.

    I don’t know how that is possible. They just received $150 billion from AIG? Well, the insurance biggies all have quite a bit of money at Blackrock. Let’s hope they’re not trying to plug holes.

    • #35
  6. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    Old Bathos (View Comment):
    What kind of an idiot CEO gets an immensely wealthy, almost untouchable enterprise into a position where it needs greenie and woke approval rather than making activist groups dependent on whatever crumbs the enterprise could provide to silence or at least mute predictable criticisms.

    If that was a question, the answer would be an elitist, leftist, coastal cocktail party CEO. A CEO that should be fired by the shareholders.

    • #36
  7. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    There is no ‘enough’ that will satisfy the left, no matter what they get they will shriek MORE! I’m amazed people keep trying to mollify them. This does not mean I’m pro BlackRock , anything too big and unaccountable is dangerous.

    • #37
  8. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Rightfromthestart (View Comment):

    There is no ‘enough’ that will satisfy the left, no what they get they will shriek MORE! I’m amazed people keep trying to mollify them. This does not mean I’m pro BlackRock , anything too big and unaccountable is dangerous.

    I agree with you. Their lives seem to center around anger, condemnation, victimhood and conspiracies. And their delusional demands that all their unhappiness be resolved to their satisfaction. And I see no end to this strategy. It’s like a bad habit–nearly impossible to cure.

    • #38
  9. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Kentucky acts.

    • #39
  10. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Kentucky acts.

    Excellent! We will have to see how the pension managers respond. Most of these challenges are in process, so let’s see how aggressive each state is prepared  to be. Thanks, Hoyacon.

    • #40
  11. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Kentucky acts.

    Why should retirees lose money just so some narcissistic twit fund manager can get kudos from ideologues and losers?

    • #41
  12. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    I wonder how hard it would be for a company to simply not comment on climate, trans, BLM et al, and just go about their business of being a business. Honestly, what advantage is there in the internet to most companies other than having a site for people to buy their products on? Social media is a giant Kick Me sign, and the mau-mauing gets more vicious every year. 

    • #42
  13. Chris O Coolidge
    Chris O
    @ChrisO

    TBA (View Comment):
    Honestly, what advantage is there in the internet to most companies other than having a site for people to buy their products on?

    The whole “alignment” thing is real for millennials and younger. They don’t buy if a company isn’t “aligned” with their values, so the twenty-something marketing managers think they need to do it and that it is good PR. The HR department thinks it is the only way they’ll be able to recruit.

    What both overlook is who has the spending power. You can’t pay new employees or marketing managers if your aim is to satiate maybe fifteen percent of the market at the expense of a much larger chunk, some of whom have significantly more disposable income.

    • #43
  14. AshleaND Inactive
    AshleaND
    @AshleaND

    @Hoyacon

    Surely you can not be ignorant enough to make a statement with Blackrock being punished as unacceptable to you if there was no fraud or deceit. Do you really believe that Blackrock, being the global leader in investments with $10 trillion worth of assets, has done so without an ounce of dishonesty? Give me a break. It is shocking you were able to get dressed for the day let alone to find your laptop to post this ignorant [REDACTED]. Blackrock is the lynchpin between Wall Street and Washington and you really question whether deceit has taken place? Ok you go with that!!

    • #44
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