What would the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) do if it learned that a company conspired with its Board of Directors to destroy the market value of the company by $50 billion, by alienating its customers and depressing its stock price? There would be an investigation. Perhaps fines would be levied, perhaps the company would even be delisted from the Stock Exchange. If the SEC learned that a company was making decisions that did not allow them to live up to its fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders, action of some sort would be taken.
The SEC’s Division of <a href="https://www.secatty.com/legal-blog/sec-investigations/#:~:text=The%20SEC's%20Division%20of%20Enforcement,common%20reasons%20for%20SEC%20investigations.">Enforcement</a> oversees the investigation of alleged breaches of securities law — including negligence and market manipulation. Would making a decision that the Board of Directors knows will lead to the destruction of corporate earnings and shareholder value meet the requirements of an investigation? Does purposefully destroying market valuation count as market manipulation?
Dick’s Sporting Goods was one of the first companies to go woke. Shortly after the Parkland School shooting in Florida in February 2018, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/business/dicks-sporting-goods-remove-guns-from-440-stores/index.html">Dick’s</a> announced that it would stop selling semi-automatic weapons. They also stopped selling guns to people under 21, who otherwise could legally purchase a firearm. When asked how much he estimated he’d lose following the decision to stop selling to people under 21, Dick’s <a href="https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/dicks-sporting-goods-ceo-feels-fine-about-losing-250-million-following-gun-sale-restrictions-16002028">CEO</a> Edward Stack said, “a quarter billion dollars,” or $250 million. This does not include additional lost revenue that came from not participating in the surge in gun sales during the BLM riots in 2020. Was Stack acting on behalf of his beliefs or looking to maximize shareholder value?
Fast forward to 2023. Woke companies flaunt their values and their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores, knowing these positions will destroy the value of the company.  
According to <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12120649/Anheuser-Busch-lost-staggering-15-7-BILLION-value-Bud-Light-controversy-began.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Mail</a>, Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch has seen its market value “plunge $15.7 billion since the disastrous campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.” 
Target has lost $9 billion in market value since “angry social media users called for a boycott of the Minneapolis-based retailer over its rollout of the “PRIDE” collection featuring LGBTQ-friendly clothing for children,” according to <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/05/25/target-loses-8b-in-week-since-boycott-calls-over-pride-collection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Post</a>
Not to be outdone, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/disney-has-lost-50-billion-in-value-since-war-with-florida-began" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Examiner</a> reports Disney’s “stock has lost nearly $50 billion in value since the start of March, when it took a political gamble to oppose Florida’s” education law, the so-called “don’t say gay,” bill. 
Shares of North Face’s parent company, VF Corp, dropped sharply on May 24, after “reporting Q4 2023 earnings and revenue that beat analyst estimates, just a day after <a href="https://finbold.com/north-face-shares-bleed-on-drag-queen-come-outad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VF Corp</a> was embroiled in controversy for releasing a ‘come out’ pride ad, featuring activist Pattie Gonia. In the past month, shares of VF Corp plummeted nearly 20%.”
Few people outside of the boardroom and the advertising agencies who pitched these ideas were surprised by the backlash from these corporate decisions. History has taught us this will happen. The <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/515665-new-poll-says-nba-ratings-have-plunged-because-of/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA</a> and <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-11634405/NFL-announces-3-DECREASE-ratings-2022-regular-season.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NFL</a> saw declines in viewership, and subsequently advertising dollars, when they went “super-woke” during the BLM riots, allowing players to wear social justice messages on uniforms and painting social justice messages on the court and field.
John and Jane Public do not want politics in their sports. They do not want transgender activists selling them beer or outdoor clothing, and they certainly do not want to see “tuck-friendly” bathing suits at their local Target. And if by chance they can save the <a href="https://365atlantatraveler.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-go-to-disney-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$4,000+</a> to visit Disney World, they do not want to be “educated” about Florida’s laws about teaching sexuality and sexual orientation to its students. Joe and Jane Public go on vacation, watch sports, and drink beer to get away from the world, not to have the woke world shoved in their face.
So, when does a woke corporation open itself to class-action lawsuits from its shareholders for destroying value? Hang on sports fans, I think we will soon find out.
Jim Nelles is a Navy veteran and supply chain consultant based in Chicago. His articles have appeared in The Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Foxnews.com, and The Daily Wire. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

New York City Architecture And Monuments

Corporate Earnings And The High Cost Of Going Woke

Corporations

Economy

Readers Pass

Securities and Exchange Commission

Wall Street

Woke Culture

One of the largest public state pension <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/stock-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">funds</a> in the nation has routinely accepted <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/business" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shareholder</a> resolution advice from a woke proxy advisory firm based in San Francisco, effectively leveraging its nearly $100 billion in assets to push companies toward adopting leftist <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/esg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">priorities</a> that critics say contradict the conservative state&#8217;s values.
Officials at the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, also known as OPERS, and a senior elected Republican told The Daily Wire the fund is rightly concerned about &#8220;reputational risk,&#8221; but has not delegated its decision-making to Glass Lewis.
Glass Lewis advises investment entities on how they should employ their stakes in public companies to support or oppose various shareholder resolutions. OPERS, which currently <a href="https://www.opers.org/investments/Defined-Benefit/total.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">manages</a> more than $92 billion on behalf of retirees, survivors, and disabled citizens in Ohio, has accepted the firm’s recommendations to support equity audits, carbon emissions reports, and other progressive policies, according to a report created by the American Accountability Foundation and shared with The Daily Wire.
OPERS voted last year, for instance, in favor of proposals at Berkshire Hathaway which called for aligning greenhouse gas <a href="https://viewpoint.glasslewis.com/WD/MeetingDetail/?siteId=OPERS&amp;securityId=18692" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reductions</a> with the Paris Climate Agreement, as well as resolutions which endorsed the publication of climate and diversity reports. The fund also voted for the <a href="https://viewpoint.glasslewis.com/WD/MeetingDetail/?siteId=OPERS&amp;securityId=639499" target="_blank" rel="noopener">creation</a> of a gender and racial pay equity report at Disney, the <a href="https://viewpoint.glasslewis.com/WD/MeetingDetail/?siteId=OPERS&amp;securityId=21592" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release</a> of a net zero emissions analysis at Exxon Mobil, and the <a href="https://viewpoint.glasslewis.com/WD/MeetingDetail/?siteId=OPERS&amp;securityId=23100" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issuance</a> of a racial equity audit at Home Depot.
Similar votes related to social issues were cast at the recommendation of Glass Lewis for Meta, United Airlines, Walmart, and other public companies in which OPERS maintains a stake. Some votes from the fund <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/354950/000035495022000116/hd-2022proxystatement.htm#ic093c1edc810406d92fceac310f5482e_106" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supported</a> the “defund the police” movement and condemned contributions to police foundations, while others <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/732717/000119312522081678/d219457ddef14a.htm#toc219457_9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opposed</a> political donations to entities which denounce abortion.
Senior managers at Glass Lewis are overwhelmingly progressive: Glass Lewis President Carrie Busch has made donations to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization; Glass Lewis Chief Operating Officer John Wieck has donated to a number of Democratic candidates; and Glass Lewis Chief Legal Officer lauded a move from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ban the importation of handguns, according to another analysis from the American Accountability Foundation shared with The Daily Wire.
The controversial OPERS votes came even as a number of Republican state lawmakers, treasurers, and attorneys general across the nation severed ties with asset management companies which endorse the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG, an investment philosophy which leverages funds to advance political and social agendas in a manner which critics say distracts from the maximization of profits.
“I&#8217;m troubled by the woke left&#8217;s hijacking and capture of the American corporate sector and OPERS proxy votes for resolutions attacking pro-life lawmakers, promoting abortions, and calling for defunding the police,” former Ohio Republican State Treasurer Ken Blackwell said in comments to The Daily Wire. “I believe OPERS should, exercising independent judgment, make decisions in the best fiduciary interest of its members. Clearly, this is not happening.”
American Accountability Foundation Executive Director Tom Jones emailed the conservative research group’s analysis of proxy votes to OPERS Executive Director Karen Carraher on March 29 but never received a response. “OPERS needs to explain how it has happened and what you are going to do to purge the corrosive influence of Glass Lewis and other woke activists from the system,” he told the official in an email seen by The Daily Wire.
OPERS Communication Strategist Michael Pramik confirmed to The Daily Wire that Carraher did not reply to the inquiry and claimed that the fund “does not permit ideologies to influence our investment or proxy voting decisions.” He insisted that the fund’s investment objective is merely to “maximize returns within a reasonable risk framework, thus supporting the system’s mission of providing secure retirement benefits to our members.”
Jones also contacted Ohio Republican House Majority Leader William Seitz on March 29 with his concerns about the proxy votes. Seitz responded to the email on April 10 with copies of the OPERS corporate governance and proxy voting guidelines, informing Jones that he found the documents to be “very reassuring that OPERS is totally committed to maximizing fund values for its pensioners without regard to pursuing strategies that exalt environmental and social concerns” over the fundamental objective of maximizing returns.
Seitz added that he met with OPERS authorities, who informed him that some of the votes were for policies that board directors for the portfolio companies had recommended, while other votes were executed because the fund was “concerned that reputational risk to the corporation in which OPERS was invested could lead to shareholder losses.”
“I recognize that there is a fine line between making decisions based on perceived reputational risks, many of which are simply ginned up by liberal activists, and treading further into supporting the ESG woke agenda,” Seitz told Jones. “However, as long as the lodestar of OPERS’ policy is as stated in the enclosed, I am fairly comfortable with what they have done.”
Jones responded to Seitz on April 14 with more detailed information about the politically charged shareholder resolutions which OPERS had supported. “I hope you are aware that the woke activists use the ‘risk’ framing as a tool to manipulate lawmakers, press, and investor relations,” Jones asserted, noting that describing resolutions in such a manner “is the cover they give to liberals who want to sound like they actually care about shareholder value but actually want to implement a liberal agenda and attack conservatives.”
Seitz confirmed to The Daily Wire that he did not respond to the second message from Jones, asserting that “at some point, we had to terminate the dialogue to further evaluate how we should regulate the pension funds’ independent proxy decisions.”
The lawmaker later told The Daily Wire through a spokesperson that he has a “legislative effort underway on the issue.” The proposed <a href="https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/135/hb4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a>, which appears to currently be in draft form, will deal with “financial institutions and other businesses that conduct economic boycotts or discriminate against certain companies or customers based on certain factors.”
The Daily Wire asked Seitz whether the bill would address the votes undertaken at the direction of Glass Lewis. His office said that the bill will &#8220;most likely&#8221; allow Glass Lewis to &#8220;electronically vote the proxies but only in accordance with instructions issued by the pension funds&#8221; with &#8220;no discretion to deviate from what the pension funds instructed them to do.&#8221;
A spokesperson for Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine told The Daily Wire that the official is monitoring legislative proposals and “waiting to see which bill will ultimately be sent” to his desk. When asked whether the bills would impact the relationship between OPERS and Glass Lewis, the spokesperson said that “it is too early to tell what will be in any final bill on this topic.”
Editor&#8217;s Note: This article has been edited to clarify Ohio Republican House Majority Leader William Seitz&#8217;s position on Glass Lewis&#8217; relationship with OPERS.

Ohio Statehouse

Ohio Retirement Fund Votes For Leftist Shareholder Resolutions At Behest Of Woke Advisory Firm

Business

Ohio

Republican

Stock Market

Sam Brownback, the chair of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, detailed how <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jp-morgan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JPMorgan Chase</a> suddenly cut ties with the nonprofit last year, an experience which occurred despite the financial services behemoth denying ahead of its upcoming <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/wall-street" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shareholder</a> meeting that they have <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/banks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debanked</a> conservative and religious customers.
Chase Bank, the firm’s consumer and commercial subsidiary, drew backlash in recent months for abruptly ending its relationship with the National Committee for Religious Freedom, a “nonpartisan, faith-based nonprofit organization dedicated to defending the right of everyone in America to live one’s faith freely.” The bank account belonging to the entity was nixed three weeks after starting a relationship with Chase, which asked the nonprofit to provide a list of their major donors and their criteria for deciding which candidates they would support.
David Bahnsen, the founder and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, accordingly filed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hedge-fund-manager-will-confront-jpmorgan-chase-shareholders-on-moves-to-de-bank-conservative-and-religious-groups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> to be presented at the JPMorgan Chase annual shareholder meeting next week demanding that the firm publish an evaluation of how executives oversee risks related to discrimination against clients for their religious and political views.
Board directors for JPMorgan Chase <a href="https://www.jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jpmc/jpmorgan-chase-and-co/investor-relations/documents/proxy-statement2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recommended</a> that shareholders vote against the measure and claimed the proposal is “based on allegations that are not true,” adding that the company does not “debank people because of their political views, ideas, or religious affiliation.”
Brownback, who formerly served as a senator and governor for the state of Kansas, as well as the United States ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said in a Thursday <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/19617/000197687823000002/PX14A6G.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">submission</a> to the Securities and Exchange Commission that his experience “says otherwise.”
“Every American needs basic financial services. That is why the government has granted banks, particularly national ones like Chase, significant regulatory privileges,” Brownback wrote. “Politicizing financial services is contrary to those purposes and discourages Americans from exercising their rights to free speech and religious exercise.”
Brownback remarked that he learned the account for the National Committee for Religious Freedom had been shuttered on May 19, 2022, a move which the organization’s local branch could only say was a decision that came from the corporate office. He received a letter one week later, dated May 6, 2022, which said that the company had decided to “end our relationship with you” and did not provide a reason for the decision. Five months later, after Brownback wrote an opinion piece about his experience, Chase sent another letter claiming they had to ask the questions about donors and candidate support criteria in order to “comply with federal banking guidelines to prevent money laundering and terrorism.”
“On its face, this rationale is preposterous,” Brownback continued. “Yet even if the guidelines did apply, regulators do not require banks to do this screening at all.”
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Jeremy Tedesco, senior vice president of corporate engagement at the Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire that Chase “needs to rebuild trust with its shareholders and clients” and “assure its shareholders and customers that it respects everyone’s freedom to participate in the marketplace.”
Other conservative and religious entities have had similar experiences with Chase: several Republican state attorneys general noted in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jpmorgan-chase-repeatedly-de-banked-conservative-and-religious-groups-republican-state-officials-say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> last week that one credit card processor owned by Chase likewise terminated an account belonging to Family Council, a conservative organization that works to strengthen traditional family values, while another firm controlled by Chase refused to serve the political action committee Defense of Liberty.
JPMorgan Chase previously filed a <a href="https://adfmedia.org/press-release/jpmorgan-chase-loses-sec-challenge-must-allow-shareholders-consider-viewpoint" target="_blank" rel="noopener">motion</a> with the Securities and Exchange Commission to exclude the religious liberty resolution submitted by Bahnsen from the shareholder ballot, a move which authorities from the agency rejected.

Chase Bank

JPMorgan Chase Denies They Debanked Religious Groups. Head Of Impacted Nonprofit Responds.

JPMorgan Chase Denies They De-Banked Religious Groups After Accusation

Banks

First Amendment

JP Morgan

Religion

Religious Freedom

Portfolio manager David Bahnsen will introduce a resolution before the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/wall-street" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shareholders</a> of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jp-morgan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JPMorgan Chase</a> next week regarding the company’s moves to <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/banks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">de-bank</a> organizations for their conservative and religious <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/free-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">viewpoints</a>.
Chase Bank, the consumer and commercial subsidiary of the financial services behemoth, has garnered controversy in recent months for nixing its relationship with the National Committee for Religious Freedom, a nonprofit that advocates for religious liberty, and asking the organization to provide a list of its donors. One credit card processor owned by Chase likewise terminated an account belonging to Family Council, a conservative organization that works to strengthen traditional family values, while another firm controlled by Chase refused to serve the political action committee Defense of Liberty.
The shareholder <a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/vds_storage/document/JPMorgan%20Chase%20Proposal%20-%20Bahnsen%20-%20Revised%2012-26-22.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> submitted by Bahnsen, the founder and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, contends that the actions from Chase violate the liberties enumerated in the United States Constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The resolution, which will be presented at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on May 16, would demand that JPMorgan Chase publish an evaluation of how the firm oversees risks related to discrimination against clients for their religious and political views.
“When companies engage in this kind of discrimination, they hinder the ability of individuals, groups, and businesses to access and equally participate in the marketplace and instead skew it to their own ends,” the resolution asserts. “Moreover, they risk giving fringe activists and governments a foothold to demand that private financial institutions deny service under the sweeping, unfettered discretion that such policies provide.”
JPMorgan Chase filed a <a href="https://adfmedia.org/press-release/jpmorgan-chase-loses-sec-challenge-must-allow-shareholders-consider-viewpoint" target="_blank" rel="noopener">motion</a> with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year to exclude the resolution from the shareholder ballot, a move which authorities from the agency rejected.
Bahnsen remarked in an interview with The Daily Wire that he does not expect the resolution to pass next week but said the intended impact “has already been achieved” because of the significant attention drawn by the company’s unsuccessful effort to nix the resolution.
“We have now had three extensive meetings directly with senior leaders at JPMorgan Chase and have been able to engage them in serious conversation about these matters,” Bahnsen commented. “I do not believe this would have ever gotten any internal attention apart from this effort, nor do I think senior leadership understood or appreciated that there were even people like us out there before this.”
Bahnsen, himself a conservative Christian and the son of influential late <a href="https://apologiastudios.com/lectures/bahnsen-u-course/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apologist</a> Greg Bahnsen, said he does not believe actions against religious groups are emerging from senior executives, attributing the phenomenon to the “biases and prejudices” of “highly empowered” local and regional middle managers. “I am convinced these discriminatory things are happening, and that senior management is not behind it at all,” he continued. “I believe they have a breakdown at a more local and regional level causing this, and they internally are going to have to rectify it.”
Many accuse public and private actors of leveraging the financial system to oppose certain political perspectives, especially those held by conservatives. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-trudeau-announces-unprecedented-action-freezing-bank-accounts-of-freedom-convoy-protesters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">invoked</a> emergency powers last year to freeze the personal and corporate bank accounts of individuals involved with demonstrations against vaccine mandates, while PayPal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-paypal-policy-lets-company-pull-2500-from-users-accounts-if-they-promote-misinformation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that the firm would withdraw penalties from accounts deemed to be promoting racism or misinformation, a policy that the company later claimed was published by mistake.
The shareholder resolution comes as several Republican state attorneys general <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jpmorgan-chase-repeatedly-de-banked-conservative-and-religious-groups-republican-state-officials-say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> JPMorgan Chase to participate in the survey component of the Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, an initiative from the Alliance Defending Freedom that evaluates prominent firms for their commitments to religious liberty and freedom of speech. JPMorgan Chase <a href="https://www.viewpointdiversityscore.org/company/jpmorgan-chase" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scored</a> 15% out of 100% due to “unclear or imprecise policies” which allow the bank to “deny service for arbitrary or politically biased reasons.”

JPMorgan Chase

Portfolio Manager Will Confront JPMorgan Chase Shareholders On Moves To De-Bank Conservative And Religious Groups

Portfolio Manager Will Confront JPMorgan Chase On Moves To De-Bank Religious Groups

Free Speech

The state of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/oklahoma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oklahoma</a> banned more than one dozen <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/wall-street" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investment</a> and asset management <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/banks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">firms</a>, including <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/blackrock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BlackRock</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jp-morgan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JPMorgan Chase</a>, from conducting business with state government entities over alleged efforts to boycott <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic-oil-and-gas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy</a> companies.
Recently enacted legislation enabled Oklahoma Republican State Treasurer Todd Russ to create a list of firms deemed on Wednesday to be engaged in an energy company boycott, defined by the <a href="http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22%20ENR/hB/HB2034%20ENR.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a> as “refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise taking any action that is intended to penalize” fossil fuel companies “without an ordinary business purpose.” Companies from which state entities are now expected to divest funds also include Bank of America, State Street, and Climate First Bank.
&#8220;The energy sector is crucial to Oklahoma’s economy, providing jobs for our residents and helping drive economic growth. It is essential for us to work with financial institutions that are focused on free-market principles and not beholden to social goals that override their fiduciary duties,” Russ told The Daily Wire. “Our state&#8217;s financial partnerships should reflect our priorities and values, and it is our responsibility to partner with companies that share our vision for a strong and prosperous Oklahoma economy, and that includes our energy sector.”
The move from Oklahoma officials is the latest effort among conservative states to distance themselves from firms involved in the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/esg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESG</a>, a philosophy that skeptics say mingles political causes with core business objectives in a manner that compromises or distracts from profitability.
Several firms supportive of the ESG movement have discouraged portfolio companies from involving themselves with initiatives that rely upon fossil fuels: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in his most recent annual <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/climate-risk-is-investment-risk-blackrock-ceo-tells-corporate-america" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to investors that “climate risk” is an “investment risk,” while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in his annual shareholder <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jpmorgan-chase-ceo-suggests-seizing-private-property-to-build-more-solar-farms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> that the government should consider using eminent domain, the power to seize private land for public use, as one possible mechanism to accelerate the development of green energy resources.
State officials <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/states-have-pulled-nearly-12-billion-from-blackrock-this-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">divested</a> some $12 billion from BlackRock last year, constituting a small fraction of the $9 trillion <a href="https://s24.q4cdn.com/856567660/files/doc_financials/2023/Q1/BLK-1Q23-Earnings-Release.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">managed</a> by the company even as broader market forces react against the ESG movement. The officials likewise recently called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to prohibit Vanguard, another prominent asset management company, from purchasing shares in publicly traded utilities out of a concern that the firm’s climate activism would raise prices and decrease energy reliability across the nation. Vanguard subsequently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vanguard-drops-out-of-climate-initiative-as-reaction-against-woke-investing-continues" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ceased</a> participation in the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, under which companies <a href="https://www.netzeroassetmanagers.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commit</a> to seeking “net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner” using investment funds.
Increased economic tumult has heightened skepticism toward the ESG movement among some managers and investors. ESG funds <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virtue-signaling-isnt-free-how-woke-investing-fell-apart-once-the-economy-got-bad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suffered</a> amid last year’s underperformance among technology firms, which ESG investors tend to favor because of their emphasis on corporate social responsibility, and overperformance among energy companies, which ESG managers tend to disdain because of their dislike for industries with heavy carbon emissions.
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Republican presidential candidates are expected to make the ESG movement a central issue in the upcoming primary election. One recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/most-voters-still-do-not-know-what-esg-is-poll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> from Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies and The Harris Poll found that 64% of respondents have not heard of the investment philosophy, even as most voters agreed that investors should consider returns above other objectives. 56% of respondents backed a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-subpoenas-schedules-hearing-for-blackrock-playing-politics-using-texans-hard-earned-money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decision</a> from Texas lawmakers to blacklist “financial companies for allegedly using ESG considerations,” a policy that could force state pensions and other public entities to sell their shares.

BlackRock

Oklahoma Bans 13 Woke Financial Firms From Doing Business With State Government

Oklahoma Bans 13 Investment Firms From Doing Business With The State

Oil and Gas

Oklahoma

Politics

House Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kevin-mccarthy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kevin McCarthy</a> (R-CA) announced on Monday that <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawmakers</a> would soon vote to raise the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/debt-ceiling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">debt ceiling</a> for one year and seek to slow spending increases for federal agencies.
The debt ceiling, a measure established by Congress that disallows the federal government from spending beyond the predetermined debt limit of $31.4 trillion, surpassed the threshold earlier this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/yellen-warns-congress-extraordinary-measures-have-begun-after-debt-ceiling-breached" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> lawmakers that she was forced to implement “extraordinary measures” to fund the government until early June, after which the government will default on obligations unless lawmakers suspend or raise the debt limit.
McCarthy said in <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/speaker-mccarthys-speech-at-the-new-york-stock-exchange/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> delivered before the New York Stock Exchange that House Republicans would “vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling into next year” in the “coming weeks.” The legislation would return expenditures to fiscal year 2022 levels and limit annual spending growth to 1% over the next decade.
“Don’t believe anyone who says these are draconian limits. They’re the same spending levels we operated under just last October,” McCarthy told Wall Street executives. “But the bloated, overgrown bureaucracy that has expanded under President Biden needs to be pruned, and that’s exactly what we’ll do. If Washington wants to spend more, it will have to come together to find savings elsewhere, just like every household in America does.”
McCarthy repeatedly slammed Biden for refusing to continue negotiations on possible spending cuts over the past several weeks. “The longer President Biden waits to be sensible, to find agreement, the more likely it becomes that his administration will bumble into the first default in our nation’s history,” he continued. “Let me be clear: a no-strings-attached debt limit increase cannot pass. But since the President continues to hide, House Republicans will take action.”
The federal spending plan McCarthy offered largely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-freedom-caucus-chairman-responds-as-white-house-lobs-spurious-claims-at-spending-cut-proposal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">matches</a> a framework issued by members of the House Freedom Caucus, a bloc of conservative Republican lawmakers who said they would consider voting to raise the debt ceiling contingent upon acceptance of their framework. The lawmakers previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-concessions-house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-gave-to-republican-holdouts-to-win-their-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forced</a> McCarthy to accept various concessions, such as adopting budgets that did not allow the debt limit to increase and only voting on single-subject bills before they cast affirmative votes as he sought control of the gavel.
Biden unveiled a budget <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/more-taxes-and-more-spending-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-president-bidens-newest-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposal</a> last month that would increase expenditures from $5.8 trillion to $6.9 trillion over the next fiscal year while reducing cumulative deficits by $3 trillion over the next decade through several tax hikes on businesses and wealthy individuals.
“In his unserious budget proposal, President Biden wants to spend more this year than the government did during the height of the pandemic,” McCarthy commented. “Just think about that. House Republicans believe the opposite should happen: before we borrow another dime, we owe it to our children to save money everywhere.”
Business leaders and government officials have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/were-going-to-have-to-fix-this-jpmorgan-chase-ceo-sounds-the-alarm-over-soaring-national-debt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cautioned</a> that a national debt default would likely induce a worldwide financial crisis. Present increases in the national debt, on the other hand, are unsustainable: the federal government’s current outstanding obligations surpass $31.5 trillion, equivalent to roughly 120% of the nation’s gross domestic product, while maintenance costs are increasing due to a recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/interest-payments-on-the-national-debt-on-pace-to-surpass-military-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rise</a> in interest rates.

US-POLITICS-ECONOMY-MCCARTHY

‘The President Continues To Hide’: Kevin McCarthy Addresses Wall Street On Pending National Debt Default

Kevin McCarthy Addresses Wall Street On Pending National Debt Default

Congress

Debt Ceiling

Kevin McCarthy

National Debt

We are in a looming financial crisis, even if we don’t want to see it.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was, according to Moody’s, worthy of an investment-grade rating as of March 8, 2023. S&amp;P Global Ratings similarly held a high opinion of SVB. Two days later, SVB was shut down; immediately, Moody’s dropped SVB into junk territory. So did S&amp;P Global Ratings. Within days, Signature Bank — with Barney Frank, co-sponsor of the famed and much-ballyhooed Dodd-Frank Act, on the board — went belly up.
The Biden administration, touting its own heroism, immediately stepped in to fill the gap. Concerned that unsecured depositors would lose billions in cash, Team Biden announced that all unsecured depositors would get their money back; the Federal Reserve launched a Bank Term Funding Program, to create additional reserves for the banks. Then Joe Biden himself claimed that he had stabilized the banking system.
He hasn’t.
To understand just why throwing money at the problem with the banks won’t solve the underlying issue, we need to understand just why SVB failed in the first place. It failed thanks to three specific factors: from 2020 to 2022, the federal government injected more liquidity into the American economy than at any time in history, bar none; SVB, trusting that the liquidity would keep on coming, socked away a large amount of that liquidity into bonds, which bore a low interest rate; the federal government, having now created an inflationary wildfire, had to count on the Federal Reserve to cut inflation by raising interest rates. Those increased interest rates made SVB’s bond holdings lower; when depositors, hampered by the lack of easy money, started to withdraw their cash, SVB had to liquidate the bonds at a loss, essentially bankrupting them.
So, what happened? Simply put, the federal government created a carousel of easy cash; investors thought the carousel would never stop; it stopped. Now, the federal government blames capitalism — and in the process, claims that by injecting more liquidity into the system, it will prevent capitalism from melting down the banks. But instead, the federal government has created two new problems: first, the Federal Reserve has now given itself the unenviable task of simultaneously quashing inflation (which requires raising interest rates) and shoring up the banks (which requires lowering them and/or injecting more liquidity); second, the federal government has created a new and massive moral hazard, whereby bank managers know that if they promise outsized returns to their depositors, they can gain their business — and worst case scenario, the government will bail out the depositors anyway.
Now the experts tell us that the Biden team will achieve a soft landing – that they’ll somehow square the circle, lowering inflation while preventing bank assets from depreciating, incentivizing financial responsibility while simultaneously backstopping bad decision-making, promoting fiscal responsibility while proposing $7 trillion budgets. No one has this kind of power, least of all the team that’s brought America four-decade-high inflation, the highest interest rates since before the 2007-2008 financial crash, and an ever-soaring national debt.
No, the crisis will arrive. If it feels like the federal government can fly, that’s just because it always feels that way when you jump out of a tenth-story window and you’re nine stories down. Joe Biden and the economy are not immune to the forces of financial gravity.

Ben Shapiro 6

How To Crash The Economy, Big Government Style

Banking

Ben Shapiro

U.S.

Trian Fund Management CEO Nelson Peltz launched a widely publicized campaign to earn a seat on the <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/disney" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Disney</a> board of directors and address various <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/business" target="_blank" rel="noopener">corporate</a> governance issues, but the longtime investor does not appear to have plans to reverse the company&#8217;s social and political <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/esg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">activism</a>.
Trian, which holds a stake in Disney worth approximately $900 million, noted that shares are currently trading near an eight-year low even as the company benefits from robust branding and intellectual property advantages. If he clinches a board seat, Peltz said he would confront poor succession planning for management, excessive compensation, and lackluster cost discipline.
“Disney has an incredible legacy as one of the leading and most successful consumer entertainment companies in the world, having built some of the most celebrated consumer brands and an unparalleled content portfolio that resonates with audiences of all ages across the globe,” Peltz said in a statement. “But in recent years, the company has lost its way resulting in a rapid deterioration in its financial performance from a consistent dividend-paying, high free cash flow generative business into a highly leveraged enterprise with reduced earnings power and weak free cash flow conversion.”
Missing from the announcement is any mention of Disney issuing public stances with respect to controversial social matters. The company opposed legislation in Florida last year that prohibits instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity for students between kindergarten and third grade, causing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-disney-could-win-back-the-trust-of-its-lost-conservative-fans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">loss of trust</a> among some consumers. Around 33% of Americans view Disney in a positive light, according to a <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22014966/nbc-news-may-poll.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> from NBC News, marking a significant decline from 77% approval recorded one year earlier in a <a href="https://f.hubspotusercontent40.net/hubfs/6007149/Daily%20Wire%20Polling%20Memo.pdf?_hsmi=114320810" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> commissioned by The Daily Wire.
A spokesperson for Trian declined to comment when The Daily Wire asked whether the company’s activist campaign will seek to remedy the alienation of Disney customers by executives’ involvement in political debates.
Among other concerning metrics, Disney has reported a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-subscriptions-at-ultra-woke-disney-slow-to-a-crawl-after-company-loses-left-wing-political-battles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">significant slowdown</a> in new domestic subscriptions for streaming service Disney+ after leaping into the fray of contentious social issues. The movies &#8220;Strange World&#8221; and &#8220;Lightyear,&#8221; both of which featured same-sex attraction and were nevertheless oriented toward young children, witnessed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/animated-gay-teen-romance-film-is-woke-disneys-latest-box-office-bomb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failures</a> at the box office.
Strive Asset Management President Anson Frericks said in an interview with The Daily Wire that the shakeup at Disney would be “more successful” if Peltz works to reverse the activist trajectory of the entertainment conglomerate.
“Disney has a real cultural problem right now as their customer approval ratings have plummeted,” he said. “I think there’s a huge opportunity for Trian to put a philosophy into Disney that is focused on excellence, not wading into any political controversies that have continued to sink the trust consumers have with them.”
Trian is a <a href="https://trianpartners.com/esg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proponent</a> of the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG. The investment philosophy contends that businesses have a moral imperative to leverage their power to promote racial diversity, decrease carbon emissions, and achieve other sociocultural objectives deemed desirable by management. Trian has encouraged a number of its portfolio companies to <a href="https://trianpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Trian-ESG-Fact-Sheet-March-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adopt</a> various ESG initiatives.
Critics say the ESG movement prompts companies to shift focus away from the maximization of returns and toward activism that is often <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-made-a-critical-mistake-how-victorias-secret-went-woke-and-got-broke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">harmful</a> to companies’ bottom lines. Frericks, whose asset management firm encourages companies to focus solely on profitability, added that cultural matters “should be handled by politicians and not necessarily by investment firms.”
“I do not think a lot of investors are aware of the risks posed by ESG. There is definitely an echo chamber in Wall Street,” he commented. “We hope that more firms will move away from ESG mandates that might satisfy folks in California and New York, but might not be in the best interest of states like Florida, Texas, or Ohio.”
Disclosure: The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/introducing-dw-kids">announced plans</a> for kids entertainment content.

Billionaire Wharton Dropout Peltz Warns Big Tech Dominance Over

Activist Investor Plans Shakeup At Disney But Does Not Address Woke Activism

Activist Investor Has No Plans To Address Corporate Wokeness At Disney

Disney

Wokeness

One of the worst years for <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/stock-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stocks</a> in recent decades came after President <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> made a series of rosy predictions about their performance.
The S&amp;P 500 index has fallen nearly 20% since the beginning of the year, rivaling the 37% decline witnessed in 2008 amid the collapse of the American banking system, as well as the 12% and 22% declines witnessed in 2001 and 2002 amid the dot-com bubble. Persistent inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, and geopolitical pressures rendered 2022 the seventh worst year for stocks since the Great Depression began in 1929. To make matters worse, 2022 is one of the few years on record in which both the stock market and the bond market were negative.
Administration staffers and the commander-in-chief himself nevertheless lauded the stock market’s performance in the weeks before its substantial decline. During <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/01/07/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-december-2021-jobs-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarks</a> about unemployment delivered in the first days of January 2022, Biden noted that the stock market was approximately 20% “higher than it was when my predecessor was there.”
“It has hit record after record after record on my watch, while making things more equitable for working-class people. At the same time, we’ve created jobs, reduced unemployment, raised wages,” Biden said. However, rising price levels would continue to outpace nominal wage increases in the following months, leading to a 1.9% year-over-year decline in earnings by November 2022, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/realer.nr0.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
During <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/09/08/remarks-by-president-biden-in-honor-of-labor-unions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comments</a> about labor unions delivered in September 2021, the commander-in-chief noted that “the stock market has gone up exponentially” since he ascended to the Oval Office. “You haven’t heard me say a word about it. I’m glad it’s gone up.”
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain <a href="https://twitter.com/WHCOS/status/1455637472508104708" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scoffed</a> at a prediction from the “former guy,” an apparent reference to former President Donald Trump, that the stock market would plummet under Biden, contending in November 2021 that Biden “cares about main street, not Wall Street.”
The lackluster stock market, however, has weighed heavily upon households. Americans saving for retirement saw their IRA balances fall year-over-year by an average of 25% in the third quarter, while 401(k) balances dropped 23%, according to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/401-pain-average-retirement-savings-continue-to-plummet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> from Fidelity Investments. The proportion of individuals with negative sentiment regarding their finances now surpasses the proportion of individuals with positive feelings, marking a significant reversal since last year.
The average 401(k) account value <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/its-not-just-yours-study-shows-how-much-average-401k-is-down-under-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> from $135,000 on the first day of the year to roughly $101,000 by the middle of October, according to a <a href="https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/CTUP_BidenEconomicPoliciesAnd401k.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, offering a dismal view of the past several months under the Biden administration even as stocks have somewhat rebounded in recent weeks.
“This has inflicted considerable financial losses for senior citizens or those in the baby-boom generation who are nearing retirement,” concluded Stephen Moore and E.J. Antoni, the conservative-leaning economists who drafted the study. “For a married couple where each person has the average balance in their retirement account, their $270,000 in savings has declined about $80,000, which can be nearly the equivalent of a down payment on a retirement home. In this way, Biden’s economic policies have not only negatively affected the real take home pay of middle-class American workers but have also effectively stolen tens of thousands of dollars of lifetime savings.”

Biden Post Election Presser

Stocks Had Their Worst Year Since 2008 After Biden Boasted About Their Performance

Stocks Had Their Worst Year Since 2008

Biden Administration

Ron Klain

Institutional <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/wall-street" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investors</a> are more concerned with <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stagflation</a> than a <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/recession" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recession</a> next year, according to a <a href="https://www.im.natixis.com/us/research/institutional-investor-survey-2023-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> conducted by Natixis.
The investment bank found that 65% of institutions see stagflation, which refers to economic stagnation combined with inflationary pressures, as a more significant threat than a recession. Rising price levels are still seen as the top overall risk for the year ahead; 69% of investors identified inflation as the greatest threat to their portfolios.
“The market scenario projected for 2023 may look vastly different from what institutions have experienced in the past decade, but few anticipate it leading to significant changes in allocation strategy,” the survey analysis explained. “While there is little planned in the way of large allocation shifts, many anticipate significant adjustments within asset classes to position portfolios for the year ahead.”
Despite the risk of stagflation, recession, and other economic calamities, investors retain a remarkably bullish outlook for most asset classes. A majority believe private equity, the bond and stock markets, and private debt hold upside potential as interest rates rise, while more significant majorities are bearish on both residential and commercial real estate, as well as cryptocurrencies.
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The companies, representing more than $20 trillion in combined assets under management, believe that war poses the greatest economic threat for next year. While 57% of overall respondents listed conflict as an issue, roughly 68% of European respondents listed war as the most salient threat.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon likewise <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jpmorgan-ceo-jamie-dimon-predicts-when-americans-savings-will-run-dry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed</a> to geopolitical turmoil as an important consideration for economic actors during a recent interview. Members of the G7 and the European Union <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/russia-balks-as-g7-european-union-implement-oil-price-cap" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coordinated</a> this week to limit the sale price of Russian seaborne oil exports at $60 per barrel worldwide; many European nations have witnessed soaring energy prices as a result of nixed Russian natural gas shipments.
Strife between the United States and China is also worrying investors; 65% believe Chinese geopolitical ambitions will cause a bifurcation of the global economy between the two superpowers, while 74% believe such ambitions lower the appeal of investing in the nation.
“China is chief among emerging market concerns. Two-thirds of institutions globally think emerging market investments are overly dependent on China,” the Natixis analysis continued. “In an era in which China is flexing its political influence, institutions worry about how it will impact investments.”
Beyond risks induced by international conflict, respondents identified central bank policy errors as the second-largest threat. Institutions such as the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States and the Bank of England have been reversing loose monetary policy regimes established in the wake of the lockdown-induced recession. Federal Reserve officials have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-reserve-hikes-interest-rates-three-quarters-of-a-point" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raised rates</a> by three-quarters of a percentage point on four consecutive occasions, leading to volatility in the American housing market and raising the cost of borrowing money for consumers and businesses.
Roughly 53% of investors are examining trends related to consumer spending as a primary indicator of whether economic “growth is back on track.” Dimon also predicted that savings accumulated during the recession will deplete by the middle of next year. Beyond consumer spending, 49% of investors believe that business spending tops the list of growth indicators, while 47% and 43% respectively said the same about employment and productivity.

Times Square As U.S. Stocks Climb On Earnings

Stagflation Risk More Concerning Than An Outright Recession, Investors Believe

Investors Lay Out Biggest Economic Risks For Next Year

Inflation

Recession

Harvard University Management Professor Arthur Brooks admonished <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/wall-street" target="_blank" rel="noopener">corporate</a> leaders to reject the bullying of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/woke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">woke</a> employees and focus on their bottom lines rather than involve themselves in culture war battles.
During an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbRfl7M95ss" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with CNBC anchor Joe Kernen, the former president of the American Enterprise Institute observed that only a slim subset of the population desires to politicize major institutions. “One of the things that we need to tell CEOs that they are really not aware of … 3% of your employees are activists instead of working, and they’re blowing up your Slack channel right now demanding that you get involved in a culture war and make political statements,” he remarked. “Don’t do it! The rest of your employees are feeling bullied as well.”
Brooks cited a survey showing that 93% of respondents hate the divided status of the country. Referencing the recent acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, a move the world’s richest man intended as a mechanism to advance freedom of speech, Brooks added that those who do not hate the divided national conversation are the same people who subscribe to absurdities such as “if you buy a Tesla, it means somehow you believe in hate speech.”
“It’s time for us to say, ‘I will not be conscripted into America’s culture war.’ We’re going to make good products, we’re going to help people, we’re going to lift each other up,” Brooks said.
Several corporations have been severely reprimanded by the marketplace for their ventures into social activism. Entertainment conglomerate Disney denounced legislation in Florida that prohibits instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity for students between kindergarten and third grade, ultimately causing the iconic company to lose trust among some consumers. Disney CEO Bob Iger remarked in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-disney-ceo-says-company-will-quiet-things-down-regrets-predecessor-battled-desantis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">footage</a> obtained by Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo that he regrets Disney entered the battle over the statute.
Earlier this year, an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-by-two-to-one-margin-investors-reject-woke-companies-pushing-political-causes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exclusive poll</a> from The Daily Wire showed that American investors would prefer that companies commit solely to the maximization of profits rather than causes favored by executives. Although 29% of respondents agreed it is a “good thing” for companies to leverage their financial power for political or social means, 58% said it is a “bad thing.”
Kernen noted that he now sees social media users calling people white supremacists for supporting Elon Musk or defending the principle of free speech. “We have to disregard it,” Brooks commented. “Something like 15% of Americans are actually involved on Twitter. A very small percentage of them are producing the overwhelming amount of tweets about politics, but it gets disproportionate coverage because it’s so outrageous. This drives out the people who want to have ordinary conversations, talk about the news, have non-controversial opinions.”
Musk reported that new user inflow and the amount of time users spend on Twitter each day have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-reveals-how-twitters-business-is-doing-under-his-leadership" target="_blank" rel="noopener">soared</a> under his leadership, even as a significant number of advertisers pause campaigns or entirely suspend their relationships with the platform following pressure from activist groups. “Elon Musk is quite correctly trying to address the fact that there was too much censorship that was all going almost completely for one political point of view, and he’s trying to balance the equation,” Brooks added.

Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise

Harvard Professor Warns CEOs That 3% Of Their Employees Are ‘Activists’ Bullying Coworkers About Politics Instead Of Working

Harvard Professor Says It's Time To Ignore Woke Corporate Culture Warriors

Money

Social Issues

Attorneys general from multiple conservative states and nonprofit organization Consumers’ Research filed motions seeking to prevent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vanguard" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vanguard</a> from purchasing shares in <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/wall-street" target="_blank" rel="noopener">publicly traded</a> utilities out of a concern that the company’s <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate change</a> efforts will raise <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prices</a> and decrease <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy</a> reliability.
The motions filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission argue that Vanguard should not be eligible for blanket authorization to buy shares in public utilities under the Federal Power Act because the asset manager uses market power to advance decarbonization goals. Along with rival firms BlackRock and State Street, Vanguard participates in the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, through which the companies <a href="https://www.netzeroassetmanagers.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commit</a> to seek “net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner” using investment funds.
&#8220;We took this action on behalf of American energy consumers because time and time again we see massive Wall Street firms pretending to ‘passively’ manage their shares, but instead they use those assets to bully utility companies into adopting radical left-wing policies that drive up electric bills and risk the stability of our power grid,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild remarked in a statement provided to The Daily Wire.
Among other examples, the group’s complaint noted that Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street coordinated to elect three climate-conscious board members to Exxon Mobil, which subsequently announced a $15 billion commitment to lower emissions while abandoning certain oil and gas projects. BlackRock has taken “voting action on climate issues” against dozens of its portfolio companies, according to an investment stewardship <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/publication/our-commitment-to-sustainability-full-report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>.
The adjacent motion from 13 Republican state attorneys general likewise contends that Vanguard breached commitments to refrain from exercising “any control over the day-to-day management” of utility companies or taking action “affecting the prices at which power is transmitted or sold.” The lawyers, who called for a hearing to determine whether a renewed blanket authorization for Vanguard is in the public interest, argued that the company has engaged in “environmental activism” and used “financial influence to manipulate the activities of the utility companies in its portfolio.”
“Kentucky joined a coalition of attorneys general, led by Indiana and Utah, in challenging Vanguard’s application to extend its blanket authorization under the Federal Power Act for the acquisition of certain securities of publicly traded utilities,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “Consumers across our country are already feeling the sting of skyrocketing electricity bills, and Vanguard’s request to extend its authorization, coupled with its commitment to imposing net-zero requirements on publicly traded utilities, would only increase these costs.”
Republican state officials have implemented a number of moves to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kentucky-officials-make-move-to-purge-woke-investing-from-the-state" target="_blank" rel="noopener">divest pension funds</a> from leading asset managers out of a concern that the firms advance social agendas antithetical to the values of their constituents. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blackrock-makes-major-change-after-backlash-against-woke-investing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that institutional clients will be able to vote their shares rather than allow the firm to exercise proxy voting.
Beyond funds controlled by conservative-leaning states, evidence suggests that broader market forces call for asset managers to let shareholders retain the ability to vote their shares. An <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-by-two-to-one-margin-investors-reject-woke-companies-pushing-political-causes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exclusive poll</a> from The Daily Wire showed that 64% of respondents believe “individual investors whose savings are being invested” should ultimately decide whether retirement and pension funds are allocated according to ESG standards, while a mere 20% believe that “Wall Street asset managers” should make such decisions.

In this photo illustration, the mutual funds and ETFs,

State Attorneys General Move To Block Vanguard’s Climate Crusade From Impacting Public Power Grids

State Attorneys General Move To Block Vanguard From Impacting Public Power Grids With ESG Agenda

Climate Change

Vanguard

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