ICYMI: McIntosh on the “ESG Embezzlement Scheme”
Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, Club for Growth President David McIntosh published an OpEd in the Washington Times outlining the misguided consequences of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing and what it could mean for the U.S. economy and investors.
Click here to read the full Washington Times OpEd from Club for Growth President David McIntosh.
Excerpts
Holding ESG Investing Perpetrators Accountable, Washington Times
By David McIntosh
It’s time for a reckoning.
In what is being called “ESG month,” the House Financial Services Committee is holding a series of hearings investigating the practices and consequences of environmental, social and governance investing.
Rather than prioritizing the financial well-being and stability of retirees, the emphasis of ESG has been on forcing ideological policy objectives associated with far-left extremism. Congress must not fail to hold accountable those “woke” asset managers who have been derelict in their fiduciary responsibility.
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Through their arbitrary ESG scoring system, these activist high-rollers are “forcing behaviors,” as BlackRock CEO Larry Fink acknowledged. For example, extending credit to build electric cars that nobody wants would lead to a higher ESG score while helping to finance a natural gas project would virtually torpedo an institution’s ESG rating.
In essence, a cabal of financial chieftains are determining which politically preferred industries should thrive and which companies — and even economic sectors — will be targeted for destruction.
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ESG investment practices are even more reprehensible in that hardworking Americans’ private investment portfolios and state pension funds are being manipulated without their consent or knowledge, based on political factors that have nothing to do with maximizing returns, and with which they may not approve.
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Bluntly stated, the ESG embezzlement scheme functions much like a political parasite feeding on retirees’ futures.
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By June, the ESG brand had become so toxic that even Mr. Fink, the BlackRock CEO who was an enthusiastic actor in “forcing” ESG upon corporate America, stated that he was no longer “going to use the word ESG.”
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In July, Congress finally started giving ESG the attention it merits. Members of the House Financial Services Committee must continue to call out the big asset managers that perpetrated this scam on the American people and hold them accountable.
Moreover, corrective legislation must follow on the heels of these hearings.
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Even if these and other anticipated proposals to curb ESG abuses get the inevitable veto from President Biden, it’s vitally important that Americans know which legislators are willing to stand up to defend retirement nest eggs from “woke” corporate impropriety.