Appreciate the research and timeline in Rupa Subramanya's article, it’s a risky house of cards and who will pay to bail out who? Brilliant fresh illustration by Monsieur Collage! More from him please! https://www.toombes.com/2023/05/22/quick-hello-monsieur-collage/
These are probably the same people who ride electric battery powered bicycles without any consideration about how they are made or how to dispose of them when they reach their life span.
ESG is acronym for exceptionally stupid and gullible
Equity is inequitable
The mean is not the median
And of course “go woke, go broke”
This garbage is fast becoming the financial equivalent of the leisure suit for those of us who can recall that disaster, which, perhaps unsurprisingly occurred during the overreaching and disastrous presidency of Jimmy Carter.
My Mom had 9 kids. My father died when I was 11. She went to work as a bank clerk when it was clear that my father's heart would not last beyond the “summer of love”. My mother went to Mass everyday before work or on her lunch hour if her schedule, weather, or health didn't allow her to attend the early Mass. Oh and she also had a half dozen charities that she supported her whole life with what little money she had left at the end of the month. We kids didn't know the details of her giving. She never mentioned it on Saturday mornings when she would regal us with old family stories over our Corn Flakes. Her check registers would make an accountant cry. She knew where every penny went. Her handwriting and math were flawless.
As a recent widow she was audited by the IRS. She came back from lunch Mass and broke into tears at her work desk. Her boss who valued her work ethic, and impeccable old school grammar, was incensed. He sent a team of volunteer bank lawyers to her IRS meeting. They asked her to wait outside while they “talked” to the auditor. She said the rosary in the waiting room. We’re not sure if it was the lawyers or the rosary that saved her. But my Mom was certain it was the rosary; although she was grateful to the “young boys and one girl” who took her to a celebratory lunch after the audit.
I tell you this not to publicize my mothers sainthood, but to illustrate what people should do if they feel like supporting a movement. They should support the charities or movements they believe in with whatever money they have left at the end of the month. All 9 of us and our spouses have quietly followed my mothers example. I've figured this out from tidbits of conversation (and by looking at mail on the entry door table while house sitting. Go ahead, judge me.)
But the point is that I/we should do our good deeds privately, not publicly, and have them discovered by accident (or by nosy brothers). We also should not coerce our neighbors into supporting our favored charities no matter how deserving we think these charities are.
My father died at 49. My mother died at 94 after raising 6 boys and 3 girls with one bathroom.
She often joked, mafia style, that she had 9 kids and no convictions. I’m pretty sure but not certain she meant legal convictions.
An interesting read... both the essay and the comments. I’m a little late to the party because I just spent a lot of time reading the post and comments. Well, to be honest, I didn’t read ALL of the comments; so many of them seemed simply to be a repackaging of the same old stuff... To be different, I think I’ll discuss the essay.
The first thing I noticed was the way ESG gets bandied about. Really, what’s so bad about being concerned with environmental factors or social issues? What’s so bad about expecting businesses to operate with transparency and honesty? ESG, by itself, is not a THING; it’s not a noun. It’s an adjective. It DESCRIBES a noun and should not be confused with being one. Being a student of philosophy I recognize how important words are in formulating and influencing ideas. Adjectives used as nouns do not carry any real meaning. It’s just sloppy English. This essay uses a lot of sloppy English.
I agree: for the most part ESG Investment funds ARE a scam. Hanging tinsel on a two-by-four doesn’t make it a Christmas tree. A wolf in sheep’s clothing and all that... But the fact that unscrupulous Wall Street fund managers are ripping people off does not necessarily mean ESG-aware managers and their companies are also a rip-off. It’s just a knee jerk reaction to anything forward-looking or “new”. A defensive action against what makes us uncomfortable. Well, tough. Life is new and challenging every day and sticking our heads in to sand won’t make it any different. If being conservative means always looking backwards you’re going to stumble a lot because life moves in the opposite direction. I believe in progress and I hope you do,too. I’m an unapologetic optimist and I believe together mankind can face and conquer the problems facing it. Denial is not a solution- it’s a capitulation. Using ESG as a noun is not a solution- it’s simply giving up in the face of adversity. I can’t believe surrender is our only alternative, and I won’t believe we don’t have a choice...
In this essay, the author refers us to Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of Social Capital (a venture capital firm) as a opponent of ESG-ness (if I may be allowed a neologism). But on his website, socialcapital.com, under the heading:”Our mission” he states,”... frontier technologies can now be commercialized into _sustainable businesses_... to the _global energy transition_ where the world’s need for _sustainable energy_ will drive new waves of innovation.” SUSTAINABLE business. SUSTAINABLE energy. Is that so different from what the “ESG movement” is seeking? But in a CNBC interview (February 2020) he called the same ideas, “complete fraud,” “a joke,” “so ridiculous.” “These are useful statements. It’s great marketing. But again it’s a lot of sizzle, no steak.” Do these epithets also apply to HIS ambitions? Is he also a “complete fraud?”
This author, Rupa Subramanya, seems to assume all people invest to maximize monetary return while in reality for many it is not the most important thing. There are other personal, subjective reasons people “invest” their time and money. Capital gains is just one of many SUBJECTIVE reasons to invest. Every day we choose to invest in OTHER things. Is money the only invested for profit? What about the investment made in getting flowers to put in the vase in your living room? Or the Lattè you had this morning? These allocations are ALL investments with non-pecuniary benefits. We do it every day...
One of the most peculiar references Rupa uses against ESG awareness is this, from McKinsey.com statement: “It’s important to understand the multiple ways that environmental, social, and governance factors can create value, but when it comes to inspiring those around you, what will you really be talking about? Surprisingly, that depends.” Rupa ends the quote here, on a note of confusion, when actually the next, omitted sentence settles it: “The individual causes that may inspire any one of us are precisely that- individual.” This article from McKinsey.com is very positive about bringing ESG factors to bear in a corporate setting. Why she “cherry-picked” this particular article I cannot fathom! I recommend to you without reservation...
I find it interesting to notice how quickly some “conservatives” decry the old “legacy press” when it doesn’t say what they want to hear, running off to other “newer” outlets of information (like this one) while when the “new” ideas of “ESG factoring” are expounded they run back to the “old crooks” of Wall Street for validation. How does one choose what is “right” when it’s all done in the dark without knowing? Is it really just a matter of “feelings?” Show me your “feelings” and I’ll show you my logical reasoning! Right about now you might be getting a little angry with me. Let’s discuss it. Calling me a SOB is merely an emotional outburst and tells me nothing about my maternal pedigree...
To end on a positive point, I believe the old crooks of Wall Street will soon face the ire of SEC regulators. You just can’t keep putting the same old crap in a new folder and sell it as something it’s not. Be patient. The SEC is slow for a reason: it is more feasible to respond to an action than to try to proscribe every possible action. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible. The Wall Street hustlers are always trying something different, like calling stuff ESG-friendly when it’s nothing of the kind. It took time and clear abuse (think SBF) to pretty well sink the crypto boat. They’re already pointing fingers at the ESG fund crooks and it won’t be long now...
In closing, I leave you with a word from Tariq Fancy on the state of federal legislation: “So far, none of the state attorneys general have sued anyone (read ESG fake-funds.) For starters, many Republicans oppose state governments mucking around in their business. And it’s unclear whether there are any grounds for a lawsuit.” Wall Street is nothing if not slippery...
I got an email saying you responded to me but I cannot see the comment here, weird.
You mention Pakistan which is fine, there is nothing happening there that hasn’t happened in the recorded past, the only real difference is the amount of people in the way of weather.
Same as everywhere else, expanding bullseye effect rules.
Don’t fall for the bullshit, you’ll live a longer happier life.
“There is no climate emergency...” You might have trouble convincing the 235 million people in Pakistan experiencing historical flooding due to the melting snowpack in the Himalayan mountains. But let’s just set climate change aside for the moment...
What do we mean when we say the word,“Environment?” My little Webster’s dictionary defines it as: “All the conditions surrounding and affecting the development of an organism.” Being environmentally aware is to be concerned about where, how and in what conditions we choose to spend our own lives and the lives of our children, ... and their children... The world we create will be their inheritance. What do we owe them, really?
When I was 16 we moved to a town north of Los Angeles. When I first got there we could see Anacapa Island to the West almost every day. You could count on one hand the days when the L.A. smog came around the point and blocked out the island. When I finally moved to the Rocky Mountains 8 years later, you could count the days you could SEE the Island on that same hand. That, to me, is what I call “environmental decay”...
When I moved to the Rocky Mountains some years later, we had beautiful mountains to the east and an old, inefficient coal powered steel mill in the valley floor to the west. I would climb up the mountain every chance I got, which was almost every weekend. One Spring, they closed down the mill for a year. You know what happened? The coal fed furnaces stopped pumping out smoke and the localized acid rain they created, that inevitably fell on the mountains, paused for a season. Plants and flowers that had not been seen for 40 years began to bloom. Those seeds had waited in the ground for the perfect conditions to reappear in which to grow and flourish. Hiking through the tall, colorful blossoms was like that scene in the Wizard of Oz... Incredible!...
It’s not just flowers and smog. It’s not just “global warming,” whatever that really means. It’s about caring for the world in which we live. The “world” will continue long after we drive ourselves into extinction. However the natural environment adapts to survive our thoughtless stewardship, how many species of life disappear through our selfishness, one thing stands bold and true whether or not we wish to accept it: in the grand sweep of existence WE ARE SMALL AND EXPENDABLE. Nature will go on with or without us. Caring for the environment around us, on which we depend, is simply caring for our own future survival as the organism we call Man...
ESG is about control. It's about controlling the winners and losers commercially by affecting an organizations ability to secure working capital. The vagaries are a ticket for market makers like BlackRock and their ilk to select and deselect those who can play - skewed heavily toward large centralized businesses that take near-term losses as the ESG requirements put smaller players out of business. At which point they re-coup their lost lower margins (note: not losses) in orders of magnitude. Notice how BlackRock demands "visibility" down to tier 3, 4 and 5 suppliers with punitive consequences if they are not held to ESG standards - while at the same time invests over a billion in China - a sovereign sustainability nightmare
You confuse GDP with wealth. Japanese wealth is about $25 trillion and German wealth is about $18 trillion, so combined that if four times the value of assets managed by Blackrock.
When rich elites wrap you up in soothing words watch your wallet. ESG and climate "investments" were perfect vehicles to siphon up public and private funds. All this after gutting various pay-as-you-go pensions schemes, public and private. If the intent was to leave us destitute and begging for assisted suicide, they wouldn't have done anything differently.
This is specifically for anyone here from Parnassus Funds. When you leavend the portfolio to ESG only I sold half of my holdings in Core Equity. It was now misnamed and excluded stocks the have doubled in the last couple of years. I see that you've been downgraded by Morningstar as to management capabilities. I'm out completely now!
I strongly oppose ESG investments and think over time they could ruin the economy. Don't buy General Motors until they are all electric is the gambit. I won't own GM for other reasons but ESG could be the end of any growth for them in their future. The only ones to succeed at alternative energy are now befouled by ESG proponents. That's Big Oil, of course. If you didn't notice it was the best performing industry sector in the 2022 S&P 500. The ESG sector was one of the worst! Don't listen the the babies and expect wisdom.
Actually, let’s blame the plan administrators and state pension funds as well as public companies whose plans come with bloated funds and high expense ratios. Yes, ESG is portrayed here as a problem. I get it. However, the offer problem is how financial illiterate many Americans are. All one needs to do is look at the average retirement account balance to see what a disturbing situation future retirees will face. ESG is another product sold by banks and investment houses to make profits. Like them or hate them they are here to stay. Best thing you can do is try to find index funds or low cost funds to invest in through your employer. And the most important thing is pay yourself first. Max out your retirement contributions and let the poet of compounding get you to a point you can retire with enough money to live out your golden years.
It seems the total invested value of BlackRock is 100 bn USD, not 10 trillion. Thus, only a small fraction of the GDP of Germany or Japan. And the "value of the economy" sound like more than the GDP?
Appreciate the research and timeline in Rupa Subramanya's article, it’s a risky house of cards and who will pay to bail out who? Brilliant fresh illustration by Monsieur Collage! More from him please! https://www.toombes.com/2023/05/22/quick-hello-monsieur-collage/
Let’s just be clear.
There is no climate emergency, anywhere on earth.
It’s all bullshit and the right people are making a lot of money off it.
That’s what it is, money.
Just follow it, as always.
If you think Zhou Bai-den is in the pocket of China you need to come look at Trustin Judeau.
Rupa knows.
These are probably the same people who ride electric battery powered bicycles without any consideration about how they are made or how to dispose of them when they reach their life span.
Corrected acronyms
DEI should be DIE
ESG is acronym for exceptionally stupid and gullible
Equity is inequitable
The mean is not the median
And of course “go woke, go broke”
This garbage is fast becoming the financial equivalent of the leisure suit for those of us who can recall that disaster, which, perhaps unsurprisingly occurred during the overreaching and disastrous presidency of Jimmy Carter.
Well written piece!
Charles Peguy,
“ It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive “
Notre Patrie, 1905
My Mom had 9 kids. My father died when I was 11. She went to work as a bank clerk when it was clear that my father's heart would not last beyond the “summer of love”. My mother went to Mass everyday before work or on her lunch hour if her schedule, weather, or health didn't allow her to attend the early Mass. Oh and she also had a half dozen charities that she supported her whole life with what little money she had left at the end of the month. We kids didn't know the details of her giving. She never mentioned it on Saturday mornings when she would regal us with old family stories over our Corn Flakes. Her check registers would make an accountant cry. She knew where every penny went. Her handwriting and math were flawless.
As a recent widow she was audited by the IRS. She came back from lunch Mass and broke into tears at her work desk. Her boss who valued her work ethic, and impeccable old school grammar, was incensed. He sent a team of volunteer bank lawyers to her IRS meeting. They asked her to wait outside while they “talked” to the auditor. She said the rosary in the waiting room. We’re not sure if it was the lawyers or the rosary that saved her. But my Mom was certain it was the rosary; although she was grateful to the “young boys and one girl” who took her to a celebratory lunch after the audit.
I tell you this not to publicize my mothers sainthood, but to illustrate what people should do if they feel like supporting a movement. They should support the charities or movements they believe in with whatever money they have left at the end of the month. All 9 of us and our spouses have quietly followed my mothers example. I've figured this out from tidbits of conversation (and by looking at mail on the entry door table while house sitting. Go ahead, judge me.)
But the point is that I/we should do our good deeds privately, not publicly, and have them discovered by accident (or by nosy brothers). We also should not coerce our neighbors into supporting our favored charities no matter how deserving we think these charities are.
My father died at 49. My mother died at 94 after raising 6 boys and 3 girls with one bathroom.
She often joked, mafia style, that she had 9 kids and no convictions. I’m pretty sure but not certain she meant legal convictions.
An interesting read... both the essay and the comments. I’m a little late to the party because I just spent a lot of time reading the post and comments. Well, to be honest, I didn’t read ALL of the comments; so many of them seemed simply to be a repackaging of the same old stuff... To be different, I think I’ll discuss the essay.
The first thing I noticed was the way ESG gets bandied about. Really, what’s so bad about being concerned with environmental factors or social issues? What’s so bad about expecting businesses to operate with transparency and honesty? ESG, by itself, is not a THING; it’s not a noun. It’s an adjective. It DESCRIBES a noun and should not be confused with being one. Being a student of philosophy I recognize how important words are in formulating and influencing ideas. Adjectives used as nouns do not carry any real meaning. It’s just sloppy English. This essay uses a lot of sloppy English.
I agree: for the most part ESG Investment funds ARE a scam. Hanging tinsel on a two-by-four doesn’t make it a Christmas tree. A wolf in sheep’s clothing and all that... But the fact that unscrupulous Wall Street fund managers are ripping people off does not necessarily mean ESG-aware managers and their companies are also a rip-off. It’s just a knee jerk reaction to anything forward-looking or “new”. A defensive action against what makes us uncomfortable. Well, tough. Life is new and challenging every day and sticking our heads in to sand won’t make it any different. If being conservative means always looking backwards you’re going to stumble a lot because life moves in the opposite direction. I believe in progress and I hope you do,too. I’m an unapologetic optimist and I believe together mankind can face and conquer the problems facing it. Denial is not a solution- it’s a capitulation. Using ESG as a noun is not a solution- it’s simply giving up in the face of adversity. I can’t believe surrender is our only alternative, and I won’t believe we don’t have a choice...
In this essay, the author refers us to Chamath Palihapitiya, founder of Social Capital (a venture capital firm) as a opponent of ESG-ness (if I may be allowed a neologism). But on his website, socialcapital.com, under the heading:”Our mission” he states,”... frontier technologies can now be commercialized into _sustainable businesses_... to the _global energy transition_ where the world’s need for _sustainable energy_ will drive new waves of innovation.” SUSTAINABLE business. SUSTAINABLE energy. Is that so different from what the “ESG movement” is seeking? But in a CNBC interview (February 2020) he called the same ideas, “complete fraud,” “a joke,” “so ridiculous.” “These are useful statements. It’s great marketing. But again it’s a lot of sizzle, no steak.” Do these epithets also apply to HIS ambitions? Is he also a “complete fraud?”
This author, Rupa Subramanya, seems to assume all people invest to maximize monetary return while in reality for many it is not the most important thing. There are other personal, subjective reasons people “invest” their time and money. Capital gains is just one of many SUBJECTIVE reasons to invest. Every day we choose to invest in OTHER things. Is money the only invested for profit? What about the investment made in getting flowers to put in the vase in your living room? Or the Lattè you had this morning? These allocations are ALL investments with non-pecuniary benefits. We do it every day...
One of the most peculiar references Rupa uses against ESG awareness is this, from McKinsey.com statement: “It’s important to understand the multiple ways that environmental, social, and governance factors can create value, but when it comes to inspiring those around you, what will you really be talking about? Surprisingly, that depends.” Rupa ends the quote here, on a note of confusion, when actually the next, omitted sentence settles it: “The individual causes that may inspire any one of us are precisely that- individual.” This article from McKinsey.com is very positive about bringing ESG factors to bear in a corporate setting. Why she “cherry-picked” this particular article I cannot fathom! I recommend to you without reservation...
I find it interesting to notice how quickly some “conservatives” decry the old “legacy press” when it doesn’t say what they want to hear, running off to other “newer” outlets of information (like this one) while when the “new” ideas of “ESG factoring” are expounded they run back to the “old crooks” of Wall Street for validation. How does one choose what is “right” when it’s all done in the dark without knowing? Is it really just a matter of “feelings?” Show me your “feelings” and I’ll show you my logical reasoning! Right about now you might be getting a little angry with me. Let’s discuss it. Calling me a SOB is merely an emotional outburst and tells me nothing about my maternal pedigree...
To end on a positive point, I believe the old crooks of Wall Street will soon face the ire of SEC regulators. You just can’t keep putting the same old crap in a new folder and sell it as something it’s not. Be patient. The SEC is slow for a reason: it is more feasible to respond to an action than to try to proscribe every possible action. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible. The Wall Street hustlers are always trying something different, like calling stuff ESG-friendly when it’s nothing of the kind. It took time and clear abuse (think SBF) to pretty well sink the crypto boat. They’re already pointing fingers at the ESG fund crooks and it won’t be long now...
In closing, I leave you with a word from Tariq Fancy on the state of federal legislation: “So far, none of the state attorneys general have sued anyone (read ESG fake-funds.) For starters, many Republicans oppose state governments mucking around in their business. And it’s unclear whether there are any grounds for a lawsuit.” Wall Street is nothing if not slippery...
I got an email saying you responded to me but I cannot see the comment here, weird.
You mention Pakistan which is fine, there is nothing happening there that hasn’t happened in the recorded past, the only real difference is the amount of people in the way of weather.
Same as everywhere else, expanding bullseye effect rules.
Don’t fall for the bullshit, you’ll live a longer happier life.
There is no climate emergency
So yes, it is all a scam
“There is no climate emergency...” You might have trouble convincing the 235 million people in Pakistan experiencing historical flooding due to the melting snowpack in the Himalayan mountains. But let’s just set climate change aside for the moment...
What do we mean when we say the word,“Environment?” My little Webster’s dictionary defines it as: “All the conditions surrounding and affecting the development of an organism.” Being environmentally aware is to be concerned about where, how and in what conditions we choose to spend our own lives and the lives of our children, ... and their children... The world we create will be their inheritance. What do we owe them, really?
When I was 16 we moved to a town north of Los Angeles. When I first got there we could see Anacapa Island to the West almost every day. You could count on one hand the days when the L.A. smog came around the point and blocked out the island. When I finally moved to the Rocky Mountains 8 years later, you could count the days you could SEE the Island on that same hand. That, to me, is what I call “environmental decay”...
When I moved to the Rocky Mountains some years later, we had beautiful mountains to the east and an old, inefficient coal powered steel mill in the valley floor to the west. I would climb up the mountain every chance I got, which was almost every weekend. One Spring, they closed down the mill for a year. You know what happened? The coal fed furnaces stopped pumping out smoke and the localized acid rain they created, that inevitably fell on the mountains, paused for a season. Plants and flowers that had not been seen for 40 years began to bloom. Those seeds had waited in the ground for the perfect conditions to reappear in which to grow and flourish. Hiking through the tall, colorful blossoms was like that scene in the Wizard of Oz... Incredible!...
It’s not just flowers and smog. It’s not just “global warming,” whatever that really means. It’s about caring for the world in which we live. The “world” will continue long after we drive ourselves into extinction. However the natural environment adapts to survive our thoughtless stewardship, how many species of life disappear through our selfishness, one thing stands bold and true whether or not we wish to accept it: in the grand sweep of existence WE ARE SMALL AND EXPENDABLE. Nature will go on with or without us. Caring for the environment around us, on which we depend, is simply caring for our own future survival as the organism we call Man...
ESG is about control. It's about controlling the winners and losers commercially by affecting an organizations ability to secure working capital. The vagaries are a ticket for market makers like BlackRock and their ilk to select and deselect those who can play - skewed heavily toward large centralized businesses that take near-term losses as the ESG requirements put smaller players out of business. At which point they re-coup their lost lower margins (note: not losses) in orders of magnitude. Notice how BlackRock demands "visibility" down to tier 3, 4 and 5 suppliers with punitive consequences if they are not held to ESG standards - while at the same time invests over a billion in China - a sovereign sustainability nightmare
You confuse GDP with wealth. Japanese wealth is about $25 trillion and German wealth is about $18 trillion, so combined that if four times the value of assets managed by Blackrock.
When rich elites wrap you up in soothing words watch your wallet. ESG and climate "investments" were perfect vehicles to siphon up public and private funds. All this after gutting various pay-as-you-go pensions schemes, public and private. If the intent was to leave us destitute and begging for assisted suicide, they wouldn't have done anything differently.
This is specifically for anyone here from Parnassus Funds. When you leavend the portfolio to ESG only I sold half of my holdings in Core Equity. It was now misnamed and excluded stocks the have doubled in the last couple of years. I see that you've been downgraded by Morningstar as to management capabilities. I'm out completely now!
I strongly oppose ESG investments and think over time they could ruin the economy. Don't buy General Motors until they are all electric is the gambit. I won't own GM for other reasons but ESG could be the end of any growth for them in their future. The only ones to succeed at alternative energy are now befouled by ESG proponents. That's Big Oil, of course. If you didn't notice it was the best performing industry sector in the 2022 S&P 500. The ESG sector was one of the worst! Don't listen the the babies and expect wisdom.
Actually, let’s blame the plan administrators and state pension funds as well as public companies whose plans come with bloated funds and high expense ratios. Yes, ESG is portrayed here as a problem. I get it. However, the offer problem is how financial illiterate many Americans are. All one needs to do is look at the average retirement account balance to see what a disturbing situation future retirees will face. ESG is another product sold by banks and investment houses to make profits. Like them or hate them they are here to stay. Best thing you can do is try to find index funds or low cost funds to invest in through your employer. And the most important thing is pay yourself first. Max out your retirement contributions and let the poet of compounding get you to a point you can retire with enough money to live out your golden years.
What is a woman?
if you have to ask you can´t afford it
It seems the total invested value of BlackRock is 100 bn USD, not 10 trillion. Thus, only a small fraction of the GDP of Germany or Japan. And the "value of the economy" sound like more than the GDP?