Shareholder proponents who oppose most of the ideas supported by ESG investors have been around for a long time, but in the last two years they have filed many more proposals and a few new players have emerged.
Read moreESG Data Helps Assess Value, Potential Returns and Manage Investment Risk
Institutional investors have been paying attention to environmental, social and governance risk factors long before it was “ESG.” Without fanfare or agenda, these long-term investors took notice of weak governance practices that led to corruption, friction with workforces that led to strikes and factories that spewed toxins into rivers leading to lawsuits from those who lived downstream.
Read moreThe Path to a Peaceful Settlement in the ESG Culture Wars
It is healthy to have a debate about ESG: What it is, and what it isn’t; what it can’t do, what it can do, and what it was never meant to do. The term has probably run its full life cycle, and it is time to address the underlying issues of what is being debated.
Read moreWar on ESG Highlights the Need for Lobbying Disclosure
For 2023, proponents have filed at least 30 proposals asking for lobbying disclosure reports that include federal and state lobbying amounts, payments to trade associations and 501(c)(4) social welfare groups used for lobbying, and payments to tax-exempt organizations that write and endorse model legislation.
Read moreESG Triggers the Right
Republican politicians are placing ESG on the list of grievances and conspiracies they serve up to their base as they try to turn ESG into the next critical race theory (CRT). One activist who was instrumental in convincing the Republican base that CRT is an ominous threat to their existence is heavily involved in the anti-ESG effort.
Read moreRepublican Efforts to Limit ESG Investing are Anti-Capitalist
There is a cohort of elected officials in the United States presently engaged in an anti-capitalist crusade against free-market principles. No, they are not socialists. They are congressional Republicans, and they are attempting to prevent financial institutions from allocating capital in accordance with investor preferences and risk management principles. This attempted crackdown is purely ideological in nature — it is an exercise in political pressure to force a gross government overreach into U.S. capital markets.
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