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Woke Capitalism Meets Reality

by Will Jones
15 May 2022 11:01 PM

Woke capitalism is fast going out of fashion as hard realities catch up – as they inevitably do – with progressive posturing. Matthew Lynn summarises the developments in the Telegraph.

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has just announced that it won’t expect the companies it invests in to meet so many environmental goals. Sweden’s SEB said recently it would lift its blanket ban on defence companies. And Barclays has said – shock horror – that it is willing to back oil and gas exploration once again. One by one, major asset managers are revisiting their fashionable pursuit of ESG and climate change.

True, that is long overdue, and will make the capital markets work better. And yet the bigger lesson is that the fund managers should never have allowed themselves to become so politicised in the first place. It is not their job, and they are really, really bad at it. The sooner they get back to simply investing in well-run companies making decent products, the better.

In the capital markets, when BlackRock speaks everyone listens. The American giant is the largest single asset manager in the world controlling $10 trillion (£8 trillion) in equities and bonds. There is hardly a major business in the world where it is not a significant shareholder.

In January last year, its chief executive Larry Fink positioned the firm as a champion of ESG – which stands for environmental, social and governance investing – pledging to wield its votes in favour of motions that committed companies to ambitious targets for combating climate change. This week, in a significant turnaround, it said it would wind down its support for proposals that were “too prescriptive”…

It is not hard to understand why that is happening right now. In truth, many of the causes major investors have taken up with so much enthusiasm are looking remarkably idiotic right now.

With soaring energy prices, wholesale disinvestment in oil and gas was clearly very short-sighted, especially as greener alternatives are not yet ready to meet global demand. All it has done is stoke up inflation, and make the West dependent on Russian energy instead.

And following Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, refusing to invest in defence looks worryingly naïve, especially if you happen to be Swedish (Russia annexed chunks of the country’s territory in the Great Northern War of the 1720s, and, as we have discovered, Putin has a long memory). It may look good in an annual report, but it is not so great when the shooting starts… A major investment firm should be capable of working out that if you unilaterally disarm yourself – which was what it meant in practice – you were only encouraging aggressors such as Putin. It is just naïve and silly.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Climate changeNet ZeroWoke capitalismWokery

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41 Comments
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David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago

Let us just hope this is the first domino.

21
0
David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago

Strangely, Will Jones does not bother telling us how Sweden got these “great chunks of territory ” in the first place.

16
-2
JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Will is unbiased… brutal Putin, etc.

0
-1
Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago

Wokeism is Maoist and, as such, completely opposed to capitalism.

16
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
3 years ago

Sceptic that I am, Blackrock appearing in the conversation, I can’t help but think –

“eh up, what’s going on now?”

28
-1
BurlingtonBertie
BurlingtonBertie
3 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Blackrock being the funding vehicle of the NWO cabal….

3
0
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Putin split from the gang. They’re worried about a competitive axis developing with China.

0
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago

Buying the whole market all the time has always been a winner. Nice to see even Larry Fink is recognising this. I mean, he must be a really clever guy. /sarc

RIP Jack Bogle

Last edited 3 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
9
0
rtaylor
rtaylor
3 years ago

Solar and bird choppers enough has been given a clear run: subsidies, tax breaks, slave labour pass and competitors taxed for being too efficient and supplying reliable energy onto the market via carbon credits. Now they’ll invest in nuclear and oil.

Classic pump and dump.

14
0
DodosArentDead
DodosArentDead
3 years ago

Forget about ‘woke capitalism’. I’ll tell you what’s going to meet reality. Food shortages hitting sometime early next year.

No one will care about capitalism when we struggle to access basic food necessities because of the engineered war between Russia and Ukraine. The two largest agricultural exporters in the world.

Does anyone really think this is coincidence? Directly following the Convid scam?

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned that all countries would be impacted by the crisis.

Increases in food and fuel prices “will affect the most vulnerable in developing countries, putting pressure on the poorest households which spend the highest share of their income on food, resulting in hardship and hunger,”

This is hitting those people now. Wait until it’s our turn.!

It’s just Round Two of the Grand Plan.

https://www.rt.com/news/555522-five-reportedly-killed-protests/

Last edited 3 years ago by DodosArentDead
32
-2
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  DodosArentDead

When I clicked in the link it just said, ‘your connection is not private, you may be vulnerable to attackers’.

3
0
Trabant
Trabant
3 years ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

I think RT has been blocked by some internet service providers
you should be able to access it via a Virtual Private Network

5
0
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  Trabant

I know RT has a pro Russian slant but it seems to me they are closer to the truth than the BBC! Worrying.

4
0
DodosArentDead
DodosArentDead
3 years ago
Reply to  Think Harder

Indeed.

0
0
RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

This means you browser could not establish a so-called trustpath from the web server certificate (or a certificate used in place of that by some third-party operated HTTPS interception device aka web filter) to an installed trusted CA root certificate. This means that it couldn’t technically be ruled out that someone who’s not the entity you believe to be talking to (RT) can read and possibly modify data exchanged between your device and the web site.

Rule-of-thumb: Doesn’t matter for passively viewing sites provided you’re not paranoid about people knowing that you did view the site.

2
0
Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  DodosArentDead

Of course it is round 2 of the Grand Plan.

Meanwhile no one around me seems to know that and all are virtue signalling like crazy.

Spotted an advert in a bus shelter on my walk last night with a big blue and yellow flag with the words “We all stand with Ukraine” superimposed on it. Who paid for that??? Who is pushing that propaganda?? when I got to checkout to pay for goods in Tesco they try to nudge me into making a donation to Red Cross to “support their work in Ukraine”.

And FA Cup final on Saturday – in addition to singing of National Anthem (traditional), taking of knee (also becoming a tradition, including by the referee who blows his whistle to instruct the players to do it) we finished off with children (tugging of heart strings – further manipulation) bringing a massive Ukraine flag into the centre circle, with the word “peace” in giant letters on it. I thought politics was supposed to be kept out of sport. There doesn’t seem to be a single televised opportunity they are prepared to miss.

As for injections – Liverpool beat Chelsea in a thrilling end to end match of high calibre, played out over 120 mins plus penalty shootout. Jurgen Klopp has publicly made huge deal of insisting all must be injected. If those LFC players were injected I very much doubt it was with the spike protein manufacturing jabs – could only have been saline placebo. But you have to have a control group right?

3
0
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  DodosArentDead

Buy wheat!
I did on my virtual portfolio but didn’t have the balls to do it for real.

3
0
DodosArentDead
DodosArentDead
3 years ago
Reply to  Think Harder

Maybe you should risk it for a biscuit! 😅

https://www.rt.com/business/555578-global-wheat-prices-record-high/

0
0
Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago

Woke politics is looking less secure too.
Topher Field – the Greens’ identity crisis.

6
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
3 years ago

The bigger lesson is the self-correcting nature of the open society. It can look chaotic and stupid on a short time scale, but longer term reality gets a look in.

10
0
Misty Optic
Misty Optic
3 years ago

Blackrock et al non longer need to proscribe things; the job is done. In two weeks’ time the World Health Assembly will give Tedros the power of world health dictator. Welcome to lockdowns for whatever pandemic they can cook up and for climate change, to save this that or other feature of the planet they deem to be under threat, all for our own good of course. Couple that with CBDCs and it’s game over for freedom and democracy.

18
0
rtj1211
rtj1211
3 years ago
Reply to  Misty Optic

Just disobey him: he has zero power to enforce ‘law and order’ in the UK or anywhere else.

He does not have the consent of the people, so his power is illusory.

8
0
David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  rtj1211

Johnson promised us 20,000 extra “Police” – I wonder what their uniforms will look like and whether they will speak English?

1
-1
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

I think he lost them in Azovstal.

1
0
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  rtj1211

Doesn’t matter. Most of the population are stupid and will do as they’re told.

3
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
3 years ago
Reply to  Think Harder

Yes and a reward system to get countries to comply. A type of social credit system. You know how lazy MPs are, if they can shift responsibility to some big corporation, they will be up for that. One of the many reasons who so many were in love with the EU. Plenty of useful idiots around that is self evident these last two years.

1
0
MikeHaseler
MikeHaseler
3 years ago

Defending civilians against Nazis is not a “brutal invasion”.

17
-2
David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  MikeHaseler

It is for the ‘Daily Mail’ and its Daily Beast sources!

1
0
JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  MikeHaseler

It depends what you mean by Nazi.

Complaining about the cross-Channel lilo flotilla = Nazi.

Actually modelling yourself politically, militarily, ideologically and dressing and behaving as a Nazi, burning to death a few political opponents, knee-capping Russian prisoners of war = Plucky™️ Ukrainian fighting for freedom and democracy. Here have £20 billion.

1
-1
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  MikeHaseler

I agree but there’s more to it

0
0
maggie may
maggie may
3 years ago

They do tie themselves in knots over ESG. I was listening to an ESG fund manager recently. She is full of support for renewable energy and green projects, presumably including electric vehicles, but of course she won’t invest in the miners as they are not environmentally acceptable. You wonder who she thinks is going to produce all the lithium and cobalt etc for her electric vehicles etc.

13
0
JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  maggie may

The same fairies who will produce all the electricity and infrastructure to charge those electric vehicles, and the money to pay for it all.

5
0
FarligGods
FarligGods
3 years ago

Just need Cilla Black to waltz on now singing “Surprise Surprise”….

2
0
iane
iane
3 years ago
Reply to  FarligGods

Yep – and didn’t she change her name from Priscilla White? Wouldn’t be allowed nowadays!

1
0
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  iane

Cultural misappropriation

1
0
David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  FarligGods

Given the impact of the vax on the young and the ‘epidemic’ of Myocarditis, ” Anyone who had a Heart” might be more appropriate!

2
0
ImpObs
ImpObs
3 years ago

A major investment firm should be capable
of working out that if you unilaterally disarm yourself – which was
what it meant in practice – you were only encouraging aggressors such as
Putin. It is just naïve and silly.

OK, who disarmed themselves, and how did this encourage Putin to stop the genocide in the Donbas?

1
-1
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago

MSM: Shortage of invigilators to oversee A level and GCSE exams because ( wait for it!!) they( the invigilators) are afraid of catching Covid.
FF’S!!!!

3
0
JXB
JXB
3 years ago

‘… especially as greener alternatives are not yet ready to meet global demand.’

Don’t you just love the ‘yet’.

These folk have fallen down the rabbit hole into the land of make-believe. There are no viable – either practically or economically – alternatives to fossil fuels, anywhere on the horizon.

The nuclear fission boat has now sailed as comparatively it is too expensive and takes too long to construct, plus all the loonie eco-agro we have to put up with.

1
0
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago

Funny I was just trying to find a Defence fund thinking they might do better in the coming storm! Ended up choosing an ESG on the basis that while stupid it’s the way the world is going. It also had the top blue chips in which may hold out better for a while. What I really want is an allocated gold pension fund but work pension companies don’t seem to offer.

1
0
JXB
JXB
3 years ago

‘… have taken up with so much enthusiasm are looking remarkably idiotic right now.’

They looked remarkably idiotic then. So what does that tell us about the ‘enthusiasts’ involved. A good idea to make sure none of your money is being managed by these clowns.

2
0

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