BlackRock's Larry Fink tells fellow CEOs that businesses are not 'climate police'

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

BlackRock’s Larry Fink on Monday defended his firm’s push to factor environmental concerns into its investment strategy, even as many suggested the investment giant hasn’t gone far enough in addressing climate change.

Shareholder activists had been trying to persuade BlackRock — which frequently controls the largest bloc of shares in major public corporations and has $10 trillion in assets under management — to use its clout to press for measures that might slow down climate change and persuade companies to reach net-zero emissions.

“Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not ‘woke,’ ” Fink said in the letter.

The BlackRock annual letters to chief executives and shareholders have become closely watched since 2012, when Fink publicly criticized his fellow CEOs of pursuing short-term strategies. He also took aim at what he saw as excessive dividends and share buybacks.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/18/blackrock-larry-fink-letter-climate/

[YP_Yooper]

1. Double-speak by Blackrock?

Proponents of shareholder capitalism say corporations have one purpose—to make as much money as possible for their shareholders—and that attempting to do anything else would backfire. People who back stakeholder capitalism say companies should consider all their stakeholders—not just the owners, but also employees, customers, and suppliers—and that doing otherwise means companies may well damage the environment while entrenching inequality.

[link:https://qz.com/1909715/the-difference-between-stakeholder-and-shareholder-capitalism/|

So the article says shareholders are pushing for stakeholder outlook and actions by BR? If so, awesome, that's the way it should be.

“Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not ‘woke,’ ” Fink said in the letter.

Fink is wrong. Stakeholder capitalism (if it really exists) has an agenda - specifically to help benefit social and ideological goals along with the shareholders.

[Throck]

2. Blackrock also treats their rank and file worker bee employees like second class citizens.

I've met a number of former Blackrock employees who've left for smaller companies to be treated better and paid better.

[gab13by13]

3. BlackRock is 1 of the 2 largest shareholders in COMCAST, MSNBC.

[tonekat]

4. His last name is apt

OK, so our country gives corporations the (tacit, if not actual in some cases) right to:

Rape the environment; Pollute it too;
Engage in shady financial dealings on a massive scale,
Purchase members of Congress; Have an outsize effect on legislation in their favor;
Treat the bulk of their work force like serfs;
Move manufacturing overseas to the lowest wage countries so they can exploit them too;
Enhance the wealth of the already wealthy by paying obscene wages to their c-suite;
Enjoy extreme tax breaks granted to them by a criminal "president"; and on and on...

But they won't give one penny to anything but profit. Or anything outside their fiefdoms that they can't capitalize on and write off their taxes.

Something is very wrong here. They get the freedom to take advantage of others less powerful, but won't contribute to making life better.

And it didn't cost them a dime to do this.

[dlk]

5. If the planet becomes uninhabitable, having all the money in the world will be meaningless

Greed is a destructive pathology.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Climate Police is what we need to survive.

Where do I sign up?