Gov. Ron DeSantis refuses to allow state investments to become the political weapons of the Left.
Working with Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Attorney General Ashley Moody, the governor recently passed a resolution ensuring that decisions on state investments, like the Florida Retirement System (FRS), cannot take into consideration “social, political, or ideological interests.”
The initiative may seem obvious: Investments should only consider financial factors that impact returns. But a growing movement to manipulate public funds in the interest of “woke” ideology has motivated states like Florida to protect the economic interests of its citizens.
The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement calls on those with the power to manipulate the economy to support leftist projects like the green energy agenda. Meanwhile, ESG restricts profitable sectors of the economy not in line with the Left’s agenda — like the fossil fuel industry. The movement has steadily built momentum over the years, but it has accelerated at a never-before-seen rate since President Joe Biden took office.
The reality is that ESG is a losing investment that serves the political elite on the backs of Americans’ financial future. It builds political capital at the expense of real capital.
In his first days in office, Biden mobilized all federal agencies to implement regulations tying the American economy to the green agenda. As a result, agencies and departments across the federal government took action. Two proposed regulations were from the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Respectively, the rules propose all investment managers, like those who manage Americans’ retirement funds, and public companies disclose greenhouse gas emissions as a material risk to investors. Whether they want to or not, every American with a 401(k) will have their retirement savings tied to the White House’s agenda.
“Woke” corporate America is taking this a step further, though. Out of the top five asset management firms in the world, four are U.S.-based: BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, and State Street Global Advisors. Together, their managed assets total nearly $26 trillion. BlackRock, the top asset manager, manages nearly $10 trillion. If BlackRock’s managed assets were a country’s GDP, they would rank third in the world after China. All four asset managers promote ESG investment strategies. As Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said in his 2022 letter, their efforts at decarbonization are “just the beginning.”
In recent weeks, 19 state attorneys general issued a to Fink questioning the politically motivated actions of his company. They indicated, alarmingly, that BlackRock has used taxpayer funds to “force the phase-out of fossil fuels, increase energy prices, drive inflation, and weaken the national security of the United States.” With so many public assets managed by firms like BlackRock, Americans deserve answers as to whether their hard-earned dollars are funding the pet projects of the political and financial elite.
American public pensions total nearly $5.8 trillion. Of that money, more than half is tied to ESG. If a Wall Street investor wants to lose money or their client’s money, that’s one thing. But gambling with teachers’, police officers’, and firefighters’ life savings for the sake of a political agenda is depraved.
Fortunately, several states are fighting back.
Texas, West Virginia, and Oklahoma are among the states working to protect public employees and taxpayers from the Left’s ESG con. Florida’s latest reform in how it manages public assets signals a growing trend among governors, legislators, and state officials who treat their responsibility to taxpayers with integrity.
In his announcement last week, DeSantis said that elites on the Left are “using their economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not do so at the ballot box … We’re putting the people of Florida first and we’re going to do what’s in their best interest, not whatever the delusions of some wealthy woke CEO wants to do.”
From the kitchen table to the ballot box, citizens and good leaders must stir the elite out of that delusion so that Florida’s commitment to liberty and prosperity is no longer the exception in the country, but the norm.
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Eric Bledsoe is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
The post Eric Bledsoe: Ron DeSantis protects Florida’s retirees from political takeover appeared first on Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..
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