The CEO of BlackRock and Big Daddy of the ESG movement blew the lid off their culture war at the Aspen Ideas Festival Sunday when he proclaimed the politicization of Big Money had become (checks notes) too political.
“I’m ashamed of being part of this conversation,” said CEO Larry Fink.
It turns out Fink, the heads world’s largest money manager, is just tired of being the punching bag for embracing progressive investment strategies.
Later in the event, though, Fink was pressed about his comment about being ashamed. He then said he never said that.
“I never said I was ashamed,” Fink said. “I’m not ashamed. I do believe in conscientious capitalism.”
Like all Orwellian lefties, Fink said that he just want the negativity associated with ESG to go away. He wants us all to call ESG something other than ESG so everyone will stop being mad about ESG and give him their money to manage.
ESGf has become too controversial on the far right, but more importantly, he notes, on the far left.
From the Washington Examiner:
And Fink’s shift away from using the term “ESG” doesn’t come entirely as a surprise. Fink’s letter this year didn’t include one mention of ESG and deemphasized talk about the climate, saying that companies aren’t “the environmental police,” a tone shift from recent years as GOP pushback grows.
“When I write these [investment] letters, it was never meant to be a political statement. … They were written to identify long-term issues to our long-term investors,” Fink said on Sunday.
ESG is not all political. Just the parts that are political.
Notably, BlackRock’s political choices are having political ramifications as numerous states including Florida, South Carolina, Utah, Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana, are divesting from the company.
Long live the free market.