Republican senators this week grilled bank and finance executives on the destructive effects of a new weapon in the left’s push for socialism – buying up shares in publicly-traded corporations, then funneling the corporate assets into paying militants and pushing unpopular leftist causes.
“Mutual and index fund managers like BlackRock vote the shares of millions of American retirement savers on their behalf—often in support of unpopular, left-wing causes like the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement—thereby weaponizing Americans’ savings in support of an agenda with which the underlying savers would disagree,” said Sen. Bill Hagerty’s (R-Tenn.) office in a statement.
Critics allege this “woke capitalism” will eventually bankrupt pensions by investing in failed and debunked causes like “green energy” and “zero carbon,” rather than investments that create returns, requiring trillions in taxpayer-funded bailouts.
They point to the 2007 collapse of the U.S. housing market, caused by banks and lending institutions being forced by the federal government and activists to make loans to unqualified borrowers in the name of “fairness” and “equity.”
“What these activists have figured out is that any radical policy that they can’t get enacted through government can be advanced through corporate America by hijacking the trillions of dollars in voting rights from everyday Americans’ retirement accounts. So, [a] retired school teacher in Tennessee, like my mom, without her knowledge, is having the control that she paid for in her retirement accounts being wielded to push woke policies on corporations that she and a vast majority of Americans would find quite disturbing,” said Hagerty in the hearing.
“Do you believe that these activist shareholder stewards are accurately representing the views of the individual investors who actually own these shares,” Hagerty asked Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Dimon blasted the practice, which he points out is financially unstable.
“All of those investors have a fiduciary responsibility to do their homework and vote. I personally think it is a disgrace when they rely on proxy advisors, and I think the proxy advisors are terrible, and I’m probably one of the few people who says that. I think it’s a little bit worse than what you’re saying, because we’ve gone from 7,000 public companies to 4,000 operating companies over the last 20 years or so, and that’s a problem,” said Dimon.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) was even more pointed in his remarks.
“You will never win—never—the uber-woke sweepstakes. I understand that the pressure to run that race is fierce. You will never win it. Nothing you do will ever be enough. The uber-woke people in positions of power in this town think America was evil when it was founded and it’s even more evil today. You’re not going to convince them otherwise,” Kennedy warned CEOs.
“I believe that you’re not free if you can’t say what you think. I encourage you to do that. I believe that you’re not free if you can’t express yourself. You have your opinion; be candid. Don’t try to win the uber-woke sweepstakes,” said Kennedy.
“Capitalism works. That’s why America has the strongest economy in all of human history. Capitalism has done more to lift people out of poverty than all the social programs put together. The poverty rate in our country is three percent. . . . That money to help our neighbors who are less fortunate than we are did not come from leprechauns. It came from the American people and their generosity, and they have that money because of capitalism,” said Kennedy.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Grill ALL Woke CEOs
…after dipping them in oil.
Capitalism is the greatest thing since–well, before–sliced bread. Not understanding the people who ignorantly fall into the trap of thinking it’s evil when confronted with that idea by the socialists who want to control everything. When did Americans stop thinking for themselves?
Don’t know about all Americans, but those that actually believe the socialist American hating obama and his line of crap, are the ones that have joined the left wing democrats that want to destroy our republic. If we don’t purge all of them from our government they will win, and that should be enough to scare the hell out of everyone.
I am sorry to say, especially since you are a teacher, that the education system in this country has morphed into a indoctrination mill mainly due to the large teachers unions run by socialists.
It used to be that the system concentrated on actual education and instilled critical thinking skills in students. Oh, how far we have fallen.