3 ms·

Matt Levine has a great piece on ESG actually being a market reaction to the fact most people own index funds now. Since most people are concerned about the OVE

• idontwantthis 3y ago
  What is ESG?
  • tuatoru 3y ago
    "Environmental, Social, and Governance" Monopolist corporate feelgood bs, basically. A moral licence to exploit, analogous to licence to pollute.[2] [3] 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental,_social,_and_corporate_governance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental,_social,_and_cor... 2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/24/carbon-offsets-are-a-licence-to-pollute https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/24/carbon-o... 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling
    • mcv 3y ago
      You make it sound like something bad, but surely these are positive things for companies to take into account?
      • orionhasyou 3y ago
        Not financial advice. Do your own research but I think this should cover why people are wary of ESG. I think the idea sounds ok. who wouldnt want to invest in these firms? They care about the environment and society and making the world better, right? Well, the implementation is 100% BS. Tesla was removed from the SP500 ESG index. They get a lower score than oil and tobacco companies. Nike and many other firms are using slave labor and get higher scores. Ford and Stellantis have higher scores. The government allows for plans to select these funds for reasons that violate fiduciary duty. The majority of funds underperform the market. They use your money to reward politically aligned companies. ESG is being used to affect credit scores of these firms. Lower scores, higher cost. If higher carbon emissions, slave labor, and political contributions is what ESG is actually about, these are tainted assets. - https://hbr.org/2022/03/an-inconvenient-truth-about-esg-investing https://hbr.org/2022/03/an-inconvenient-truth-about-esg-inve... - https://reason.org/commentary/esg-investing-is-bad-for-the-economy/ https://reason.org/commentary/esg-investing-is-bad-for-the-e... - https://time.com/6180638/tesla-esg-index-musk/ https://time.com/6180638/tesla-esg-index-musk/ - https://thehill.com/opinion/4059114-a-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen-esg-violates-fiduciary-duty-to-investors/ https://thehill.com/opinion/4059114-a-lawsuit-waiting-to-hap... - https://www.lw.com/admin/upload/SiteAttachments/Alert%203058.pdf https://www.lw.com/admin/upload/SiteAttachments/Alert%203058... - https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1526958110023245829?s=20 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1526958110023245829?s=20 - https://www.environmental-finance.com/content/analysis/surprise-as-s-and-p-drop-esg-scores-from-credit-ratings.html https://www.environmental-finance.com/content/analysis/surpr... - https://hbr.org/2022/08/esg-investing-isnt-designed-to-save-the-planet https://hbr.org/2022/08/esg-investing-isnt-designed-to-save-... - https://www.leadershipnowproject.org/esg-political-influence https://www.leadershipnowproject.org/esg-political-influence
        • mcv 3y ago
          Informative. Sounds like the official goals are good and noble, but the way it's used in practice is corrupt and counterproductive. So who hands out these scores? And are there independent parties evaluating them or giving their own, more neutral scores?
          • tuatoru 3y ago
            POSIWID: "The purpose of a system is what it does"--Stafford Beer. The purpose of climate change policies is to give subsidies to voters, who are relatively more wealthy than people unlikely to vote. The purpose of ESG is to provide political cover for rapacious exploitation of workers and environments.