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Texas schools fund pulls $8.5B from BlackRock over ESG investing
- ranger207 3y agoESG was basically instantly exploited to the point of uselessness. It's kinda funny how for a little while slapping ESG on your investment product would get you a free bump, and equally funny how conservative governments completely failed to see it as nothing more than a marketing technique and ascribed far more importance to the label than anyone else ever did.
- 0xbadcafebee 3y agoConservative governments haven't failed to see anything. This is about optics and votes, and this will garner more for them. It's a double whammy: they can hammer the progressive ideals ESGs align with, while at the same time looking like they support local jobs/industry. A no-brainer, really.
- samirillian 3y agoI guess we've gotta hope China solves the problems that we can't
- axpy906 3y agoChina is exempt from ESG.
- ethanbond 3y agoI'd have thought the Ideologically Pure folks over in Texas would invest/divest solely and exclusively on the basis of whether it's a good place to get returns? Even accepting their excuse that ESG investing is suffocating their oil and gas-dependent "long term financial health," that's ultimately just saying they think the government needs to more strongly place its thumb on the scales.
- akira2501 3y ago> that's ultimately just saying they think the government needs to more strongly place its thumb on the scales. They have $8.5B. They've got a big enough thumb themselves.
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- rayiner 3y agoThere is an "ideologically pure" faction of the GOP that continues to oppose such measures. That faction recently backed Nikki Haley in the primaries, and the results show that this faction no longer carries the majority. There's been a reckoning on the right since the Bush debacle and a growing recognition that free market libertarianism and conservatism are actually two different ideologies.
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- htss2013 3y agoI don't think there is long term evidence that ESG adds alpha. Even if it did in the past, there's no reason to believe it will continue once it is being gamed as it is now and the term becomes amorphous. Texas ever investing in ESG in the first place was the ideologically impure thing to do, if their only goal is performance.
- ethanbond 3y agoThat’s fine, but that’s not why they said they’re pulling their money.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoWhether or not the disgruntled group controls a government - this can decide whether [unliked cause] is worthy only of ridicule or an imminent threat needing action
- killingtime74 3y ago0.00085% of their Assets under management. If compared to their assets under management growth from 2022 to 2023 it's just over two days of growth
- xyst 3y agoA rounding error. It’s honestly terrifying how much wealth is concentrated in this one company.
- axpy906 3y agoThis should be the top comment. Don’t forget Vangaurd and State Street too.
- Workaccount2 3y agoVirtually none of that money is in blackrock though. The money is in the companies invested in. Blackrock however does have enormous discretion in which companies get that money. But it's also not exactly opaque, these funds are pretty transparent and overall very bland.
- robotnikman 3y agoIt has the more money than most countries.
- jtbayly 3y agoHere's to hoping it will be two weeks of growth next, then two months, then two years. The sooner ESG mandates stop infecting companies, the better. Edit: Yesterday you could have said they didn't care because it's only $4B, one day of growth. Today you can say $12.5B, or three days of growth. Yes, it's a trickle, but it might continue to grow.
- johnea 3y agoWould you think its better to have a mandate to just set all possibly flammable resources on fire? Mandating transitioning away from petroleum is a no brainer. Installation of renewables is vastly cheaper, faster to market, and has the fringe benefit of not bringing about the end of our ecosystem...
- mbgerring 3y agoWhat’s funny about this is that, concerns about fraud in ESG metrics aside, this will cause Texas schools to lose out on the gains from rapidly growing clean energy companies, many of which are taking advantage of the deregulated Texas power grid to get a foothold.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoAs Ron White once said at the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, "You Can't Fix Stupid." (decisions, in this context) It's one thing to burn investment dollars that are your own, but to do so with educational system dollars? That is a very Texas thing to do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_School_Fund https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_School_Fund https://texaspsf.org/our-history/ https://texaspsf.org/our-history/
- johnea 3y agoAnd man does it really need fixing 8-/ Doubly ironic that TX is installing more solar/wind than almost any other state. Triply ironic that they're attempting to claim that Blackrock is some libtard tree-hugger organization...
- toomuchtodo 3y agoIt's fine to take issue with your identity, belief systems, and way of life being changed forcibly by a global energy transition underway that you have no ability to stop. It's a religion, put simply. But to waste resources like this out of ideology? It's just sad. Texas has a teacher shortage [1] and ranks as one of the most uneducated states [2]. This does no favors to those who need the educational system. And those making these decisions will be long dead while those impacted will continue to live the remainder of their lives sub-optimally from these decisions. [1] https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/20/texas-teacher-shortage-cultural-exchange-aldine-isd/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/20/texas-teacher-shorta... [2] https://www.kxan.com/news/education/texas-is-one-of-the-most-uneducated-states-in-the-u-s-study-says/ https://www.kxan.com/news/education/texas-is-one-of-the-most...
- boringg 3y agoPretty sure BlackRock doesn't care small money to them.
- xyst 3y agoBlackrock probably has $8.5B hidden in the couches at HQ
- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoI wish more people understood that Blackrock doesn’t have any much of its own money to toss around. The ESG push is from a couple billionaires and Gavin Newsome who has basically sole discretion of California’s 500 billion pension fund. Without Newsome and the gov of IL, ESG wouldn’t exist.
- boringg 3y agoThey generate pretty good fees based on their AUM.
- kstrauser 3y ago> Without Newsome and the gov of IL, ESG wouldn’t exist. "Without California and Illinois, a Republican would have won the presidency in 2020." Sure, but that's not the universe we live in.
- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoThat isn’t even close to the same thing. We aren’t talking about the 60,000,000 people in these states. Just two people.
- codethatwerks 3y agoAbout 0.085% of AUM Maybe a single rep cares? But not the whole company.
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- xyst 3y agoFor those that don’t live in TX, this just shows how much weight the O&G industry pulls in this state. All conservative politicians in this state are heavily funded by O&G dark money and Christian zealots.
- MoreenDichele 3y ago[dead]
- readthenotes1 3y agoAccording to this, o&g are about 1/3 of the Texas economy https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2020/12/22/fact-check-texas-oil-and-gas-industry-35-state-economy/4009134001/ https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/202...
- adrr 3y agoSomething isn't right here. Blackrock will do whatever their clients tell them and the largest share holders of fossil companies like Chevron, Exxon and Shell. It seems the school district is upset that Blackrock runs ESG funds as well as their index, growth, etc funds.
- jbjbjbjb 3y agoGiven the heavy reliance on oil and gas income, the Texas schools fund should aim to reduce exposure to oil and gas risks, due to market changes, regulations, and renewable energy trends etc solely from an investment strategy perspective.