Should ESG Investing Be Criminalized?

[vnatale]

https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/shou ... tent=51531


STOCKS
Should ESG Investing Be Criminalized?
The question, regrettably, is not a joke.


John Rekenthaler
Jan 31, 2024


The outcome is an investment Rorschach test. If you see victory for either ESG funds or their rivals, that is what you wish to see. One side won the indexing battle, the other side won the active battle, and in neither case were the results significant. No conclusions can be drawn from such modest differences.

Now, if you wanted to revise New Hampshire’s bill to imprison officials who hire active portfolio managers …

[boglerdude]

"You're misunderstanding anti-ESG laws. You absolutely have the right to invest your money wherever you like. The laws being passed against ESG money are related specifically to group retirement investments (where it's lots of people's money) and especially public group retirement investments like 401b plans. And this is because the financial institutions who hold and manage those accounts have a fiduciary duty to get the best return for their clients (investors), and not to promote political agendas with other people's money."
https://old.reddit.com/r/AskConservativ ... _make_esg/

But the world is grey. Id ban investment in factory farming if I could.

[DogBreath]

I'm not sure criminalized is the right word.

It's fine to advertise your fund as ESG and then invest accordingly, since investors know what they are signing up for. OTOH, any fund that is not specifically listed as using ESG as a criteria should have no other purpose than to maximize profits for investors within the stated theme, regardless of the ESG score of the underlying companies (exceptions would be funds that eschew certain disclosed industries or sectors). This is already illegal. Managers have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.

Question to OP Vinny: How can ESG exist? A large component of ESG is DEI, and you claim it doesn't exist in any substantial form....

[vnatale]

I'm not sure criminalized is the right word.

It's fine to advertise your fund as ESG and then invest accordingly, since investors know what they are signing up for. OTOH, any fund that is not specifically listed as using ESG as a criteria should have no other purpose than to maximize profits for investors within the stated theme, regardless of the ESG score of the underlying companies (exceptions would be funds that eschew certain disclosed industries or sectors). This is already illegal. Managers have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.

Question to OP Vinny: How can ESG exist? A large component of ESG is DEI, and you claim it doesn't exist in any substantial form....

Several responses.

1) What is the measure for "substantial form"? Again, I'm not feeling it in my daily life.

2) What is the measure of "a large component"? ESG has existed long before the emergence of DEI. Has all ESG now morphed into heavily incorporating DEI?

For the record, I'd never invest in any ESG fund since they are a subset of another set of funds I'd never invest in -- managed funds.

Maybe I'm way underestimating the pervasiveness of DEI in our daily lives. But, again, I'm not feeling it and it's not something I'm sensitive to, tuned in to, or think much about.

You seem to have the opposite position. You have your senses and antenna keenly tuned into DEI and in any way it affects you or anyone else.

There are many things in life I'm fairly oblivious to. But then a corollary does not follow that all these things are major influences in most people's lives.

[vnatale]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... nt/677294/


IDEAS
The War on ‘Woke Capital’ Is Backfiring
Republicans want to outlaw state investment in funds they see as tainted by progressive ideology. They’ll probably just get lower returns.

By James Surowiecki

[boglerdude]

Surowiecki's finance column in the New Yorker was great in the 90s. And his book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds

Article looks like meat for the blue base. Find something dumb someone on the far-right (or far left) did and amplify it with social media.

Cant be fixed. Most people would rather have drama, that's been clear since MAGA is still in love with Trump despite him playing golf instead of fighting martial law. And the world is grey, yes the Feds do need to "violate states rights" when the states are violating the most basic civil rights of speech, religion and assembly.

Speaking of heartbreak, goddamnit Ron https://old.reddit.com/r/Conservative/c ... rown_meat/

Speaking of ESG, germany is using climate change as a reason to cut diesel subsidies? https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/commen ... _eli5type/

[DogBreath]

267ecd37589d.jpg (19.44 KiB) Viewed 359 times

[Mountaineer]

Pass more coolaide please. Global warming, or is it cooling as we got wrapped around the axle a couple decades ago, is making me sweat!

[dualstow]

Just want to recommend a book: ‘The Identity Trap’ by Jascha Mounk.
This is about wokeness and DEI and how we got here, not about ESG investing, but seems relevant here given the last few posts.
Very good book.