Guest Author
Gov. Ron DeSantis refuses to allow state investments to become the political weapons of the Left.
Working with Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Attorney General Ashley Moody, the governor recently passed a resolution ensuring that decisions on state investments, like the Florida Retirement System (FRS), cannot take into consideration “social, political, or ideological interests.”
The initiative may seem obvious: Investments should only consider financial factors that impact returns. But a growing movement to manipulate public funds in the interest of “woke” ideology has motivated states like Florida to protect the economic interests of its citizens.
The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement calls on those with the power to manipulate the economy to support leftist projects like the green energy agenda. Meanwhile, ESG restricts profitable sectors of the economy not in line with the Left’s agenda — like the fossil fuel industry. The movement has steadily built momentum over the years, but it has accelerated at a never-before-seen rate since President Joe Biden took office.
The reality is that ESG is a losing investment that serves the political elite on the backs of Americans’ financial future. It builds political capital at the expense of real capital.
In his first days in office, Biden mobilized all federal agencies to implement regulations tying the American economy to the green agenda. As a result, agencies and departments across the federal government took action. Two proposed regulations were from the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Respectively, the rules propose all investment managers, like those who manage Americans’ retirement funds, and public companies disclose greenhouse gas emissions as a material risk to investors. Whether they want to or not, every American with a 401(k) will have their retirement savings tied to the White House’s agenda.
“Woke” corporate America is taking this a step further, though. Out of the top five asset management firms in the world, four are U.S.-based: BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, and State Street Global Advisors. Together, their managed assets total nearly $26 trillion. BlackRock, the top asset manager, manages nearly $10 trillion. If BlackRock’s managed assets were a country’s GDP, they would rank third in the world after China. All four asset managers promote ESG investment strategies. As Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, said in his 2022 letter, their efforts at decarbonization are “just the beginning.”
In recent weeks, 19 state attorneys general issued a to Fink questioning the politically motivated actions of his company. They indicated, alarmingly, that BlackRock has used taxpayer funds to “force the phase-out of fossil fuels, increase energy prices, drive inflation, and weaken the national security of the United States.” With so many public assets managed by firms like BlackRock, Americans deserve answers as to whether their hard-earned dollars are funding the pet projects of the political and financial elite.
American public pensions total nearly $5.8 trillion. Of that money, more than half is tied to ESG. If a Wall Street investor wants to lose money or their client’s money, that’s one thing. But gambling with teachers’, police officers’, and firefighters’ life savings for the sake of a political agenda is depraved.
Fortunately, several states are fighting back.
Texas, West Virginia, and Oklahoma are among the states working to protect public employees and taxpayers from the Left’s ESG con. Florida’s latest reform in how it manages public assets signals a growing trend among governors, legislators, and state officials who treat their responsibility to taxpayers with integrity.
In his announcement last week, DeSantis said that elites on the Left are “using their economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not do so at the ballot box … We’re putting the people of Florida first and we’re going to do what’s in their best interest, not whatever the delusions of some wealthy woke CEO wants to do.”
From the kitchen table to the ballot box, citizens and good leaders must stir the elite out of that delusion so that Florida’s commitment to liberty and prosperity is no longer the exception in the country, but the norm.
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Eric Bledsoe is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
11 comments
Tom
September 9, 2022 at 3:54 pm
Correct Eric!
DeSantis saving the country not just Florida.
America’s Gov, do for America what you’ve accomplished for Florida!!
Charlie Crist
September 9, 2022 at 4:25 pm
^ Sounding like a North Korean parade attendee…yeah POW on television.
ScienceBLVR
September 9, 2022 at 4:04 pm
And who is the arbiter of what is “woke” exactly? As one of the public school educators that DeSantis has declared war on, I take it very personally and seriously when folks mess with my pension. Who is he, Patronis, or Moody to decide what the funds are invested in? Or what and who decides what social political or ideological interests are? I noticed you use the term “woke” multiple times’ in this article. Here’s hoping some “woke folks” challenge this assault on teachers’ pensions in court. Shame on you DeSantis, Patronis, and Moody- teachers are vital to the community and the world. You and your policies are pushing us out of the profession with your attacks on what we say, do and teach. Shame on you and all your “Non Woke” BS!
Tom
September 9, 2022 at 7:38 pm
Not you mis believer, or commie Hernandez Matz, and the incompetent weingarten. You guys are a joke, woke!
DeSantis yes!
LMAO.
PeterH
September 9, 2022 at 4:11 pm
Yes indeed! Let State retirement funds focus investments on America’s future in tobacco, AR-15 street weapons, Brazil’s economy to destroy one of planet earth’s remaining rain forest, and fossil fuels that will be eliminated within the next 50 years.
Let’s focus on the creation of an imaginary 1940’s America instead of a 21st century America.
Republicans have had a firm control of many many red states for many many decades. North and South Dakota, North and South Carolina, Idaho, Mississippi, Alabama….come to mind.
Americans need to ask themselves this simple question. If Republicans have been running these States for decades ….which red state would they hold up as a model for economic and social prosperity? Certainly not Texas or Arizona….. those two States were recently ranked as America’s worst for healthcare, families and education. How about Lindsey Graham’s South Carolina????? for every dollar SC sends to the National Treasury the state receives a whopping $7.50 in return. Or let’s talk about another federal government subsidized nanny state ….. FLORIDA….. For every dollar Florida sends to the National treasury…. Florida grifts back $4.50 in return. Florida has 9000 teachers absent from the classroom. Like Arizona, Florida is recruiting college dropouts to teach (babysit) in classrooms. 50% of Florida’s third graders CAN NOT READ.
BLUE STATE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NATIONAL TREASURY KEEP NANNY RED STATES SOLVENT.
Sure ….. let’s stay asleep in Florida and continue to chastise young Americans for their future vision of “wokeness!”
REPUBLICANS ARE AMERICA’S PROBLEM!
VOTE ALL REPUBLICANS OUT OF OFGICE.
Tom
September 10, 2022 at 9:51 am
Pathetic liar!
Total mistruths H.
Florida’s teachers shortage is much less than national, several states have more. It’s a national challenge.
Gov has hired more, addressing it compared to Biden and you whining like the Lincoln predator towel boy towel you are.
Spare us.
Tom
September 9, 2022 at 4:43 pm
LMAO, all your balks busted!
Chameleon getting roasted!
Dumings next!
It’s over!
Tom
September 9, 2022 at 4:44 pm
Balls”
Ocean Joe
September 10, 2022 at 8:01 am
No mention of Jeb! here or his administration’s push to buy up stock in Enron (the Bushes in Texas told him to do it), or the giant scam of buying education software from a company owned or run by Neil Bush, former Silverado Bank scammer of the elderly, who had to duck out of sight for a while.
End result: tampering with the investments cost the Florida pension system $350,000,000 when Enron crashed and its’ stock went off the boards.
Florida stands to gain the most from carbon reduction, the climate deniers will at some point disappear in the face of undeniable change of conditions that not only affect shorelines, but our drinking water supply, conditions necessary to grow certain crops and livestock. Backward thinking is what true conservatives are famous for along with excuses: it was going to happen anyway, it was only a tourist visit, etc. all symptoms of the selfishness that prevents them from sacrificing to protect the future.
Tom
September 10, 2022 at 9:45 am
Ocean LMAO, you really in the back ward thinking. Silverado? Neil B?
You forget to mention George HW was seen on grassy knoll, JFK. Or that Hinckley parents were friends of the Bush family. The lefts conspiracies are deranged. How bout W planned 9-11? Deranged
You clowns, Newsom’s in-laws ran from him and bout a Naples estate when idiot son in law shut down Cali.
He follows the cuomo play book, cheating all over the place.
How do you all awake every day with your liberal dogma so prevalent, such extremists.
You are wrong ocean, all science and reasonable analysis is that DeSantis has preserved Florida’s environment. Best gov in 50 yes! Major accomplishments, received huge endorsement from Florida Trust this week.
Florida freedom, Florida liberty, Florida family! Florida, DeSantis, do for America what you’ve accomplished for Florida.
Tom
September 10, 2022 at 2:19 pm
Ocean, don’t forget Ted Cruz’s father on grassy knoll too. LOL per #45.
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