{"id":1279588,"date":"2022-02-07T19:07:51","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T00:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1279588"},"modified":"2022-02-07T19:07:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T00:07:54","slug":"vivek-ramaswamy-blackrocks-woke-green-agenda-is-all-about-blackrocks-bottom-line-not-its-portfolio-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vivek-ramaswamy-blackrocks-woke-green-agenda-is-all-about-blackrocks-bottom-line-not-its-portfolio-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Vivek Ramaswamy: BlackRock\u2019s Woke Green Agenda Is All About BlackRock\u2019s Bottom-line, Not Its Portfolio Companies\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvivek-ramaswamy-blackrocks-woke-green-agenda-is-all-about-blackrocks-bottom-line-not-its-portfolio-companies%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1279588&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-1195398080-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">In a Wall Street Journal op-ed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/blackrock-climate-change-doubletalk-larry-fink-esg-exxon-warrior-met-coal-sasb-stakeholder-capitalism-11644167948\">titled<\/a> \u201cBlackRock\u2019s Climate-Crusade Doubletalk,\u201d entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy takes aim at BlackRock CEO Larry Fink\u2019s annual letter urging corporate leaders to put their companies\u2019 \u201cpurpose\u201d as the \u201cfoundation\u201d of their relationship with their stakeholders while also pursuing a climate change agenda favored by BlackRock.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy, the author <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Woke-Inc-Corporate-Americas-Justice\/dp\/1546090789?tag=breitbart035-20\">Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America\u2019s Social Justice Scam<\/a><\/em>,&nbsp;writes that Fink \u201cclaims he wants CEOs to stay true to the purposes of the companies they run, while also demanding that they advance the corporate purposes that BlackRock favors. He can\u2019t have it both ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Ramaswamy offers clear examples of how a company\u2019s primary \u201cpurpose\u201d can be wildly at odds with the agenda of its major shareholders when BlackRock is the shareholder. He writes:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Take&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/market-data\/quotes\/XOM\">Exxon Mobil<\/a>.&nbsp;In 2018 the company\u2019s guiding principle was clear: \u201cExxon Mobil Corporation is committed to being the world\u2019s premier petroleum and petrochemical company.\u201d The company stated that its first responsibility was to make money for shareholders.<\/p>\n<p>Then last year a little-known investment firm called Engine No. 1, which held a 0.02% stake in Exxon, won three seats on Exxon\u2019s 12-member board. Engine No. 1 waged an activist campaign claiming that Exxon should reduce its carbon emissions and become a global leader in profitable clean-energy production. BlackRock, Exxon\u2019s second-largest shareholder, voted for three of Engine No. 1\u2019s climate-focused board candidates. BlackRock&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackrock.com\/corporate\/literature\/press-release\/blk-vote-bulletin-exxon-may-2021.pdf\">claimed<\/a>&nbsp;that its vote was motivated by concern over Exxon\u2019s lack of a clear climate-change strategy. Every savvy market participant at the time knew that Engine No. 1\u2019s proxy battle would end wherever BlackRock cast its die. Few knew that Engine No. 1 CEO Jennifer Grancio had been a managing director at BlackRock from 1999 to 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s most influential impact investor had its desired impact. Before the proxy battle, Exxon had planned to increase oil and gas production by 25% over the next five years. After the proxy battle, Exxon&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/engine-no-1-says-its-new-representation-on-exxonmobils-board-has-already-scored-a-win-11632508131\">plans<\/a>&nbsp;to keep oil output at the lowest level in two decades, a 20% decline from prior forecasts. More recently, it pledged net-zero global emissions in its own operations by 2050. Exxon Mobil once had a clear purpose, but BlackRock didn\u2019t want the American oil-and-gas company to be \u201cguided\u201d by it. BlackRock wanted the company to change it. And that\u2019s what Exxon did.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ramaswamy notes that this same problem is confronting Royal Dutch Shell, which also has BlackRock as its largest shareholder.<\/p>\n<p>Fink\u2019s annual letter stresses that BlackRock isn\u2019t trying to foist its climate crusade on companies; it is merely encouraging its portfolio companies to move in the direction of a zero emissions future because that is the direction the world is moving. But Ramaswamy calls this a circular argument \u2013 because the world is moving in this direction thanks to BlackRock, as the world\u2019s largest asset manager, pushing it there. Not only does BlackRock have $10 trillion in assets under its management, it also has BlackRock alums in key positions in the Biden administration advancing the green agenda. Thus, Ramaswamy argues, Fink\u2019s \u201cclaim that he is merely responding to the \u2018transition to a net zero world\u2019 obscures his own firm\u2019s role in catalyzing that transition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy concludes that Fink \u201cshould be honest about whether he wants BlackRock\u2019s portfolio companies to pursue their own corporate purposes or the purposes that BlackRock favors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Rebecca Mansour is Senior Editor-at-Large for Breitbart News. Follow her on Twitter at&nbsp;<\/em><a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RAMansour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\"><em>@RAMansour<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled \u201cBlackRock\u2019s Climate-Crusade Doubletalk,\u201d entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy takes aim at BlackRock CEO Larry Fink\u2019s annual letter urging corporate leaders to put their companies\u2019 \u201cpurpose\u201d &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1279588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1279588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1279588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1279588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1279588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1279588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}