{"id":1428055,"date":"2022-04-11T05:14:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T09:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1428055"},"modified":"2022-04-11T05:14:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T09:14:42","slug":"vivek-ramaswamy-musks-twitter-venture-might-be-most-promising-path-for-driving-change-in-corporate-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vivek-ramaswamy-musks-twitter-venture-might-be-most-promising-path-for-driving-change-in-corporate-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Vivek Ramaswamy: Musk\u2019s Twitter Venture Might Be \u2018Most Promising Path For Driving Change In Corporate America\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\">32<\/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-musks-twitter-venture-might-be-most-promising-path-for-driving-change-in-corporate-america%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=1428055&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:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/04\/F0B243B8-57A3-4E8F-9066-5C32F2F1AB6E.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>On Friday\u2019s episode of the \u201cMorning Wire\u201d podcast, bestselling author and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy joined hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe to discuss Elon Musk\u2019s massive purchase of Twitter stock.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy first noted that Musk\u2019s actions \u201cmight be the most promising path for driving cultural change in corporate America and in the market more generally.\u201d Instead of \u201cdivestments\u201d or \u201cboycotts,\u201d Musk is \u201crepresenting the voice of everyday citizens and everyday shareholders as a shareholder, including in the boardroom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he doesn\u2019t know how much the billionaire can tilt the scales at Twitter, Ramaswamy suggested that we are likely to see more \u201cshareholder activism\u201d from others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you\u2019re describing effectively a positive or proactive move rather than a defensive one \u2013 adding influence as a shareholder rather than, say, staging a boycott,\u201d Bickley said.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy responded by comparing it to the ESG (environmental, social, governance) movement, which he defined as essentially \u201ca political ideology that says that companies are supposed to take action to advance particular agendas,\u201d such as implementing racial, gender, or sexual orientation-based quotas.<\/p>\n<p>ESG essentially acts as an end-run around the constraints of politics and lawmaking by targeting the market, \u201cwhere people work, where they bank, where they invest\u201d to achieve particular ends, Ramaswamy said.<\/p>\n<p>He continued, saying that although much focus is on the non-investment angle of ESG, the issue isn\u2019t that companies like BlackRock are \u201cdivesting from companies like Exxon,\u201d it\u2019s that they are \u201cinvested in companies like Exxon, and they vote for actually new boards of directors as they did last year, voting for three new board members, that changed the purpose of that company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This \u201cis distorting the behavior of companies across corporate America,\u201d he added, \u201cin part because BlackRock and State Street and Vanguard, those are the three largest asset managers, they don\u2019t actually represent the shareholders. They\u2019re not the shareholder; they\u2019re the stewards of other people\u2019s money. Everyday citizens\u2019 money. What makes the Elon Musk move really interesting is he\u2019s showing up as an actual shareholder with his money. Now, the top shareholder of Twitter, who\u2019s going to say that I actually, as the shareholder and owner of the company, want to see that company heading in a different direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bickley suggested that through his actions, Musk is effectively \u201ccountering the ESG movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The conversation shifted away from ESG, and toward Twitter specifically, with Ramaswamy suggesting that Musk\u2019s move is important because alternative forms of social media are difficult to expand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reason that\u2019s really hard to do is that you have a network effect that ultimately once you \u2014 the platform becomes more valuable based on the more people who are on it, and you have an incumbency bias and there\u2019s all kinds of algorithms and table stakes that you have set up as an existing behemoth that make it really hard in a natural monopoly business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>But what Musk has done is bring \u201ctrue diversity and true competition, not to the marketplace of products, but to the marketplace of ideas in the boardroom of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramaswamy cited late economist Milton Friedman, who said social value can\u2019t be advanced at the expense of shareholders. However, he said what certain companies such as Blackrock and Vanguard have done is purchase shares in corporations, then turn around and claim that they can indeed advance social value.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the ways it\u2019s false is it\u2019s not actually their money,\u201d Ramaswamy said. \u201cIt\u2019s the money of everyday citizens who are the actual shareholders who disagree with the voice they\u2019re bringing to the boardroom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey threw a tripwire in the system of classical shareholder capitalism,\u201d he added. \u201cWhat Elon Musk is doing [is] saying, you wanna play that game, too? [I] can play that game actually.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTime will tell whether he actually brings that different voice or whether he merely joins the managerial class by now joining the board \u2014 but I\u2019m optimistic that even if he doesn\u2019t do it here or doesn\u2019t go all the way here, he\u2019s paved a path to show us the right way forward, which is actually exercising our voices as citizens, but also as shareholders in America,\u201d Ramaswamy concluded.<\/p>\n<p>All episodes of \u201cMorning Wire\u201d can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/podcasts\/morning-wire\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest growing conservative media companies for breaking news, investigative reporting, sports, podcasts, in-depth analysis, books, and entertainment for a reason: because we believe in what we do. We believe in our country, in the value of truth and the freedom to speak it, and in the right to challenge tyranny wherever we see it. Believe the same?\u00a0<a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Become a member now and join our mission<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday\u2019s episode of the \u201cMorning Wire\u201d podcast, bestselling author and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy joined hosts John Bickley and Georgia Howe to discuss Elon Musk\u2019s massive purchase of Twitter stock.Ramaswamy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1428055","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\/1428055","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\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1428055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428055\/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=1428055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1428055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1428055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}