Florida Removes $2 Billion from BlackRock In Anti-ESG Divestment

The state of Florida has removed $2 billion from BlackRock in an anti-ESG divestment.

BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment management corporation and the world’s largest asset manager.

Money Inc. provides info on BlackRock:

BlackRock maintains more than $9 trillion in assets under their management as of June of 2021. Holdings include massive amounts of coal investments that it plans to sell in a bid to fulfill its commitment to achieving environmental sustainability. It will sell $500 million of its coal investments. Future investments will fall in line with this new initiative announced early in 2020. BlackRock manages two of the Federal Reserve’s bond-buying programs as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. These are the Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility valued at $500 billion and the Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility. BlackRock additionally has secured approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission for its set up of a mutual fund business in China. BlackRock is the third-largest stakeholder in Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. This also includes the subsidiary companies that are under the control of Pfizer, considered Big Pharma. It is also one of the top two stakeholders in four of the six major American media companies including News Corp, Disney, Comcast, and Time Warner. It also owns a stake in The New York Times.

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NOQ Report adds:

• BlackRock and Vanguard form a secret monopoly that own just about everything else you can think of too. In all, they have ownership in 1,600 American firms, which in 2015 had combined revenues of $9.1 trillion. When you add in the third-largest global owner, State Street, their combined ownership encompasses nearly 90% of all S&P 500 firms
• Vanguard is the largest shareholder of BlackRock. Vanguard itself, on the other hand, has a unique structure that makes its ownership more difficult to discern, but many of the oldest, richest families in the world can be linked to Vanguard funds

What does The New York Times and a majority of other legacy media have in common with Big Pharma? Answer: They’re largely owned by BlackRock and the Vanguard Group, the two largest asset management firms in the world. Moreover, it turns out these two companies form a secret monopoly that own just about everything else you can think of too. As reported in the featured video:^1,2

“The stock of the world’s largest corporations are owned by the same institutional investors. They all own each other. This means that ‘competing’ brands, like Coke and Pepsi aren’t really competitors, at all, since their stock is owned by exactly the same investment companies, investment funds, insurance companies, banks and in some cases, governments.

The smaller investors are owned by larger investors. Those are owned by even bigger investors. The visible top of this pyramid shows only two companies whose names we have often seen …They are Vanguard and BlackRock.

The power of these two companies is beyond your imagination. Not only do they own a large part of the stocks of nearly all big companies but also the stocks of the investors in those companies. This gives them a complete monopoly.

In addition to BlackRock’s unfathomable power in the economic world, CEO Larry Fink sits on the World Economic Forum’s Board of Trustees.

BlackRock has embraced ESG and encourages portfolio companies to disclose their ESG data including carbon emissions and board diversity, among other criteria.

Forbes describes the criteria for ESG:

Here’s a closer look at the three criteria used to evaluate companies for ESG investing:

• Environment. What kind of impact does a company have on the environment? This can include a company’s carbon footprint, toxic chemicals involved in its manufacturing processes and sustainability efforts that make up its supply chain.
• Social. How does the company improve its social impact, both within the company and in the broader community? Social factors include everything from LGBTQ+ equality, racial diversity in both the executive suite and staff overall, and inclusion programs and hiring practices. It even looks at how a company advocates for social good in the wider world, beyond its limited sphere of business.
• Governance. How does the company’s board and management drive positive change? Governance includes everything from issues surrounding executive pay to diversity in leadership as well as how well that leadership responds to and interacts with shareholders.

BlackRock also heavily invests in Communist China.

Last December, William Hild, Executive Director of Consumers’ Research, sent a letter to the governors of the 10 states with the top 10 state pension funds invested with BlackRock.

The letter states:

Later today, Consumers’ Research, the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, will issue a Consumer Warning focused on the world’s largest money management firm, BlackRock. The warning is meant to raise awareness among American consumers that BlackRock is taking their money and betting on China. In so doing they are putting American security at risk, along with billions of dollars from U.S. investors, including many state-run pension plans. I wanted to make sure that you were aware that your state is one of the top ten states whose public pension funds are invested in BlackRock and, therefore, potentially at risk based on the issues we outline in our Consumer Warning.

BlackRock’s connections to China are outlined in our Consumer Warning. These ties date back to the early 2000s and create concerning conflicts that consumers should be aware of. These ties start from the top. BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, has become a trusted partner with China’s communist leadership. So much so that he has been summoned to consult with them multiple times: during economic downturns and even when China was involved in trade negotiations with the United States, choosing China over America.

BlackRock’s unabashed gusto for Chinese markets flies in the face of concerns about China’s ascendant standing in the world, its authoritarian model of government, and its ambitions to supplant the U.S. as the pre-eminent world power. Administrations of both parties have come to understand the great risk posed by the CCP and, breaking from prior policy of promoting China’s peaceful rise, labeled it a strategic rival against which the U.S. must compete. Earlier this month the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a body of security and economic
experts convened by Congress, issued a report recommending that the United States take more aggressive steps to curtail, not expand, economic ties with China.

Still, BlackRock has maintained a bullish approach to investing billions in Chinese firms, supporting their economy, and helping fuel the rise of their military, which barely a month ago tested a hypersonic missile. Investment in Chinese companies could also make U.S. investors unwitting accomplices in the expansion of the CCP’s surveillance and intelligence gathering apparatus, or worse yet, make them party to human rights abuses like the ongoing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China.

BlackRock’s funneling of billions in U.S. capital to China carries with it risks not present in other markets, risks that threaten the large wagers the company is putting on steep returns from the Middle Kingdom. As investors in Luckin Coffee learned, Chinese firms are not held to the same transparency standards as their western counterparts, so foreign investors are often hard pressed to appreciate the true risk profile of what they’re investing in. Further, according to Chinese law those investments are not in the actual firms themselves but in a mechanism called a
Variable Interest Entity (VIE). You could lose your shirt when a Chinese company’s performance falls and have no legal recourse. And, perhaps riskiest of all, the central government exercises complete control over even ostensibly private firms, meaning foreign investments can rise and fall at the mercy of the CCP.

For these reasons and more, Consumers’ Research wants to ensure you are aware of the risks associated with investing with BlackRock. We urge elected officials to do their due diligence in educating themselves and their staff on the multiple risks posed by BlackRock’s extensive investments in Chinese companies, both from an ethical standpoint as well as the fiduciary responsibility owed to U.S. pension holders and retirees. As the leader of a state whose pension funds are among the top ten most extensively invested in BlackRock, we invite you to examine
our report and conduct any necessary efforts to learn more about the risks to the assets of your state’s public employees.

These troubling concerns have led the state of Florida to pull $2 billion of its assets managed by the firm.

Using Florida’s cash to fund BlackRock’s social-engineering project isn’t something we signed up for. It’s got nothing to do with maximizing returns and is the opposite of what an asset manager is paid to do. We’re divesting from BlackRock. READ MORE HERE: https://t.co/acstXCDjqW

— Jimmy Patronis (@JimmyPatronis) December 1, 2022

Florida’s CFO Jimmy Patronis issued a press release stating:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced that the Florida Treasury will begin divesting $2 billion worth of assets currently under management by BlackRock. The State Treasury will immediately have Florida’s custody bank freeze approximately $1.43 billion worth of long-term securities and remove them as the manager of approximately $600 million worth of short-term overnight investments. These taxpayer funds are invested by asset managers as part of Florida’s Treasury Investment Pool. By the beginning of 2023, the State Treasury will have divested from BlackRock’s management of all short and long-term investments and relocated investment responsibilities to other fund management entities.

CFO Jimmy Patronis said, “As Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, it’s my responsibility to get the best returns possible for taxpayers. The more effective we are in investing dollars to generate a return, the more effective we’ll be in funding priorities like schools, hospitals and roads. As major banking institutions and economists predict a recession in the coming year, and as the Fed increases interest rates to combat the inflation crisis, I need partners within the financial services industry who are as committed to the bottom line as we are – and I don’t trust BlackRock’s ability to deliver.

“BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is on a campaign to change the world. In an open letter to CEOs, he’s championed ‘stakeholder capitalism’ and believes that ‘capitalism has the power to shape society.’ To meet this end, the asset management company has leaned heavily into Environmental, Social, and Governance standards – known as ESG – to help police who should, and who should not gain access to capital.

“Whether stakeholder capitalism, or ESG standards, are being pushed by BlackRock for ideological reasons, or to develop social credit ratings, the effect is to avoid dealing with the messiness of democracy. I think it’s undemocratic of major asset managers to use their power to influence societal outcomes. If Larry, or his friends on Wall Street, want to change the world – run for office. Start a non-profit. Donate to the causes you care about.

“Using our cash, however, to fund BlackRock’s social-engineering project isn’t something Florida ever signed up for. It’s got nothing to do with maximizing returns and is the opposite of what an asset manager is paid to do. Florida’s Treasury Division is divesting from BlackRock because they have openly stated they’ve got other goals than producing returns. As Larry Fink stated to CEOs ‘[A]ccess to capital is not a right. It is a privilege.’ As Florida’s CFO I agree wholeheartedly, so we’ll be taking Larry up on his offer. There’s no lack of companies who will invest on our behalf, so the Florida Treasury will be taking its business elsewhere.”