Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock. | Bloomberg
Two wins. BlackRock has agreed to Ron DeSantis’ demands that Florida’s state pension funds can’t be used for eco-activism fantasy quests (like ESG*). Now they have to be used to make profits for the people those funds belong to. That’s not much of a win you might think, since that’s just a return to “the world we thought we were living in”, but in the World of Absurd it’s popping a very important bubble. Possibly “the” most important bubble — the loose money driving the trainwreck of stupid investments and sabotage-like-boycotts.
Secondly — Larry Fink feels hurt. The glitter-wheels are falling off the climate fund-wagon. The CEO of BlackRock was running around the world acting like the third largest nation on Earth. He was waving ten trillion dollars of other people’s money and bossing people into joining his cult. That party is coming undone.
BlackRock are the financial Climate Police disguised as a Monster Investment Fund but the anti-woke movement is gaining ground:
BlackRock’s Fink says climate and ESG-investing attacks getting ugly, personal
By Rachel Koning Beals, MorningStar
Larry Fink — who called climate change the investing opportunity of his lifetime — tells Davos gathering he’s working to change the narrative, such as Elon Musk saying ESG’s ‘S’ stands for ‘satanic’
That’s fund giant BlackRock Inc.’s(BLK) Chief Executive Larry Fink’s answer when asked this week at the glitzy Switzerland gathering of executives, economists and politicians about the “anti-woke” pushback against Wall Streeters who see investment opportunity in fighting climate change.
Fink said… “”Let’s be clear, the narrative is ugly, the narrative is creating this huge polarization.”
Poor billionaire Larry Fink feels demonized:
It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
John Carney, Breitbart News
Larry Fink said that criticism of ESG investing has become personal and accused critics of trying to “demonize” an investment strategy he has championed for the past several years.
“I’m taking this very seriously,” the BlackRock chief said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. “We are trying to address the misconceptions. It’s hard because it’s not business any more, they’re doing it in a personal way. And for the first time in my professional career, attacks are now personal. They’re trying to demonize the issues.”
Karma. When did Larry Fink say anything about the rampant demonization and personal attacks on climate skeptics?
Florida hasn’t taken much money back from Fink (in the big scheme), but they have shown the way, and Fink must be worried that if word spreads, BlackRock could become an empty shell. There is a long way to go, but the legal process used by US State governments against BlackRock can cut the heads off the funding hydra that takes trillions of dollars from citizens and uses it against them.
It’s a breach of anti-trust law in the US and works just like a giant financial cartel.
There are already 19 US States fighting back against BlackRock. They may be our best hope of clawing back power from the dark money bubble threatening democracies.
*ESG stands for “Environment, Social, Governance” but means virtually anything fluffy and fashionable.
I am not now, nor have I ever invested via Blackrock.
Isn’t coal a black rock?
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The problem is John, most people invested in BlackRock have never heard of it, and would say they are not. One friend recently asked his pension fund and was told it was virtually impossible to follow all the money trials on his account and make sure that none of it went through BlackRock or a subsidiary.
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Too true! Most folks are totally clueless about where their pension funds are being invested. BlackRock must have a significant slice of that market, and most people have no idea, except when they get their annual statement and wonder why the value has decreased. What percentage of people choose to use self-invested funds and make a choice? I would guess a less than one percent.
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Fink
Dictionary- Noun: An unpleasant or contemptible person.
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I agree with everything you have written Jo. Unfortunately it is too little, too late.
The planet is entering a cooler period, the western nations (NATO aligned) are (purposely) totally unprepared for it, while the BRICS aligned countries are desperately planning for it.
It is not going to end well.
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It’s never too late.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKGXo4g26Ds
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Churchill was speaking of a human enemy equipped with soldiers, tanks, aircraft and warships. Such an enemy can be faced, and with enough resolve, eventually defeated.
Our enemy now is change in the weather – a cooler period which will see unprepared people in the NH die in their billions from cold, starvation, disease, and possibly war.
This too could have been prepared for and mitigated against. Instead, western nations have, deliberately I believe, spent the last 40 years working to ensure their populations were as unprepared as possible for what is coming.
Now there is no time left, and I believe that is exactly as it was planned to be.
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Our enemy is the elites and the stoopid ‘Pollies’ and, and, and……….. Here in Australia we can move further north as the Planet cools.
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Nobody is disputing that, Johnny.
But 90% of the world’s population live in the NH, and that’s where the killing fields are intended to be. Australia is meant to survive, but with a population reduced to a modern day version of serfdom.
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You are far too negative IMHO………………………
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Fair enough Johnny.
Feel free to fire up your planetary weather altering machine whenever you’re ready.
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Do my Gulag test. Imagine talking to someone who lived in a Soviet Gulag circa 1950 and describing our current situation. Would they say “yeah, it’s too late, just give up” or “you’re crazy”?
We have so much to work with. Our biggest enemy is our own defeatism.
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No way . MV is a very positive guy. An unapologetic realist.
🙂
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“Our biggest enemy is our own defeatism.”
Well , Jacinda’s gone ; her party is toast.
Now we just have to deal with the other half of the Uniparty – National.
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Jo,
How can you be so right and so wrong at the same time!
Who said anything about giving up!
What I’m saying is, it’s way past time talking about what has happened, and is happening, politically and economically; it’s time to start thinking about and planning how we are going to avoid what is coming.
A good first step which I have mentioned three times now, but I doubt anybody has bothered to do, including you, is to get onto a VPN service – I have suggested Proton VPN as it has a limited free service.
Another sensible step is to tuck some money away in a Perth Mint GoldPass account. If anybody is interested I’ll supply further details.
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Quoting MV:” Unfortunately it is too little, too late.” “It is not going to end well.” “…unprepared people in the NH [will] die in their billions”. c’mon MV. 🙂
PS: I’ve been on proton email and VPN and telling people to do the same for over two years. We’ve run Goldnerds for 15 years. Anything else you want to tell me?
PPS: I’ll start a discussion further down the thread about whether a VPN really helps much.
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Fwiw, TO ACTUALLY SURVIVE,pemmican lasts 20 years, good water filter/ supply 50 kgs quality salt develope knowledge of WILD FOOD, couple tools add whatever other survival knick knacks.
I’m seeing an avalanche of sarcasm commentary about WEF, a breath done on YouTube by anything goes.
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And what is going to be particularly pathetic about the Earth entering a cooling period is that the CAGW fanatics will be short-stroking all over proclaiming that it’s proof that all of the shifts away from fossil-fuel use and drastic measures to reduce CO2 production were necessary and effective… and then when the temperatures keep dropping, they’ll be pointing fingers in every direction but themselves trying to duck ‘responsibility’ for what they were trying to take credit for only a short time earlier. And only then, after the circle-jerk of congratulation and subsequent buck-passing attempts, will they start panicking and looking for solutions.
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It will be interesting to see what the CO2 level does if the temp stays down.
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This guy has been living under a rock for the last couple of decades with a statement like that.
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The “G” in ESG is authority and control exercised by hedge fund managers, including control over government. The reality of such governance will always look ugly to investors who prefer a free market.
Moreover, Larry Fink’s concern about the “anti-woke” pushback isn’t really sympathy for “Wall Streeters who see investment opportunity in fighting climate change”, but more about his fear of the growing recognition that ESG is a woke corporatist leviathan creating chaos in the expectation of feeding on the remains.
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Is he perceiving that the dog has caught its tail?
If so, how many others will take his line?
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The theory is that in the long run, ESG funds will outperform because any firm that ignores environmental or societal concerns will lose their license to operate and go bust. I agree with this theory so I don’t want politicians telling me what I can and can’t invest in. Those of you in your twilight years are more short-term focused and would probably want you pension to be invested elsewhere, and you should also have the right to do so.
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“Fink said… “”Let’s be clear, the narrative is ugly, the narrative is creating this huge polarization.””
Let’s be very clear…. its people like Fink and his buddies that are creating that very ugly narrative. !!
They are the ones creating the huge polarization.
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“Fink” by name: Fink by nature?
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It would be a shame if our political discourse became uncivil. Poor man.
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The shame of uncivil discourse and political name calling is revealed in the Prophecies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSo0duY7-9s
Sending methane in his general direction would be an intolerable insult to the sacred quest of ESG.
Commoners finding themselves struggling to buy food and stay warm, have no excuse for becoming uncivil.
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Ron deSantis is the hope of ordinary, intelligent investors who should be cheering him on.
Who wants to waste endless trillions of $ for a lousy, crazy cause and ZERO change to climate or weather or temperature?
We can only hope that other state leaders join him and take this fight to the voters at the 2024 Presidential election.
If they do they’ll increase their vote and be able to drive a stake into the heart of the terrible RUINABLEs future.
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Interesting that Jo should bring BlackRock up again today because just 2 days ago I was listening to a podcast with James Delingpole and Tom Luongo.
Tom Luomgo describes himself as a market analyst looking at geopolitical trends.
Tom had a number of ideas, all of which were somewhat speculative. He thinks that the financial institutions that control the world have different interests and hence different agendas. Actually they are all in it for themselves (as expected), but up til now ESG has suited them all but that has changed because realities are asserting themselves.
The new head of the US central bank is Jerome Powell and behind him are the largest US trading banks, KP Morgan Chase and CitiBank. The strongest influence there is Jamie Dimon.
Tom Luongo sees BlackRock as vulnerable because they are overextended on loans. Dimon and Co could bring down BlackRock by getting Jerome Powell to restrict the money supply and raising interest rates.
If they can bring down BlackRock they likely will because that is what they do.
So take you money out of BlackRock now.
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Most fund companies, and there are hundreds, do not have the deposits of investors. Such are held by Mutual Fund Custodians. While investments can go up, down, or sideways, if a named Company, such as BlackRock, has a meltdown a “retail” investor is at no risk from that.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has specific rules and requirements governing the custody of mutual funds.
That said, some investors may be invested in other ways, and may be at risk.
If you have funds at a company, you can select funds of a type that suit you, or you can direct the advisor services to put your money into certain types of funds.
You should not be a “sheepy” type. Pay attention.
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John,
As a self funded retiree I have my super in a self managed fund . I do have a small amount in hedge funds but realise that their governance is rubbish . I have a investment strategy that buys investments in companies that actually make something . Hedge funds are speculative and manipulative of the stock market same as stock brokers . The other issue is the lawless and corrupt state of corporations worldwide – it appears that as long as they are “woke” they can get away with almost anything. Nothing to see here….
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I would be surprised if that is actually true. In Australia, the only zero risk investments are deposits with authorised deposit taking institutions listed here:
https://www.apra.gov.au/list-of-authorised-deposit-taking-institutions-covered-under-financial-claims-scheme
And there is a cap of AUD250k on individual accounts that the government guarantees. So it pays to spread term deposits around.
And only term and cash deposits are protected. Investment funds managed by ADIs have full exposure to market risk.
Blackrock would not be able to use investor funds to bail itself out. AIG wanted to do that back in 2008 but that is theft. If Blackrock gets into financial difficulty then its only hope is a government bail out. They would have to be considered too big to fail for that to occur. Invester funds are only protected to the extent of the market risk. If Blackrock has invested in a green future that relies on subsidies and those subsidies go away then its portfolio is at risk and anyone investing with Blackrock will see the value of their investment fall.
One of the best investments over the past year in Australia has been coal. Look at the firm that bought the Blair Athol coal mine from Rio.
https://www.marketindex.com.au/asx/ter
So if coal was excluded from a portfolio for some green agenda reason then the investment firm is not investing in the best interest of investors. If the fund was labelled as green then investors know they have narrowed their view but otherwise all opportunities should be open. I have some exposure to infrastructure funds but only funds not investing in electricity infrastructure because my own view is that the electricity industry is a mess. And with the Federal Government involved in price fixing for gas and coal now, both these are on a poor footing for a while. Those involved only in export market will not be impacted unless the rules hit their volume. Both AGL and Santos have falling share price.
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I did say “investments can go up, down, or sideways“.
And you: “ Investment funds managed by ADIs have full exposure to market risk.
Blackrock would not be able to use investor funds to bail itself out.”
We agree. 🧑🎄
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Nothing like the death of a tyrant to brighten your day. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword and those that live off your money will starve when you take your money back. I am waiting for when a government with spine decides to let people prepare for their old age by owning a house rather than shares in a union run super fund. Imagine your ability to save a deposit when you could keep 10% of your wages. Imagine a system where you were given a choice on how to spend your money. Imagine the writhing in agony of the unions when industry funds were no more.
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Imagine!
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Larry Fink is well named. He is a prize fink. And ESG is a scam as sustainability for a Company is to keep on producing the goods and services that Consumers desire and at a profit and not a loss.
The cheapest and easiest way to handle Climate Change (whether hotter or colder) is to do what Mother Nature does. And that is to ADAPT.
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A most perceptive article Jo. Fink squirming is for me the tip of the iceberg.
Just look at what else is happening at Davos. Man Bear Pigs meltdown and Lurch being touched by extra terrestrials are just two examples of current unhinged climate hysteria. One can only imagine the wailing and gnashing of teeth over at Club of Rome, Beyond Zero et al. I’ve followed this site almost since inception and applaud your work without which the charlatans, grifters and carpetbaggers may well be having a win.
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Jack Cashill suggests that
Some of the comments here are priceless.
This is a classic on Lurch
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The head of the US Fed has already told Biden & Co that the Fed will not adhere to these Government ‘Climate Change’ dictates. Thank goodness for that. Some more sanity at the Bank.
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Thanks J R,
But that sounds too good to be true. Do you have a reference?
Cheers
Dave B
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve has only a limited role to play in combating climate change, Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday, a stance that puts him at odds with environmental activists who have pushed central banks worldwide to take steps to restrict lending to energy companies.
Maintaining the Fed’s independence, Powell said, includes steering clear of issues that are more properly overseen by elected officials.
“Without explicit congressional legislation, it would be inappropriate for us to use our monetary policy or supervisory tools to promote a greener economy or to achieve other climate-based goals,” Powell said during a panel discussion in Stockholm on the subject of central bank independence.
“We are not, and will not be, a ‘climate policymaker.’ ”
https://apnews.com/article/business-jerome-powell-sweden-stockholm-climate-and-environment-c3e5875f4b6d7efa079c870fdc779d74
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Thanks.
Cheers
Dave B
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Not seen that statement before. Some real sense there.
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There’s the caveat. It may not be as dire in the US of A.
However, in Australia, the green left Labor extremists and their running dogs are capable of anything. Their revolution has to continue. The RBA is just another intitution to be brought under their fascist heel. The Trots are still with us. No longer under the bed. They’re in the Labor Party and many of the institutions of government.
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A lot of people think the US Federal Reserve is a government department. It certainly sounds like that from the name and also acts like one. But it is in fact a coalition of 12 banks that make monetary policy.
It acts as the US central bank and was set up by Woodrow Wilson in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act but is essentially private and independent in nature, but possibly the US’ and world’s most powerful financial institution.
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The Bank of England is also independent but that only happened in the last couple of decades and can be seen as one of the few useful things Gordon Brown ever did as either chancellor or PM. However, there is an EU dimension to this – as ever in the UK – as the then PM, Tony B.Liar, wanted to take us into the euro and that requires an independent central bank. Brown agreed to this but as a control freak set 5 conditions that had to be met before the UK could join the euro, knowing that there was no chance they would be. We had to suffer the incompetent eco-loon Carney as head of the BoE, given the job by another useless tosser George Osborne, but I see that there was agreement from the current head in response to the Fed statement.
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It’s never a wise idea to invest into industries which are fundamentally not viable and exist ONLY because of Government regulation and taxpayer and consumer subsidies and forced purchase arrangements of fundamentally defective products like wind and solar.
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To paraphrase Warren Buffet – the only reason to invest in renewables is to harvest the subsidies.
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If you do, you need to keep well informed to ensure you can get out before they crash.
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For those that don’t know the acronym, ESG standa for Environmental, Social, and Governance.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with the idwa, all reasonable companies seek to do the right thing, but as with all things, the ideas have been taken over and corrupted by the Left.
E.g for environmental – investors money is at risk because it is put into industries that rely on taxpayer subsidies and regulation such as wind and solar are not viable and are unsustainable. Money is made from harvesting subsidies and transferring wealth, not creating it.
Look at Sun Cable as the most recent example, which fortunately failed so “only” $14 million of taxpayers money got wasted before it got any worse.
E.g. for social, the best employees are not sought because rather than merit, eligibility for hire is based solely on race, gender, sexual preference etc, not competence. Such discriminatory employment helps no one.
E.g. for governance, it’s all very good to have transparency and anti-corruption measures, and oversight of unreasonably excessive compensation for CEO’s and board members, but the reality is that woke companies that practice ESG rarely have any of that.
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It is surely time to check which of our Superannuation Funds have investments in Blackrock or any of its associates.
I will not hesitate to withdraw all funds from any Superannuation fund with investments in the Blackrock or similar “ investment companies”.
If we don’t “ rock the boat” we’d best be prepared to go down with it!! This insidious scam cannot be allowed to go on without challenge,,
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A wise fund manager would declare any industry that relies on subsidies and regulation for its existence is a high risk to invest in.
If a rational government ever comes along and cancels subsidies and favourable regulatory treatment, the industry collapses instantly and all investor’s money is lost.
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Tesla proves that it is not about risk, it is about how trendy the stock is, how cool the billionaire. At least Apple, another personality cult, produced a decent product. It’s all about manipulating the crowd. In any case, what is the risk of a rational government coming along? Basically zero.
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I have driven several Tesla’s, for a goodly number of miles. They are wonderful, and fun, and well-made. They are a cool techie toy for people with money.
They will actually have negative impact on the whole global warming thing, but since that’s a made-up fraud anyway, that won’t matter. The cars are still cool.
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One of of my university days buddies, said he wants a Tesla. I said I have no problem with it. Let anybody buy and drive whatever the want. But don’t take away freedom of choice to drive an ICE powered ute, or even a muscle car. And don’t make somebody else pay for your ride. And don’t take away somebody elses freedom by making artificially their reasonable choice too expensive.
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Methinks, the problem may be closer to home. The local Industry Super Funds seem very closely associated with the political left. Were I a member of one of these funds, and it invested heavily in solar & wind, etc., then my investment becomes captive to a continuation of a favourable political climate-since it is otherwise non viable as an investment. Fads change, the rentseekers will have made their loot, and super fund members will be left poorer. My suggestion-vote with your feet.
Sadly, not surprised that bankers/financiers making multimillions are giving moral advice to the plebs. What chutzpah, what hypocrisy
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Agreed, the Industry Super Funds are in this up to their eyeballs, easy to find their ESG policies in the governance section of their websites. I have even been finding the most boring and staid LICs that now have such things. When I wrote to one of them about this (financial basis for doing it, reporting of all such interactions and monitoring of results, where among my questions), they said they would take it under advisement. My take is that a large corporate investor likely required a minimal such policy, I doubt the LIC was interested but did it anyway. I think the LICs and others are waiting for other shareholders to make their voice heard.
The anti-ESG movement in the US is further along, Strive is a new ETF provider that explicitly states the intent to use only financial concerns for their interactions. They note that many companies they reach also want this, and have been waiting the anti movement to come. They also are building a proxy service for voting at AGMs.
A final alternative is to self index, holding 20-30 companies in more or less the same quantities as an index (in Australia say VLC, DOW in the US). I am in the process of figuring this out as Vanguard (with their actions at Exxon and Chevron) has burned my trust, even though they did step back from the Net Zero mob.
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Black Rock is one thing but the stage has already been set here in Australia back in 2017
when
23-year-old Mark McVeigh, took the trustee of his retirement fund, the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust (REST), to Federal Court, seeking information about what the trustees knew about the impact of climate change on its investments and what they were doing to address them.
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Jeepers, that my super fund. Hope they are not investing in global warming mitigation!
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This was REST’s 2020 announcement of the agreement reached. Cheers
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Thanks Earl. Lots of noise but looks like it will be up to their “expert investors”. REST has done well for me in the past, I trust it won’t change.
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Tony Blair has stuck his oar in the water again, railing about worldwide digital vaccination records for every citizen. Purely to protect us from the ‘next’ accidentally released and totally unforeseen pandemic, of course. He is a prime example of an ex politician who is unable to come to terms with the fact that he is now irrelevant and just another former temporary parasite on the system, desperate to cling on to power through association with the far left nutjobs at the WEF.
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I read that Blair is hoping to replace Herr Schwab as Supreme Commander, WEF, if he ever retires.
Blair is somewhat reminiscent of Michael Rimmer in “The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer” (1970), as indeed is the current UK Supreme Leader, Sunak.
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Nothing wrong with having a vaccination record. I had one when I visited China in 2008. However, I refuse to be jabbed with an experimental gene therapy emergency approved drug that doesn’t work too well except to induce life threatening side effects.
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That’s the problem, Johnny, dullards such as Blair are cosying up to comrades like Bourla to implement their demented agenda. They are all in on experimentation. We are expendable as far as they are concerned.
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Nowadays you can visit China, HK and Taiwan without any vaccination record. When I first entered ROC under PR I had to have a Rubella booster, but that was because it is PR visa. I also enter HK under PR visa and that does not require any vaccination record but, until recently, you would be restricted in where you could go as they had a vaccine passport app that would prevent me from getting into restaurants, bars etc. PRC does not require a vaccination record, but I enter under business visa.
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I always wonder about people’s formative years. Larry did a degree in Political Science, an odd choice. And he presents as a dedicated environmental and social activist saving the planet and all those people oppressed by the white male patriachy of which he is an outstanding member but his company Blackrock is also the largest investor in weapon manufacturers through its U.S. Aerospace and Defense Exchange Traded Funds.
Must be doing well with the war in Ukraine then. No down side with another proxy war on the Russians. So possibly the world’s largest trans tree hugging weapons manufacturer. It’s all about profits and who said ESG was not very profitable. Forget about Woke micro agressions and profits from wind and solar farms when you are making billions as a merchant of death. All at arms length.
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A lot of people invested in Blackrock and Vanguard years ago. Every investor advisor recommended investing in these funds. Why? They have very good returns and have also increased in value- substantially. Back when people invested in them, they were advised that both funds invested in all the tech stocks etc. There was never any mention of ESG or investment green ideology. Hopefully, they will still be providing good returns after this ESG rethink. Heaven knows there must be lots of other investment opportunities out there. I was one of those investors, by the way. Will I sell them? No. Someone has to make money from humanity’s stupidity. Better me than the next person.
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For shares, just invest in a Vanguard low fee Share Index Fund (International and Australian) and wait. Start when young as well.
BTW – This is not specific financial advice. Only general financial advice. My AFSL number is Whitehall 1212…………..sarc
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An American Politician speaking Truth & making Sense – 3 Mins 54 Secs
Don’t believe the hype. Electric cars pollute far more than conventional vehicles
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I like the two people in the video background. A weight loss programme anyone?
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And finally someone has reflected on the danger an EV poses just sitting parked. Particularly if parked in high rise parking lots…
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Thanks. It is good to know that not all our politicians are idiots and that there are at least some who do the sums and draw the necessary conclusions.
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Senator McClintock (I think) is a clued up politician
He’d get my vote . .
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On the subject of ESG employment practices, I have heard of people that tick the boxes on application forms asking the racist question of “are you an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander” in order to dramatically improve their chance of getting the job.
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David
We should all do that . If you were born here you are indigenous regardless of skin colour .
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Just think of what would happen if everyone ticked that box. There would be no discrimination then and we would not need a Voice because we were the parliament. Win Win. Only losers the Aboriginal Industry.
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We live in a democratic world. That means that everyone has a single and equal vote – link shareholders in a company. Those with more money – more wealth – don’t have more votes. Larry Fink and his mates need to realise that. They need to stop being Finks.
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We live in a democratic world?
Nice one centurion.
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Can we get this straight once and for all –
Australia is not, and was never meant to be, a “democracy”.
It is a constitutional monarchy.
America is not, and was never meant to be, a “democracy”.
It is a constitutional republic.
In both cases the power of both government and the majority, are supposed to be limited by a set of rules and boundaries laid out in a written document called a constitution. The reason we are in our current mess is because both our governments have stopped playing by the written rules long ago.
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Apart from that the founding fathers of the US, and in particular, Thomas Jefferson, believed in Natural Rights. He was heavily influenced by John Locke who wrote the “Second Treatise of Government” in 1689 at the time of England’s Glorious Revolution which overthrew James II. That work:
In Australia and the other Anglo constitutional monarchies, any ideas of rights were derived from Jeremy Bentham and his utilitarianism philosophy. He also believed in rights but he was strongly opposed to any ideas of Natural Rights or God-given rights and he believed rights came only from man. That is the fundamental problem with UK, Aus, NZ and Canada.
It is about Natural Rights (US) vs man-given rights (Anglo monarchies).
Admittedly, all this is ignored by US and other governments now, but that is the theoretical difference.
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What good are rules and constitutions if they can be ignored or rewritten at will?
Democracies and republics are both worthless concepts. Look at the USA for proof.
The King of England effectively owns every scrap of land in Australia not you. You lease it.
Time for a whole new system, dump the WEF,WHO,NATO and all such criminal enterprises.
Let’s do a Florida.
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No thank you. I’m quite happy with the system of Australia. I have very little fear the King is going to confiscate my freehold land. Schwab and the modern commies however, that’s a different story, and all any change will end up doing is giving freaks like that power. I’m no fan of revolution.
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“Secondly — Larry Fink feels hurt”.
“That party is coming undone”.
Gosh Joe…harsh.
As Larry said, “it’s my party and ill cry if I want to”.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIsnIt1p978
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Reality bites with this data from a Senior Fellow @ the Manhattan Institute.
https://rclutz.com/2023/01/20/world-energy-wake-up-call/
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Hard to feel sorry for billionaire, hypocrite socialists who want everyone living in poverty … except themselves.
Capitalism is about great inventions, delivering what the customers want, and bringing products to market efficiently. What useful product does Larry Fink deliver?
His main strategy is to find people promoted beyond their competence who are managing government mandated pensions … and then he sweet talks them into handing over other people’s money. These aren’t individual savings, they are pension funds where the contributions were not voluntary, and the actual owners of the money don’t get a say in where it goes. Essentially theft with a vague promise of future returns.
Yeah there’s that … these people were the ones carrying on about “Stakeholder Capitalism” and the way business isn’t just about money, every business needs to engage with social this and social that.
Welcome to politics buddy! You wanted it, now you got it.
Dirty game isn’t it? Smart managers focus on product and stay right out of politics.
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Amazing how Fink immediately plays the victim card, as if his attempts to destroy companies that would not go along with ESG was in some way a benign act.
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It’s not their money, it belongs to the investers . .
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Pension funds have become the new “too big to fail” speculative bubble. Public pensions are going to take a big hit.
Stock market just keeps on going up 😐
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Correction –
The public, who are required by law to invest in the funds, are going to take a big hit.
The union fund managers, who are currently raking in $37 BILLION annually in management fees, will go on merrily making money for their unions regardless of what the market does.
Our compulsory superannuation system is as rigged as our compulsory preferential voting system.
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Well said MV. The forced pension funds are a scam.
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There are 4 worlds.
1. The Real World, that suffers items 2 through 4.
2. The Political World
3. The Ideological World
4. The Economic World.
Items 1 and 4 are pragmatic realities that result from items 2 and 3.
Items 2 and 3 are imaginary, fungible, and encumber items 1 and 4.
Only items 1 and 4 are worthy of attention. However, most attention is paid to items 2 and 3. This is a function of media.
Reality and Economics mean a great deal more than Politics and Ideology. The poor, hungry, cold, and desperate understand this, clearly.
Politics and Ideology only matter to those who wish to ride upon the ridden. Economics might well be included as a means to ride the ridden.
Governments who do not deal with reality are destined to failure as are their citizens. Govts that obscure economics are liars and thieves.
For Citizens, only the Real World matters. Everything else is an excuse by the Government for having failed the Citizenry.
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Neil Oliver ‘…it’s a racket!’
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There is a new Open Fred. Get onto it quick smart…………………
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Rise in heart attacks across Australia
2 hours ago
Fatal cardiac arrests in Australia are on the rise.
Doctors say COVID’s damaging effect on the heart drives serious cardiovascular problems.
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Anyone tested their VPN? I am fairly sure that unless I run it full time, and only use it after I reboot the computer having cleared out the cookies, that sites can identify people even through the VPN.
Doing things like repeat searches on location-dependent things before an after VPN use suggests that just turning a VPN on and off during one session doesn’t disguise people entirely.
I don’t profess to know a lot. And sometimes a VPN has been fabulously useful in getting a very different “News” search result. Sometimes the only way for me to find out what is happening in say Singapore or Indonesia is to use a VPN to do a “news” search from a local IP.
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1) – My apologies. I was absent for a long time so I wasunaware of your posts re VPN.
2) – Proton VPN now comes with a “stealth mode” to address your points. It was only introduced in the last month so you may not be aware of it.
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A word of warning –
A few months ago our current Labor grubbymint, with the full support of the Libs and Nats, quietly passed legislation banning the use of ALL forms of encrypted online services, including email.
ALL VPN is considered an “encrypted service”, and Proton email – which I also use, is encrypted.
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MV to be fair – I haven’t done a whole post on VPN’s. It’s not my thing (as you can tell). I have only suggested it, and told people in comments and emails.
No, I didn’t know about stealth mode. Thanks. Will look out for it.
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This is a little bit off-topic, but quite characteristic of the good ol’ USA: Pretend you’re interested in the environment, but do everything you can to push the planet towards WWIII; declare that no one else should buy Russian oil and gas, and then scoop it up yourself. Whatever Warshington says they are doing, at all times, they are doing the opposite:
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https://www.telegraphindia.com/business/indias-breaking-all-records-for-buying-russian-oil-but-who-is-the-surprise-buyer/cid/1910044
India has stepped up its buying of Russian crude oil in January from already record levels of the previous month. And, astonishingly, the United States has emerged as the biggest buyer for the refined products, despite Washington’s entreaties to the rest of the world not to buy Russian fuel.
India’s purchases of Russian crude oil have shot up to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in January which is a steep rise from 1.2 million bpd in December 2022– which was even then record-level buying. …
The US has traditionally been a big buyer of a Russian refined product called virgin gas oil (VGO). Now, since it can’t buy VGO directly from Russia, it’s purchasing it from Indian refineries run by Reliance Energy and Nayara Energy – and the VGO from these refineries is made from Russian crude oil. …
“The charts show the US is the number one destination or product in December. Number 2 place is the UAE and third place is Singapore. The US is exporting an insane amount of VGO,” says Katona. …
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Thanks for that, JB.
“In war, the first casualty is always the truth.”
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ESG really means Fraudulent Marxist Global Dictatorship.
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as you sow, so shall you reap;
good luck with McVeigh . .
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Why are nice and pleasant highway robbers getting ugly and personal responses?
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These climate cult CEO’s are canibalistic. They eat their own when the need to be head of the pecking order of wealth takes over.
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[…] By Jo Nova […]
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