OPINION:
The issue of investment funds coercing companies to accept or create certain standards for environmental, social and governance, or ESG, activities is complicated. The left is, through the imposition of ESG criteria, trying to achieve its goals by co-opting private sector activities — in this case, the provision of financing.
The leftists’ goal — about which they are straightforward — is to redirect the investments and retirement funds of Americans and use them to enrich and expand companies, causes and people that the left would otherwise be unable to fund and which they cannot persuade the political process to pursue or endorse.
What makes this issue particularly wicked is that conservatives may win the issue politically and even judicially but lose it commercially and financially; most Americans are unaware that the people who manage their money are not investing it in ways that most Americans would prefer.
The problem is that most people, even most investors, are more concerned about rates of return than they are about specific investments. The time and cost of learning what your money is actually helping to grow is too high for most people.
Fortunately, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity has reduced that time and cost. Last week, the nonprofit group published a concise, interesting study of more than 800 investment funds. The study ranked them based on how committed they were to using their investors’ cash for their own private, political purposes. They were graded on a scale from A to F; firms that earned the best grades voted in the interests of their clients at least 90% of the time.
All you have to do is go to the nonprofit’s website and look down the list of good and bad investment funds, and hope that your money has not been supporting terrible people, terrible acts or terrible governments.
If it turns out your money has been helping to cause bad and dangerous things to happen, don’t feel too bad. Our own federal government has a similar problem.
For some time, organizations such as the Coalition for a Prosperous America and the American Securities Association have argued that we must prevent U.S. investment in China. This outbound investment supports China’s military expansion, slavery, genocide, and international hooliganism.
A simple answer is to prevent companies cozy with the Chinese regime from accessing U.S. capital markets. For whatever reason, bipartisan efforts to do so have been unsuccessful. For example, as recently as February, the House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ally Patrick McHenry, North Carolina Republican, passed and sent to the floor a batch of mostly anodyne messaging bills on China.
Oddly enough, the one bill that got held back — sponsored by Kentucky Republican Andy Barr — would have prevented companies with close ties to the People’s Liberation Army from accessing capital markets. No explanation has been offered as to why that bill was withdrawn from consideration.
Or think about TikTok. We can’t ban TikTok (even though India and Montana have) for reasons that are never explained but become obvious when you follow the cash. Similarly, we can’t exclude China from our capital markets for reasons that are never explained but become obvious when you follow the cash.
This brings us back to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and its list. The investment funds at the bottom of the list have a vested interest in a healthy and growing China; they are literally invested in it.
Think about that when you visit your broker or do online trading, or vote.
The challenge we face from China is much more complicated than just defeating them in the international arena. We must also find and shame their fellow travelers here in the United States.
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