December 5, 2024
Vivek Ramaswamy sells anti-ESG to RIAs to nab quick  billion of AUM, but it’s all ‘Kabuki theater,’ analyst says, to steer proxy votes hard right — profitably

September 26, 2023 — 10:55 PM

Ok Oisin, it’s been a while, but I’ll step out in front of the proverbial speeding bus. Somewhat off point even. Here goes 😀

Heavy sigh. Zero political interest here. To say that greed for money and power and the political maneuvering and manipulation that goes along with it are not behind much of the world of money would be to deny irrefutable history. Knowing those facts let’s just dispense with all of the noise and drama.

Hypothetical twin girls, best friends, entrepreneurs, married and both love coffee and neither have any political identity. OMG no politics?! Imagine that. Identical you say. Not even close. One regards the petrochemical industry an anathema to human existence while the other realizes things need to change but will invest there. The list of differences is substantial but not too long. Both live for coffee, but knowing how manipulated it is as a commodity, refuse to invest in it. Both feel strongly that the current EV path is being manipulated for the interests of increasing the wealth of the über wealthy, not for the greater good of the planet or the carbon units that inhabit it. They are concerned about fresh water impact from industrial operations such as paper manufacturing and cracking. Another concern is over farming and over fishing. And the list goes on.

Now, remembering that they are both apolitical, neither left or right, we continue. Proposed standards spawned by ESG and other paradigms, are designed to measure corporate compliance providing rewards or penalties based upon its performance of the standard. Compliance management is a SRO structure, not via an enforcement body, thus giving full control to the company to manage compliance in a manner executive management feels fits best. And yet, due to the politicization and weaponization of ESG and other similar paradigms, both twins will be labeled lefties.

What was intended to be a standard of measurement, a set of guardrails and goad, has turned into a battlefield of epic proportions. I ask, is there any difference in rewarding or penalizing a corporation based upon its ecosystem impact performance versus financial performance? My altruistic self says no. There should be no left or right, red or blue,… I could go on. At the end of the day it boils down to how much we care as individuals about stewardship of the planet itself.

Pete Giza | Spitbrook Associates LLC | 603 396 8355

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