ANTI-WOKE WEDNESDAY: Elon and Vivek vs. ISS and Glass Lewis... WHO YA GOT?!

LIVE from the Glass Lewis ISS Torture Chamber it’s 2023’s 4th Woke Data Wednesday featuring Matt Moscardi, Lord of Board Sabermetrics, and me, Duke of Earl Grey Tea. In today’s Wednesday-scented bag called January 25, 2023: ESG conspiracies

Our show today is being sponsored by ESGauge, your ESG data solutions provider

DAMION1

1. In honor of the doomsday clock moving forward once again–we are now at 90 seconds to midnight– took the bait:

1. Vivek Ramaswamy: ·

2. I’ve traveled the country to meet with state pension funds, treasurers, and corporations. It is *staggering* how much influence BlackRock & ISS have wielded over these institutions. They captured the system in red & blue states alike. Time to bring new alternatives to the table.

1. Tom@thomasmidleton: Replying to @VivekGRamaswamy

1. ISS and Glass Lewis are the worst. What even are they? They owe duties to no one, but tell their clients (who are institutional investors too lazy to figure out how to vote themselves) how to vote the shares those investors hold as fiduciaries for their clients.

2. Elon Musk Replying to @thomasmidleton and @VivekGRamaswamy

1. Far too much power is concentrated in the hands of “shareholder services” companies like ISS and Glass Lewis, because so much of the market is passive/index funds, which outsource shareholder voting decisions to them.

2. ISS and Glass Lewis effectively control the stock market.

3. Vivek Ramaswamy

1. Elon, what are you going to do when they propose a “racial equity audit” at Tesla? It’s likely coming soon. Apple & Home Depot didn’t want to do it, but the ESG cartel forced it on them anyway. Strive opposes these proposals, but we’re still small by comparison.

4. Vivek Ramaswamy

1. BlackRock, State Street, & Vanguard claim to be “shareholders” but they’re not the real owners of public companies. Smaller fund managers delegate their votes to ISS & Glass Lewis. ESG is a cartel. That’s why I started Strive to break it up. It’s early days but the signs are good

5. Vivek Ramaswamy

1. Here’s an interesting question for a real journalist to ask: how much money is BlackRock alone spending each month right now in *just* the red states? The answer will probably shock most Americans and reveal how badly rigged the pension fund game is. 

6. Jeff Carlson (writes for far right/anti-china The Epoch Times: “Truth Over News”)

1. You're right. But big firms like Blackrock are NOT outsourcing their proxy voting. Which in many ways is even worse.

A consolidation of corporate policy - and thereby social policy - under people like Larry Fink.

https://blackrock.com/corporate/literature/fact-sheet/blk-responsible-investment-faq-global.pdf

The link has nothing to do with larry fink

1. @ErikaAwakening

1. like so many other areas, we need bring back decision making to the individual

2. @FrancisBanville

1. It's not easy. If you buy 1k$ of a fund that has 500 different stocks, for simplicity, would be around 2$ per stock, so not even 1 share. Would also have to vote on all questions of all 500 shareholders annual meeting. Not a simple task for an individual investor.

1. Nobody liked this reply

3. Concentrated POWER ? Passive Investor Capital hmmm...

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1. To make matters worse, ISS is owned by the Germans. So socialist Germany controls the votes of most US shareholders and therefore the board rooms of US companies.

2. There almost a perfect correlation btw the rise of CEO pay & the rise in popularity of institutional investor proxy voting. Or, put differently, the decline of individual investors expressing a meaningful brake on that expense.

3. If ISS and Glass Lewis aren't eager about protecting the interests of those they're supposed to represent, then they've other interests they're protecting. It could either be theirs or some external influences working in the dark with them against the interests of their clients🙇‍♂️

4. It is a crime 401(k) retirement plans are in the hands of these crooks!

and by sound of it if they can push the stock down even if a company is thriving and better that any other company in same business. 🤔🫣🤨😟

1. I agree. I believe enlightened corporate managers will allow employees sufficient time to peruse documentation of the cos in their retirement portfolios and engage in thoughtful debate about vote pros/cons just like they allow workers time off for local/nat’l govt elections.

2. I'd say at $tsla, far too much power is in the hands of the twitter CEO, and the board needs to crack the whip and reign him in

3. The bigger question👉 Who controls ISS & Glass Lewis❓

1. And now Blackrock is rebuilding #Ukraine

2. #Finra traces back to 1939 formerly NASD. Why does a private organization have control over public companies? #Congress @PatrickMcHenry

3. & what about @BlackRock , do them vote by the interest of his #shareholders ?