LTP News Sharing:
Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick announced on Oct. 18th that the Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System would divest all public equities managed by BlackRock. Missouri is joining a growing number of states who have pulled their retirement systems’ funds from BlackRock and other asset management firms over their push to adopt environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.
The Free Enterprise Project has been a leading voice revealing the dangers of asset managers like BlackRock promoting ‘Woke’ political agendas through ESG funds and has continuously challenged its Board during shareholder meetings over meddling in social and public policy issues.
Free Enterprise Project director Scott Shepard notes, “Red states, responsible pension funds, and traders who favor freedom over failure should all be withdrawing their money from BlackRock and seeking to rein in Larry Fink’s delusions of autocratic glory. Fink uses all of the assets invested with BlackRock — not just those labeled ESG — to push his hard-left personal policy preferences like his commitment to crippling the American economy by pushing unreliable energy and yoking us all under new, based race, sex and orientation discrimination. BlackRock’s new effort to “set the record straight” is another issue of material misrepresentation. Fink is not the friend of liberty; he is not the friend of true sustainability; he is not the friend of the United States.”
Free Enterprise Project associate Ethan Peck also adds, “It’s long overdue for states to responsibly invest their pension funds. Tax-paying citizens should not be forced to fund the degradation of their values and way of life with their own retirement money. BlackRock politicizes the entirety of the market using other people’s money even when those people don’t share Larry Fink’s radically left-wing vision for America. Good on Missouri for this sensible decision, and hopefully more states will catch on.”
Author: The National Center
