BlackRock, State Street Subpoenaed in House ESG Investigation

Messenger ^ | 12/16/23 | Rocio Fabbro

[george76]

The House Judiciary Committee is probing whether the firms' environmental, social, and governance standards violated anti-trust laws..

he House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors in its investigation into whether their adoption of environmental, social and governance standards violated U.S. anti-trust laws.

The committee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), is probing whether the two investment managers entered into collusive agreements to decarbonize their assets under management and reach net zero emissions by 2050 in ways that could violate anti-competitive laws.

The committee issued the subpoena on Friday, claiming that the documents handed over by both firms were insufficient. BlackRock provided 7,745 documents in the six months since the committee launched its probe.

“Having already produced more than 7,700 documents and 91,000 pages, a subpoena was not necessary but we understand this is the Committee's practice, and we will continue to cooperate," BlackRock said..

In July, the House Judiciary Committee sent letters to both BlackRock and State Street requesting documents and communications related to their ESG policies, and in particular their “decarbonization” efforts. The committee claimed that the efforts would “limit output and increase prices, and deprive businesses of investments and consumers of choices.”

BlackRock and State Street, alongside The Vanguard Group, make up the “Big Three” asset managers, owning a combined quarter of the shares of the S&P 500, according to the letter. BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, with $9.3 trillion in assets.

[JSM_Liberty]

“BlackRock and State Street, alongside The Vanguard Group”

A vast portion of their investments are index funds of various types, probably the least activist form of investing.

[Billie Bud]

I believe with these two this is a HUGE step for Jim Jordan. These massive investment groups (and surprise surprise look who sits on their boards!!!) have bought up thousands of small, first time homeowner type homes offering cash far above real market value to homeowners. Of course, homeowners took the cash…but these groups have held onto the homes…and not reselling them either.

Most young couples used to buy their first home by their mid twenties. Now they’re lucky if they’ll ever own their own home.

Homeownership is the first t step to independent wealth building.

[Billie Bud]

For the past seven or eight years, their focus has turned primarily to single family homes. Some states are catching on to the market distortion created by corporate home ownership and putting in some regulations against them.

[subterfuge]

What about Amazon? Hands off?

Here is Amazon’s statement on DEI:

Diversity equity and inclusion are good for business -and more fundamentally-are simply right. We set and met goals in 2020 to double...Black directors and presidents, launched inclusion training for all Amazonians and remove racially sensitive language in our tech documentation. While...goals include increasing representation of women in tech and science rolls.

Amazon works to use our scale for good on policies on certain issues that WE think are relevant to (some of) our customers
employees and communities where we operate.

FU Amazonians.

[subterfuge]

What about Amazon? Hands off?

Here is Amazon’s statement on DEI:

Diversity equity and inclusion are good for business -and more fundamentally-are simply right. We set and met goals in 2020 to double...Black directors and presidents, launched inclusion training for all Amazonians and remove racially sensitive language in our tech documentation. While...goals include increasing representation of women in tech and science rolls.

Amazon works to use our scale for good on policies on certain issues that WE think are relevant to (some of) our customers
employees and communities where we operate.

FU Amazonians.