Skip to main content

ESG Investing in “Democratic” Companies

 Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has been rightly criticized for driving the politicization of American business, and it is hard to think of a more politicized method of evaluating corporations than by their political contributions. This is exactly what the Democratic Large-Cap Core Fund (DEMZ) does. It is worth examining both for the specific companies in its investment portfolio, as well as for how it illustrates an important distinction with respect to ESG investing, even among those who are skeptical of the practice.

The Democratic Large-Cap Core Fund is an exchange-traded fund that invests only in companies that support the Democratic Party.

According to the fund, as of December 2020 approximately 200 of the 500 companies from the index met these criteria-itself an interesting data point-and the fund's portfolio was constructed from that group.

Billing itself as a way for "Democrats to invest" and to "Invest in Democrats," DEMZ promotes its holdings as being "Fossil-fuel free." It also claims that the companies in its portfolio support ESG priorities such as diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; pay their employees a "Living wage"; and pursue "Thoughtful policies on climate change and environmental impact." The fund singles out companies such as AT&T, ExxonMobil, and Lockheed Martin for supposedly being "Republican-supporting" and asserts that corporations run by executives who support Democratic politicians are inherently more profitable.

Several companies on the list are associated with prominent liberal megadonors who give in ways that would not have factored in to the DEMZ fund analysis.

The former CEO and chairman of Progressive-the late Peter B. Lewis-was one of the original funders behind the Democracy Alliance, which subsequently expanded to become one of the largest and most influential left-wing funding networks in the country.

The decision of three New York City pension funds to divest from oil and gas companies in 2021 is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit from plan beneficiaries.

So the bottom line is that while DEMZ might be a product of the ESG-driven rush to politicize American business-itself a significant societal problem-it does not automatically follow that the fund itself is contributing to that problem, provided that it is restricted to private self-directed investors who for whatever reason prefer their investments to be based upon political criteria. 

https://capitalresearch.org/article/esg-investing-in-democratic-companies/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fauci Files Reveal Pfizer Helped Biden Rig 2020 Election

 Pfizer secretly colluded with Joe Biden's team to help him rig the 2020 election against Trump, according to new Fauci documents. In his new book, "On Call," Fauci admits that Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, called him the night after Biden was declared the winner of the election, to inform him of Pfizer's "Game-changing results" from the rigged mRNA trial. "On November 7, after the absentee ballots were counted, Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election. It was the very next night that Albert Bourla, Pfizer's CEO, called me away from my neighbors' fire pit to inform me about the game-changing results from the Pfizer mRNA vaccine trial. I finally thought we had truly turned a corner in defeating this terrible disease." Today reports: In another interesting tidbit, Fauci discusses Trump's FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn declaring that he would not go along with the Trump Administration's plan to roll out the vac...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hunter Biden Held Previously Undisclosed Meeting With The "F**king Spy Chief Of China"

 First brother Jim Biden told Congress last week that Hunter Biden held a previously undisclosed meeting with Patrick Ho, an executive with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy - which, weeks earlier, paid Hunter and Jim Biden $5 million as part of a joint venture to find investments for the Chinese firm, the Washington Free Beacon reports. In a congressional deposition last month, Jim Biden said he accompanied Hunter Biden to Hong Kong in September 2017 to meet with Patrick Ho... ...The Biden family's arrangement with CEFC China Energy has stoked national security concerns because of the Chinese firm's links to Chinese military intelligence. According to Jim Biden, he and Hunter Biden had a "Pleasant" lunch in Hong Kong with Ho, who also served as head of the China Energy Fund Committee, a think tank funded by CEFC China Energy. Washington Free Beacon According to Jim Biden, "Ho said, 'Can I borrow Hunter for, you know, a half-hour? We're going ...
Post a Comment
Read more

WEF Orders Govt's To Declare Martial Law Due To 'Imminent Bird Flu Pandemic' About To Sweep Globe

 The World Economic Forum has ordered world governments to make the necessary preparations to declare martial law due to an 'imminent bird flu pandemic' which they say is '100 times worse' than COVID-19. According to WEF scientists, the coming bird flu pandemic will kill at least 50% of those it infects. Infowars.com reports: Cattle in six different U.S. states have been diagnosed with this new bird flu strain. GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky shared a screenshot of a February 2024 Daily Mail article with the headline, "REVEALED: US is collaborating with Chinese scientists to make bird flu strains more infectious and deadly as part of $1m project - despite fears similar tests unleashed Covid." "Where have we seen this before? U.S. collaborates with China to make bird flu more contagious and transmissible to mammals. bird flu now discovered in U.S. dairy cattle, transmitted to at least one human being. Knock it off already!" Massie wrote. Secretive ...
Post a Comment
Read more