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After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting has returned to Davos, Switzerland. This year, the usual list of billionaires, world leaders, and global “elites” are gathering in the swanky ski town for a four-day bonanza of lavish festivities, five-course meals, exclusive cocktail parties, and discussion panels, all while they plan the future of the global economy and society in general.
So far, the annual meeting has included the typical talking points about the greatness of globalism, the existential threat of climate change, and the need for the WEF’s pet project known as the Great Reset.
For those who are attentively watching livestreamed discussions panels, which number in the hundreds, one can’t help but notice how many conversations focus on the intrinsic virtues of ESG scores. So they claim.
ESG investment is, in a nutshell: it’s the latest scheme devised by globalists and big banks and big business to have near total control of the world economy and socially engineer societies to their will.
This may seem like something Hollywood would never dream up, but it’s true.
According to the WEF, ESG scores are the foundation for “stakeholder capitalism,” which the WEF assumes will replace “shareholder capitalism” in the near future.
As the WEF describes it, “Business has now to fully embrace stakeholder capitalism, which means not only maximizing profits, but use their capabilities and resources in cooperation with governments and civil society to address the key issues of this decade. They have to actively contribute to a more cohesive and sustainable world.”
To achieve this new world order, WEF proposes the universal enactment of ESG metrics, which it says, “will drive environmental and social change.”
To date, many of the world’s largest companies, especially investment firms and big banks, have jumped on the ESG bandwagon.
For instance, here is Bank of America Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan’s startling endorsement of ESG: “Take our 200,000 people, $3 trillion balance sheet, $60 billion of expenses – you start aiming that gun and you take that across all these companies – it’s huge.”
Moynihan added that ESG scores are “statements of what capitalism can do to solve what the world needs – the Sustainable Development Goals.” To achieve these so-called goals, Moynihan said, “It takes $6 trillion to finance those a year and the only way you’re going to do it – charity can’t do it, they don’t have the money, governments don’t have the fiscal capacity, capitalism has to do it.”
Of course, one person’s definition of Sustainable Development Goals is another person’s definition of worldwide crony capitalism. ESG is so hot that big finance and big business are obsessed. If implemented on a worldwide level with a “harmonized standard,” ESG metrics would allow global corporations and investment behemoths like BlackRock to channel trillions of dollars to companies and industries that play nice with ESG.
In other words, ESG scoring empowers multinational corporations and big banks to reward those who are onboard the ESG bandwagon with access to capital while penalizing “bad” companies with poor ESG ratings by restricting access to capital.
As Moynihan describes the new scheme, “It’s actually the operating companies that will make the change happen … and the activities they force downstream are just unbelievable.”
The problem is that ESG scores are completely subjective, subject to change at a moment’s notice, and do not align with the fiduciary responsibility of every business, which is to maximize shareholder value by producing quality goods and services at competitive prices.
Although it is not perfect, shareholder capitalism can be a great way to improve prosperity and living standards as well as drive innovation. The latest plan by globalists to expand their wealth and power is stakeholder capitalism. It relies on universal ESG scores.
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) Senior editor, The Heartland Institute
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