Sometimes it is annoying/alarming to be right. As we noted in Trojan Horses and slippery slopes, the takeover of private sector savings to serve public sector policies is continuing apace.
the seemingly unstoppable ESG bandwagon may well represent a Trojan Horse through which ideologues can effectively control the allocation of trillions of $s in personal savings in accordance with their own opinions.
Market Thinking. Trojan Horses and Slippery Slopes April 2021
In a frankly bizarre edition of the Financial Times today with huge front page headlines with hyperbolic stories on hypersonic missiles that were nothing more than recycling of previous Pentagon pitching scare story narratives for more cash to counter China, we also find an article on the latest annual US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report. This committee, as the author explains, has been the source of much of the anti China economic narrative to date and this year, they are also trying to stop financial flows. From China’s point of view this is not actually that important, for as many, including George Soros, continue to mis-understand, China is not a typical emerging market needing western financing. It is a net exporter of capital and recent developments have shown that it has absolutely no intention of allowing the neo-classical rentier economy economics of Wall Street to exploit its economy. (see George Soros talks his book). What should be far more alarming for the rest of us is the following quote from the author, who importantly is not only an Associate Editor at the FT, but also the Global Economics Analyst at CNN and thus at the heart of East coast group think.
“It’s also hard to imagine that western financial institutions purporting to prioritise ESG concerns won’t come under increasing pressure to justify the hypocrisies of working with an autocratic government”
Rana Foroohar Financial Times (and also CNN). November 2021
So there we have it. In a form of Financial Cancel Culture. ESG managers, so recently celebrated and venerated at their own Glastonbury, are now going to be ‘pressured’ to not invest in things that are not approved by the US State Department. To re-phrase the popular meme from Zero Wing; ” All your savings are belong to US”
