This is only the beginning of the accountability BlackRock faces.

Financial asset manager BlackRock said in its annual report that environmental, social, and governance policies could hurt its bottom line after Republican state officials cut ties with the company over its ties to China and climate activism. 

In its annual Form 10-K SEC filing put out last week, BlackRock said that it was facing ESG-related risk factors that might cause it to lose revenue and damage its earnings. The financial giant, which has over $10 trillion in assets, has faced scrutiny from Republican officials who say the company misleads its customers about leftist policies. 

“If BlackRock is not able to successfully manage ESG-related expectations across varied stakeholder interests, it may adversely affect BlackRock’s reputation, ability to attract and retain clients, employees, shareholders and business partners or result in litigation, legal or governmental action, which may cause its AUM, revenue and earnings to decline,” the company wrote in its filing. 

There is nothing wrong for people who have moral objections to fossil fuels being able to invest in assets that are reflective of their values including outlets being able to provide access to such investments. What is wrong is infusing environmentalist ideology into investing to the point where it would be used as a bludgeon or political weapon against companies to force them to against their moral and ethical responsibility to earn and create value for their customers including their investors. That is what BlackRock championed.

Capitalism is a social system based on free, voluntary exchange and the ideology of environmentalism, including its latest vehicle BlackRock utilized (ESG) is antithetical to freedom. It is evil and wrong for BlackRock, especially the company’s CEO (Larry Fink), to use ESG as a means to try to change society or the nature of free markets and any lawsuits or investigations resulting from Fink’s efforts are the appropriate retaliation to stop it.

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