Paul Chesser

American Universities Urged to Divest From China

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Donald Trump & Xi Jinping/IMAGE: YouTube

In another broadside against the People’s Republic of China, a top official in President Trump’s State Department last month urged American universities to divest their endowments from Chinese-owned corporations; to closely monitor or shut down on-campus activities that promote Chinese propaganda; and to protect research centers from Chinese theft of intellectual property.

This followed the President’s attacks on the Chinese communists for releasing and then covering up the threat from the Wuhan coronavirus. Also his trade war, with huge tariffs on China’s exporters, has caused the Far East nation great pain.

And regarding investments, a special working group of the administration’s top financial regulators, led by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, recommended the Securities and Exchange Commission impose stronger transparency rules for foreign companies that are listed on American exchanges. The step was primarily directed at China, whose companies’ financial disclosures are … Read More ➡

Study Debunks BlackRock Claims that ESG Funds Did Better During COVID

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Larry Fink

So-called environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities, as applied to investment principles, have seen a massive influx of cash during the COVID-19 pandemic – so much so that influential financial firm leaders have celebrated them as better performers than normal “make-a-profit” funds.

But is that really true?

Mega-firm BlackRock and CEO Larry Fink have called greater attention to ESG, beginning early in 2018 with a letter to more than 1,000 publicly traded companies urging them to elevate issues such as climate change and diversity higher in their considerations as they go about their business.

“Society is demanding that companies, both public and private, serve a social purpose,” he wrote. “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.”

CNBC reported earlier this month that the amount of assets in funds that follow ESG … Read More ➡

Chinese Companies Get Scrutiny— But Not From BlackRock

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Steve Mnuchin/IMAGE: YouTube

Pressure continues to increase on Chinese corporations that are listed on American stock exchanges, to provide greater transparency about their ownership and operations.

Following the U.S. Senate’s passage (by unanimous consent) in May of the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, a special panel of top government financial regulators issued a report last week that also called for tougher rules in order for “non-cooperative” foreign companies to be allowed to be listed in the United States. The goal is to provide greater protection for investors in those companies, to meet minimal audit and transparency standards so that potential risks are better understood.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets specifically scrutinized the risks to investors posed by the Chinese government’s failure to allow access to the books of companies listed in the U.S.  The group urged the Securities and Exchange Commission take steps to strengthen the listing standards.… Read More ➡

ESPN Exposes, Then Hides, Report on Abusive NBA Training Academies in China

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Adam Silver/IMAGE: CNN via YouTube

The “woke” NBA – whose players (with few exceptions) wouldn’t stand for the Star-Spangled Banner but do stand human rights abuses in China – had a bumpy reopening last week following this year’s shutdown due to COVID-19.

So did one of its top broadcast partners, ESPN.

As Breitbart (aggregating reports from Outkick.com and The Athletic) reported on Sunday, NBA/ESPN saw its television ratings drop on Friday night following the numbers the league saw on the night of its return from dormancy on Thursday. The sports-starved American public apparently doesn’t have an appetite for millionaire athletes complaining about “systemic racism” while they kneel for the National Anthem and at the same time refuse to decry human rights abuses by the communist Chinese.

Meanwhile ESPN reported about the NBA’s involvement with a training academy in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, where millions of Uigher Muslims … Read More ➡

BlackRock Threatens U.S. Firms While Coddling Chinese Polluters

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Apparently true to its word – or at least virtue-signaling a head fake in that direction – mega-investor BlackRock put some companies in its portfolio on notice that their efforts to address transparency and mitigation regarding “climate change” are insufficient.

The $6.5 trillion firm announced earlier this week in a report that it had warned 244 of those companies that they insufficiently address climate concerns, and that it had voted against resolutions and directors at 53 of them because of those shortcomings. It warned the other 191 companies they “risk voting action in 2021 if they do not make substantial progress,” according to the Financial Times.

BlackRock first announced its plans to increase scrutiny of its investments, with regard to climate, in January.

Some of the names on BlackRock’s naughty list include fossil fuel-concentrated industries like ExxonMobil, Volvo, Daimler, and coal company Peabody Energy.

“Our approach on climate issues, … Read More ➡

Facebook Holds Boycotters at Bay While Already Censoring Conservatives

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Well, at least they walked away “disappointed.”

Mark Zuckerberg

That would be the race-stoking groups whose focus is to divide Americans according to color, gender and religion. They all practice intimidating, coercive tactics to force compliance with their demands, which always align with a radical progressive agenda.

The company that disappointed them — surprisingly — is Facebook. Top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, met with groups like the NAACP, Color of Change, and the Anti-Defamation League to discuss whether the company would submit to their ultimatums – with their nebulously-defined demand to “stop hate speech” as their theme.

The organizations marched into the online virtual boardroom of the social media giant under the umbrella of one of those collaborative-sounding names that make them sound bigger than they are – this one is called “Stop Hate for Profit.” They would be more appropriately called “Stop Donald Trump.”… Read More ➡

NBA Promotes BLM While Remaining Silent on Chinese Communists

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Josh Hawley/IMAGE: C-SPAN via YouTube

The open letter on Friday by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, exposed the hypocritical worldview of the leftists in the league and in the media.

That will likely be the best result, rather than seeing the Missouri Senator’s missive produce any meaningful change in how the league manages itself.

Hawley called out Silver and the NBA over its decision to permit its players – more than 80 percent of whom are black – to replace the names on the backs of their jerseys with messaging that for the most part fits the term “social justice.” That is, players can opine just as long as they don’t advocate for the welfare of police officers. Or for victims of Chinese oppression.

The NBA limited the messages players could display to a handful. Needless to say, none expressed support for anything other than … Read More ➡

Are Facebook and Twitter Finally Paying the Price for Censorship of Conservatives?

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Screen grab of Sen. Rand Paul’s Parler account.

Has the dam broken following the build-up of conservative frustration over one-sided censorship against them by Facebook and Twitter?

Evidence of that – which had built up for weeks – turned into a flood over the last ten days.

What had been a quiet trend of sign-ups by publicly known conservatives – including many elected officials – turned into an out-and-out campaign to urge followers to join them in social media alternative platform Parler (originally “Par-lay” per the French spelling; apparently the English literal pronunciation is acceptable now too). According to report by Business Insider, tech data trackers said Parler reached No. 2 for Top News apps on the App Store.

“According to data Sensor Tower has provided to Business Insider, Parler has seen a 246% increase in US downloads this week compared with a week prior,” the site … Read More ➡

Senators Turn Up the Heat on BlackRock Over China Investments

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Kevin Cramer/PHOTO: Gage Skidmore (CC)

Following an effort by National Legal and Policy Center to urge the world’s largest investment firm to divest its customers’ money from 137 companies based in communist China, two Senators have also turned up the pressure.

In a letter dated Monday, Republican Sens. Martha McSally and Kevin Cramer – of Arizona and North Dakota, respectively – asked BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to explain apparent inconsistencies in the company’s approach to managing its funds. Specifically, the senators wanted to know why BlackRock’s U.S. investments are held to a higher standard as it pertains to appeasing activist investors with a progressive agenda, as opposed to its holdings in foreign companies that do not comply with minimal legal and auditing standards.

Fink has led his firm into the decision-making of the U.S. companies where BlackRock has its investments, voting “on 18,758 shareholder proposals and participated in 2,269 shareholder … Read More ➡

Tech Giants Bankroll Extremists; Fuel False Narrative

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Jack Dorsey/PHOTO: jdlasica (CC)

Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of an out-of-control Minneapolis police officer, and demonstrations mixed with riots across the country, many American corporations weighed in with official statements or financial support for causes – or both.

Unfortunately the involvement of some put them more on the side of divisiveness than unity, at a time when the country needs the latter the most.

Ultimately many of the companies and/or their top-ranking officers got behind (again) the dubious narrative that there is “systemic racism” in law enforcement, and that minorities are disproportionately treated as suspects – or singled out for violent police tactics – more than whites. As Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald and former US Attorney Andrew McCarthy explained earlier this week, citing very convincing statistics, the idea there is structural bias in policing is a myth.

“However sickening the video of Floyd’s … Read More ➡