ESG Governance Fads

ESG Governance Fads. www.wtchdogonwallstreet.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact that we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader, Chris Markowski e
s g d.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
EI governance fads because that's exactly what they were. I
found it odd today. I don't know why. Various different
publications that I read had stories talking about this in
essences retreat from ees G d EI Investing. Jeb Henzerling

(00:38):
had an editorial in The Wall Street Journal today, other
publications as well, and we've seen the stories as of
late companies saying whoa, whoa, whoa, we're backing away. We're
backing away from our es G d EI investing. It's
it was always from the get go, a governor's fad.

(01:00):
We get these things all the time, all the time.
It's much like a lot of the climate change stuff
as well, except the climate change stuff has made people
a lot of money. Again, the ESGDI stuff has as well.
Talk about the amount of people that actually are in
jobs because of this useless jobs. They don't build anything,

(01:21):
they don't create anything. They really don't serve any purpose.
But that much of government is actually that. I mean,
you got to think about all the departments, all the
people that work for the federal government basically doing nothing.
Remember all the hires that were taking place during COVID.
Everybody wanted to work in human resources and they got

(01:42):
involved in all of this nonsense. They don't do anything.
They're not creating any well, they're not creating any value,
just like these people in government haven't done that. But
again it's a government jobs program. Last week we did
a whole thing on teachers' unions and the amount of
employees in schools in comparison to kids, and most of

(02:06):
them are not teachers. They're administrators and they're people. Again,
they're not adding any value. There's no value added. And
that's much of what we have right now. And you know,
they bring pressure on corporations. Corporations feel like they have
to get in line the issue, the issue that I had. Okay,

(02:28):
because again I'm a big believer that you know, businesses
can do whatever they want to do. Okay, they can
do whatever they want to do. If there is a
restaurant in town that all of a sudden wants to
go all in I don't know, trans whatever it may

(02:48):
be they want to do, you know, drag queen bingo,
whatever it may be. And they are a you know,
they're private business. That's their choice. That's their choice. Go ahead,
do what you want. I can decide whether or not
I want to go to that business or not. Now,

(03:09):
what was different when it came to corporations. We all
saw what happened. Also, it happened with bud Light. Harley
Davidson has been blowback a myriad of other things out there.
These CEOs, these CEOs were not I don't know if
they know it at the time. Maybe they just weren't

(03:30):
that bright. We're not acting in the best interest of
the shareholders. Now, when you are the CEO of a
publicly traded company, you have a job, a fiduciary duty,
to act in the best interests of your shareholders. And
obviously they did not. Didn't work out that well. Quite frankly,
should have lost their job based upon this. But the
Biden administration actually gave them cover, actually gave them cover.

(03:52):
I this was what three years ago, if I'm not
mistaken it it was a Friday after Thanksgiving. Okay, no
one's covering the story where the Biden administration gave a
get out of jail free card for all financial advisors
and anybody out there if they lose their clients' money,
if they were investing in deiesg whatever it may be. Again,

(04:17):
basically proving that the entire thing was stupid from the
get go. If it was such a great investment philosophy, gee,
people would be clamoring to get into it. But no,
it's done nothing but generate losses here, there and everywhere. Again.
I run. I've got three shareholders in my companies, my

(04:41):
brothers and I, And if we decide, for example, if
we decide that we want to take a portion of
our money again, we own it. We're the shareholders. Okay,
we're responsible for each other. And we want to donate
money to a church organization, whatever it may be. That's

(05:01):
that's our choice. We can do that, do whatever we want.
But when you are a publicly traded entity, different Paul
of Wax, you have to act in the best interest
of your shareholders. This was eventually gonna happen again like government,
Like most governance fads, they go away, they go away,

(05:25):
and there's going to be a retreat here. They'll come
up with something new. They'll come a government will come
up with something new so they can continue to employ
people that do nothing, live off the taxpayer dime. Push
agendas here, there, and everywhere, allow people to be rabble
rousers that can they can hold their little protests whatever
it may be, and they'll move on. But again, this

(05:48):
is nothing new. Governance fads have been around for a
long time, and this esg DEI thing was just another
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