The Biden administration, led by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, and cheered on by progressives in the Senate like Liz Warren, are beginning an assault of crypto-currency freedom. The Wall Street Journal's Dave Michaels and Alexander Osipovich report: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler this week declared war on what he called the Wild West of crypto trading, promising a vigorous attack on fraud and misconduct. But progress is likely to be more piecemeal and incremental than wholesale and sudden. Mr. Gensler outlined his desire to regulate digital assets such as bitcoin and … [Read more...]
The Top 15 Destinations for Americans Escaping the City in 2020
In 2020, Americans fled from big blue blob cities to escape the COVID-19 pandemic, the strict mandates of governors and mayors gone wild, and the rioting and looting that took the cities by storm in the summer. Now CoreLogic has determined which cities gained the most refugees, and which lost the most residents. The top 15 destination metro areas were: Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC-NC Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Port St. Lucie, FL Jacksonville, FL San … [Read more...]
The Real Winners of the Infrastructure Bill: It’s Not You
You know when something receives "bipartisan" support in Washington, it's going to cost taxpayers a lot of money. The only time both parties seem to agree on anything is when both their sets of donors are getting paid enough of your money. The next bipartisan spending spree appears to be the infrastructure bill that Senators have been working on. At the Cato Institute, Randal O'Toole explains that the only people likely to see the benefits of this bonanza spending are the contractors asked to perform the unnecessary work. He writes: The Senate reportedly passed an infrastructure bill last … [Read more...]
BlackRock Wants Investors with a “Shared Vision”
Do you share BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's "vision?" BlackRock wants investors committed to a "shared vision to transfer to a low-carbon economy." The company's ESG guru for its iShares subsidiary, Sarah Kjellberg explained how she's implementing this vision to ETF Trends. They reported on the interview: Looking at how investors have integrated climate awareness into their portfolios, Kjellberg explains how BlackRock has integrated climate risks into their capital market assumptions. Kjellberg adds, “while we’re seeing institutions in the world take pretty significant action to address … [Read more...]
Will Businesses Even Want to Move Back to NY?
You have seen what Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill DeBlasio have done to New York State and New York City. Cuomo's COVID response, lauded early on, was exposed as a complete debacle. And DeBlasio has allowed crime to skyrocket in the Big Apple. Despite such terrible performance from public officials, New Yorkers are asked to pay some of the nation's highest taxes. Now Governor Cuomo is asking businesses to return to the state. Fox Business reports: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for companies to end remote work and bring staff back to the office by Labor Day in order to support … [Read more...]
We Three Kingmakers: These Firms Control Almost Everything
Three firms are gathering enough control over the stock market that if they are aligned on a corporate board decision, there's almost no way to stop them. BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street now control such a large part of the U.S. stock market, that when voting together they can control nearly any issue. John Rekenthaler explains at Morningstar: In aggregate, the Big Three of Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street now hold 43% of the fund industry's U.S. equity assets. In addition, each of those companies serves institutional clients through separate accounts and collective investment … [Read more...]
COAL STRIKES: BlackRock the New Kingmaker?
You know that BlackRock's Larry Fink has taken on the role of arbiter of corporate ethics. He's feeding his own EGO. His push to use investor money to sway board decisions on so-called environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG), has had major effects on how corporations are being run. Instead of focusing on returning value to shareholders, CEOs, whose pay is often tied to the company's short-term stock price (not long-term performance), are focused on making sure company stock ends up in BlackRock's latest ESG index fund offering. If it's included, the CEOs can expect a major bump in … [Read more...]
An Inflation Warning from an Unlikely Place
Throughout its history, the IMF has not been known as an institution of inflation hawks. But just recently, the organization has issued an alert on the risk of inflation that could be more than just transitory. Silvia Amaro reports at CNBC: The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that there’s a risk inflation will prove to be more than just transitory, pushing central banks to take pre-emptive action. The issue is currently dividing the investment community, which has been busy contemplating whether a recent surge in consumer prices is here to stay. In the U.S., the consumer price … [Read more...]
Bogle Warned: 800 lb. Gorillas & Greener Pastures
UPDATE: The numbers are in. BlackRock is pushing around boardrooms to focus on everything BUT profits and shareholder return. Politico reports: At companies across the globe, BlackRock supported 64 percent of environmental proposals and about a third of social and governance resolutions put forth by shareholders in a year when workforce diversity and climate risk rose to the top of investor concerns. With $9 trillion in assets under management and ownership of more than 7 percent of shares on the S&P 500, BlackRock voted against corporate management at 42 percent of shareholder … [Read more...]
Your Survival Guy: Boats and Your Island Life
Your Survival Guy's looking forward to getting out on the boat this weekend, cruising from Newport, RI, to visit family in Mattapoisett, MA. You know I advise the island life for you because it's the island life I love for me. I eat my own cooking. That being said, thank you for sticking around. I know you might be getting sick of hearing from me every single day. It's a bit much, even for me, hearing from Your Survival Guy. It's like, "OK, enough already." Here's the deal, Your Survival Guy's boating so far this summer? Zippo. It's my fault. Sure, I can blame it on the rain, but when is … [Read more...]
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