Elon Musk on ESG

I am increasingly convinced that ESG is the Devil Incarnate.

~ Elon Musk, tweet, April 3, 2022

Peter Atwater on socially responsible investing

ESG is the WeWork of money management.

~ Peter Atwater, Twitter post, March 4, 2020

Cyrus Taraporevala: "A company's ESG score will be as important as its credit rating"

We believe a company’s ESG score will soon effectively be as important as its credit rating.

~ Cyrus Taraporevala, CEO of State Street Global Advisors (with $3.12 trillion assets under management), Bloomberg interview, January 29, 2020

Henry A. Fernandez on climate change and socially responsible investing (a.k.a. "ESG")

Climate change and its impact on portfolios may become bigger than ESG itself.

~ Henry A. Fernandez, CEO, MSCI, Inc. 4th Quarter Conference Call, January 30, 2020

SEC Commissioner compares the ESG movement to Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

We are seeing a similar scarlet letter phenomenon in today’s modern, but no less flawed world. In these remarks, I will focus specifically on the way in which corporations are being assessed according to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors. Here too we see labeling based on incomplete information, public shaming, and shunning wrapped in moral rhetoric preached with cold-hearted, self-righteous oblivion to the consequences, which ultimately fall on real people. In our purportedly enlightened era, we pin scarlet letters on allegedly offending corporations without bothering much about facts and circumstances and seemingly without caring about the unwarranted harm such labeling can engender. After all, naming and shaming corporate villains is fun, trendy, and profitable.

~ Hester Peirce, SEC Commissioner, "Scarlet Letters: Remarks Before the American Enterprise Institute," June 18, 2019

Jordan Peterson on the dangers of infringing on corporate speech

These corporations who should know far better, let these fifth columns into their organizations.  They think they're not going to pay for that.  They think they're going to stop with demands for the reconstruction of language - not like the demands for reconstruction of language by the way are trivial.  There may be the most important thing you can possibly demand.  "I want to reshape the way you speak.  I want to reshape the way you think."  It's like, "that's ok, as long as it doesn't interfere with the bottom line."  It'll interfere with the bottom line.  You let that fifth column in, it's a warning to corporate people.  You let that fifth column in, man, you're going to regret it. 

Jordan Peterson, "History Describes You!," (9:56-10:30), YouTube, April 9, 2018

Council of Institutional Investors on giving "stakeholders" a seat at the corporate table

Accountability to everyone means accountability to no one.

~ Council of Institutional Investors, "Council of Institutional Investors Responds to Business Roundtable Statement on Corporate Purpose," August 19, 2019