Targeting ‘Woke Capital’ – The New York Times

admin July 29, 2022

0 6 minutes read

State takes action against “awakened CEO”

Five major Wall Street companies woke up with headaches yesterday, and the illness seems to be spreading rapidly. West Virginia’s outspoken finance officer Riley Moore has been banned from doing business with the state as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo have stopped supporting the coal industry. The Times’ David Geres reports.

Banks have significantly reduced lending to new coal projects. Meanwhile, BlackRock has been reducing its actively managed holdings by coal companies since 2020. Coal, the most polluted fossil fuel, has been declining in profitability in recent years.

Some companies do business with West Virginia in a variety of ways. For example, JP Morgan deals with banking services at public universities in West Virginia. However, the dollar numbers are relatively small and the law does not affect the holding of state pension funds.

Development is yet another step towards a politicized world. Red brand and blue brand.. In these bipartisan eras, businesses are increasingly sandwiched between conservatives and progressives, and some brands are typecast as Republicans or Democrats. The timing of the announcement was impressive, coming hours after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democratic chief advocate of climate law, forgave and agreed to sign.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has unleashed what appears to be the “awakened” ideology of some financial services companies.Criticizing ESG investment, Announcement of legislative plan It “prohibits large banks, credit card companies, and money transfer companies from discriminating against customers on the basis of religious, political, or social beliefs.” At a press conference this week, he also said he wanted to ban state pension fund managers from considering environmental factors when making investment decisions. Instead, he said, they only need to focus on “maximizing the rate of return on investment.”

Companies are now “alienating” people because of political disagreements. DeSantis said. “It’s not a way you can run the economy effectively.” He occupied PayPal and Otawa this year, blocking accounts related to the far-right group that participated in the January 6 parliamentary riot. We have selected GoFundMe, which has blocked donations to groups that support truck drivers.

What’s happening here

Amazon’s market share is skyrocketing as the company states that consumer demand remains strong. With positive comments from CEO Andrew Jassy and other executives, investors said giant internet retailers reported the slowest quarterly sales growth in 20 years, cutting nearly 100,000 workers. I ignored the facts. Apple’s quarterly results also exceeded expectations as Big Tech’s profits are resilient despite the slowing economy.

Eurozone economies grew faster than expected, but so did inflation. The day after the United States reported slumping economic growth for the second quarter in a row, positive GDP growth in the region eased concerns about growing stagflation. Still, eurozone inflation reached a record high of 8.9% in July compared to a year ago.

The Biden administration will provide the latest booster shots in September. With the upcoming reorganized shots from Pfizer and Moderna, the FDA has decided that Americans under the age of 50 should wait for a second booster.

The new book rekindles the debate about how LA Times editors treated Exposé in 2017. In his book Bad City, LA Times veteran reporter Paul Pringle wrote that top editors tried to slowly walk through the first groundbreaking article in the treatise. Man.

Trader Joe’s workers in the Massachusetts store have formed a union. As the union campaign spread at Starbucks, this is the only one of the more than 500 stores in a supermarket chain with a formal union, but similar movements are underway elsewhere. Trader Joe’s will soon face at least one more union vote at the Minneapolis store next month, and workers at the Colorado store filed an election petition this week.

Big profits of big oil

Oil companies are reporting spikes in profits, despite consumers and world leaders addressing the challenges posed by rising energy prices.

Backed by high oil and gas prices, the energy sector is expected to boost revenues by more than 250% in the second quarter. ExxonMobil and Chevron, the two largest US oil companies, reported record profits this morning, more than tripled from a year ago. Europe’s largest oil companies Shell and TotalEnergies reported a total profit of $ 21 billion yesterday.

The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought enormous economic benefits to energy companies And its investors. However, the pain of rising energy prices and shortages was especially felt by European consumers and businesses, who received about half of Russia’s oil exports before the invasion. In Asia and Africa, rising energy prices can drive millions of people into energy poverty. International Energy Agency I warned last month.

It also led to the claim that it was profitable. President Biden said last month that oil companies are benefiting from their own underinvestment in refining capacity. In the UK, retiring Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed a storm tax on major oil and gas companies. But his successor, Liz Truss, opposed taxes to send a “wrong signal to the world,” saying Shell should be encouraged to invest in Britain.

Oil companies are pointing at politicians. Shell CEO Ben van Baden said yesterday that energy prices were high, partly due to government policies that discouraged investment in oil and natural gas in recent years.

US gas prices fell last month, and there are some signs that further bailouts may be ahead. Citigroup said in today’s research note that it expects oil supply growth to outpace weak demand. Still, geopolitical factors and weather can change the course of prices, especially if the United States has a vigorous hurricane season that disrupts refining capacity. “The manifestation of just a few of these risks can lead to a continuous, complete storm of volatility,” said Citigroup.

“There is a principle at stake. What can I buy if I have unlimited cash? Can I bend all the rules? Can I disassemble the monument?”

— Stephan Lewies, a former member of the Rotterdam City Council, explained his anger at the city’s decision to temporarily demolish the bridge. To house Jeff Bezos and his superyacht.

The Dark Secrets of Corporate Grant Transactions

Each year, state and local officials negotiate about $ 95 billion in economic development transactions and compete with each other to recruit companies into the community with favorable subsidies in exchange for business.

However, some companies are becoming more and more willing to force authorities to sign nondisclosure agreements. According to, it could hurt the community that the company was supposed to support New report By the American Economic Liberties Project, a progressive antitrust advocacy group. The NDA may prohibit civil servants from disclosing basic information about a company, such as the name of the company or the type of business it is building. Pat GarafaroThe author of the report, told DealBook.

These NDAs prevent community members, such as workers and local businesses, from sharing their views on transactions. Until it’s done. One recent example is Panasonic’s $ 4 billion battery factory in Kansas. Nearly $ 1 billion in grants.. Panasonic was also in talks with Oklahoma before the deal was closed, and the state was in a bidding war over the business of the electronics giant. But lawmakers couldn’t publicly talk about the company on the other side of the negotiating table, and sometimes didn’t even know its name. April, Oklahoma Authorities complained It took me two hours to think about something complicated Incentive package Equivalent to $ 700 million, or about 8 percent of the state budget. “How did you get back to your membership and say,’How did you donate $ 300 million to a company you didn’t even know your name?’ Is it responsible?Colin Valke, a member of the state legislature, said at the spending conference.

Some states have introduced bills banning these NDAs, The report calls it a “very common tactic” in development transactions. This year, such legislation was introduced in New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Florida. The New York Senate has unanimously resolved to approve the ban.Garofaro is a New York lawmaker Amazon HQ2 bid It collapsed in 2019. But he says the community doesn’t have to wait for politicians to solve the problem. Avid citizens are using public meetings and recording methods to solve the mystery of subsidies, and sometimes a little transparency is enough, Garofaro said. “When the public gets a say, the deal is better or worse, the deal is closed soon,” he told DealBook.