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- An opinion article published on WSJ by Terrence R. Keeley, that was against ESG policies to drive investment.
- He said that ESG does neither much good nor very well.
Keeley’s Opinion on ESG
The former BlackRock senior executive, Terrence R. Keeley, published an opinion commentary on September 12, 2022. In which he indicated that “Trillions of dollars have poured into environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds in recent years. In 2021 alone, the figure grew $8 billion a day.”
He further added that “Bloomberg Intelligence projects more than one-third of all globally managed assets could carry explicit ESG labels by 2025, amounting to more than $50 trillion. Yet for a financial phenomenon this pervasive, there is astonishingly little evidence of its tangible benefit.”
Keeley referred to some studies by Bradford Cornell of the University of California, Los Angeles and Aswath Damodaran of New York University, which reviewed shareholder value created by firms with high and low ESG ratings. He added their conclusion as “Telling firms that being socially responsible will deliver higher growth, profits and value is false advertising.”
He clarifies as “No investment strategy, ESG or otherwise, can be any better than the data on which it is based. This is particularly true for the “S” in ESG. Social mores are constantly shifting.” Lastly he ended the commentary by adding that “ESG advocates need to do better or stop claiming they can.”
Barr’s Concern on ESG Policies
On the other hand, the Former Attorney General, William Barr, also shared his similar concerns related to ESG policies. During the interview on America’s Newsroom, Barr stated that “When little investors go out and buy ETFs, funds, and other things, as you say, the ownership is technically in the hands of mainly three big companies: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street and some others, but those are the big three.”
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