BlackRock’s Capone-esque Voting Choice System

August 17, 2023

Andy Puzder takes to RealClearMarkets to neatly dissect BlackRock’s new Voting Choice as “an effective PR tool” that “is little more than a ruse that neither empowers investors nor diminishes BlackRock’s power to impose its ESG goals on American businesses.”

Puzder writes that despite this apparent safety value for investors, “management remains subject to BlackRock’s behind-the-scenes ESG pressure diminishing the value of that option.” Puzder notes that BlackRock’s “stewardship” teams work with corporate management on “the assessment and integration of environmental and social issues” to “hold directors accountable for their action nor inaction.” Puzder is correct that “stewardship” is “both more effective and more insidious than proxy voting, as it occurs in C suite conference rooms and Zoom calls, beyond the purview of investors.”

Think Al Capone pacing around the crowded table, tapping the baseball bat in the palm of his hand.