BlackRock is what global capitalism looks like—over US$8.5 trillion in assets under management plus offices and clients in over 100 countries. Through specialist software, BlackRock indexes and tracks its multiple investment portfolios in transnational corporations (e.g., mining, industrials, Big Tech, financial institutions) and financial risk management services involving the multiple trillion-dollar global derivatives markets. No major profit opportunity is sacrosanct, aside from geopolitical sensitivities that can be managed. Polluting industries and ecosystems services, the arms industry and ethical investment portfolios, authoritarian regimes and liberal-democratic polities—BlackRock doesn’t discriminate. Implacable capital accumulation is the paramount objective. So, why is BlackRock looking our way? Why co-establish with the New Zealand Government a two-billion-dollar investment fund to support renewable energy infrastructure for electricity generation? What’s not to like? To answer these questions, we need to bring out some dirty clothes.
Oil industry analyst Adam Hanieh, in a 2021 article entitled “The Commodities Fetish?”, identified the main financial beneficiaries of fossil fuel capitalism. Apart from major investment banks, hedge funds and private equity investors, he names key asset management firms—Vanguard, State Street and BlackRock. As of 2021, they took the top three shareholder positions for ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips and controlling shares in shale producers, oil refineries, natural gas operations and electric utilities. Hanieh estimated that, for the year 2018, these massive asset management firms controlled portfolios equivalent to around one third of global energy-related CO2 emissions.
More specifically, climate finance researcher Adrienne Buller’s book The Value of a Whale (2022) remarks that,
BlackRock is the world’s foremost universal owner, yet it retains massive holdings across the fossil fuel industry (underlying some of the most destructive and capital-intensive sectors like tar sands and thermal coal), as well as large positions in several companies most implicated in global deforestation.
Further, Buller observes that BlackRock has not used its positions “to demand and vote for radical changes in corporate behaviour on the climate and nature crisis, preferring instead to pay lip service to the issues” (p. 136). But BlackRock is nervous. CEO Larry Fink feels the world-political pressures for renewable energy development. Rhetorically, he has committed to an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investment strategy. Clearly, this New Zealand initiative makes perfect public relations sense. After all, who could possibly reject the prospect of a clean energy electricity grid?
But let’s be blunt, none of this engages with fossil fuel extraction, global warming and Earth system disintegration. As our naïve Prime Minister announces a “game-changing initiative”, forests burn, icecaps melt, oceans warm, extreme weather events become routine and more planetary regions become inhabitable, just as fossil fuel extraction and carbon emissions continue apace. Signing up to BlackRock’s “greenwash” deflects attention from the counter measures necessary to protect the planet—no more drilling, carbon emission taxation and alternative ways of living beyond the carbon-intensive luxury consumer culture that Larry Fink represents. Our local representatives of Oxfam and Greenpeace deserve credit for criticising this deal. As they recognise, political and regulatory pressure on fossil fuel companies must be a first priority. A Labour-Green photo opportunity to advance BlackRock’s agenda just won’t cut it. It used to be that climate justice was the anti-nuclear issue of our time. Where has our country’s moral leadership gone?
Jacinda meets with blackrock. Her and her cronies sold the citizens out to big pharma. Forced compliance through mis and dis information. Government in a nutshell and the left want a shit ton more government.
All politicians are at the beck and call of big moneyed interests like Blackrock and Co – all politicians throughout the Western world serve those interests over the interests of its people. Can’t blame Jacinda for doing what every other crony has done and will continue to do, unless we wake up to this fact and start fighting back against this broken political system. First step into fighting back is in understanding that the other side of this broken system, be it the Left or the Right, is not the problem. The problem is the broken political system itself.
Fix the system!
Can’t disagree AO. But wouldn’t it be nice to have the population of Japan and the domestic savings to boot. Never need to go cap in hand for offshore investment. We’re a distant island in the South Pacfic and rely primarily on primary industry, yet need top notch infrastructure in the current global economy – and more to the point, the need to reduce our carbon footprint and invest in renewable energy. Borrow big time and somehow do it ourselves as with think big back in the day? Swallow the ideological pill and adopt a bipartisan commitment to change the tax system and collect more revenue? Go cap in hand to big players like Blackrock and fall foul of moneyed interests? A lack of morality as WH argues, or simply a pragmatic decision? Whatever the answer however this kind of deal needs close media scrutiny. That much I agree.
Well, the entire Western world is being screwed by big money, that means almost the entire world is being screwed. This includes Japan, who maybe strong in some areas, but they are still under the hammer, well and truly (boy, they’d love to get rid of that US base in Okinawa for starters). And ideology is not stopping us from changing our tax system – big money is the road block to this. Sure, we can always tinker with it, but we are not allowed to make the wholesale changes it really needs, namely taxing the multi nationals and the richest among us to pre-1980 levels. This level of change is a direct threat to big money. It will not fly….unless we make it happen, and our first step into doing this is to turn our backs on the mainstream media that either relies upon big money advertisers to survive or is owned by big money interests in the first place. Free-flowing information can lead us out of this mess, but given the rising levels of censorship cropping up, here, there and everywhere, the big moneyed crowd knows this all too well.
Again, not wrong. Big money is ubiquitous. Even in the most hallowed of NZ’s institutions.
https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/press-release/greenpeace-hands-nz-rugby-a-red-card-over-oil-industry-sponsorship-deal-with-all-blacks/
RIGHT ON AO
On the New Zealand government’s deal with BlackRock
Two questions need to be asked about the government’s arrangements with BlackRock, firstly “Why does the government need to be involved in a private investment initiative?” and secondly “What exactly is the deal between the government and BlackRock?”. It should come as no surprise that the mass media has asked neither of these questions of either the government or BlackRock.
However we can make an informed guess as to the answer to both questions. BlackRock is proposing to invest in renewables, specifically solar and wind power. Both methods of generation suffer from the problem that they cannot supply continuously. Therefore, in the periods when they are generating they need to be assured of a high price per unit supplied. They cannot risk being undercut at those crucial times by suppliers capable of continuous generation, such as hydro, geothermal and gas or coal fired plants. In short, before investing BlackRock needs an assurance that New Zealand electricity prices will remain consistently high, and to that end it would appear that government has given BlackRock an assurance that generating capacity in New Zealand will lag behind demand for electricity or that government will institute a mechanism to impose minimum price levels for electricity.
Clearly there will be consequences for New Zealand electricity consumers who will be paying through the nose to guarantee BlackRock’s profits from an inherently risky venture.
(from http://www.republican.co.nz)
It is a bit like children playing in the Lions den. This Labour government are totally blind to how tough business people can be .I am not even sure they eould not run rings around National but they would be harder to fool.
So if I won Lotto tonight I could buy a half a ton of gold? Wow! I’d rather buy a half a ton of good and proper E.
The first thing that must happen is that multi-billionaires, multi-millionaires and their hangers on infrastructure must be wiped out. Is that what crypto currency was all about? A good idea that’s now under critical attack. What better a way to level the battle ground that’s the psychopathic hyper wealthy than by rendering that money (debt) valueless. Worthless. Irrelevant. Meaningless. Which, in reality, it really is. Wealth per se is a fiction. A logical fallacy.
I started watching this film starring Matt Damon.
Is pretty good in my opinion and will resonate with some people while boring the be-Jesus out of others.
Which are you? The Bored or the Enlightened?
https://youtu.be/9cq1lPPeMUY
I thought it was pretty good too
Certainly humanised the American working class stiff
Apparently Amanda Knox hated it , though its nothing like her case
How to get bored really fast about an important issue.
Warning! Read this before bedtime. It will make you fall asleep. Don’t drive or operate machinery or vehicles.
Wayne – Do you know what the fees, obligations, and fish hooks of the Blackrock NZ Fund?
” As our naïve Prime Minister announces a “game-changing initiative”, ”
But Wayne he is ” IN IT FOR US ”
Haven’t you seen the billboards !
” Its hard to be enthused or excited about this. Not least because Labour has consciously chosen to partner to one of the biggest investors in climate destruction on the planet. Could they really not find anyone else ?
Obviously not.
” they will want a return on their investment, so won’t actually want to push fossil generation out of the market ”
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2023/08/climate-change-meh.html
I’ve just seen the billboards, how pathetic. Labour, trying to cash in on a touch of Jacinda I feel, big, big, big mistake, the Natz, their billboard instantly gets to the heart of today’s issue(s). Slam dunk win to the Natz as far as the messaging game goes, thus far.
Unfortunately Wayne, our moral principles have been used against us. A very small cotery of people hide behind social legal constructs to enslave us. I don’t believe in conspiracies but the following sheds some light.
BlackRock is a publicly traded company while Vanguard is not, which means Vanguard’s private shareholders are completely secret and can never be revealed. And recall that Vanguard has the controlling share of BlackRock. So the company that owns the controlling share, and therefore the largest voting rights, in BlackRock, and thereby owns the vast majority of every major bank on the planet including the Federal Reserve, is itself owned by a ‘secret’ cabal of shareholders.
We have no way of knowing who they are, but we can probably guess. Other researchers like Mullins and Gary Kah have narrowed them down to a few ruling banking dynasties: Rothschilds, Warburgs, Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Israel Moses Seifs, Lehmans and Kuhn Loebs, Lazards, etc. And by the way, the whole point of the Federal Reserve Act famously hatched in secret on Jekyll Island—at least according to experts like G. Edward Griffin, who’s studied its genesis for 70+ years—was to create exactly such a system, where the top few families can form a cartel to control the banking industry together, while protecting their interests from competition; in short, a monopoly amongst their small syndicate of inter-related and inter-married generationally dynastic families.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/russias-cbdc-exploring-the-truth?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
It all revolves around our respect for property rights being abused by those whom we trust to keep our money.
@ Prof Hope.
“Where has our country’s moral leadership gone? ”
I have to ask, where was it before it went, because it wasn’t here [then] and it certainly ain’t here now?
One thing I’ve noticed is that when money knocks on the door morality flies out the window.
Why must a prime minister get nearly half a million dollars a year as a salary? How the fuck is that? Why do their underlings get $ix figure$ plus entitlement$ etc. And all the while, our retired, our unemployed, the homeless, the at risk etc must settle for fuck all? Is the luxury in struggled and hardship? I’ve seen AO/NZ human beings who could only dream of a little global warming while lying in shop doorways trying to sleep. What’s even more alarming for its audacity is that the supposedly state owned MSM deliberately looks the other way while the very thing they should be most interested in is ignored by them. Where’s the morality in that?
AO/NZ supports 14 multi-billionaires, 3118 multi-millionaires with in excess of $50 million each and we have four parasitic, foreign owned banks taking $180.00 a second in net profits 24/7/365 while our amoral, six figure politicians squabble and snipe in an air conditioned Devo Helmet AKA the *’energy dome’ in a shitty little town that’s not much more than a yeast infection on the arse hole of two well farmed island landmasses where the money’s made, but then quickly disappeared only to turn up in documentaries about off-shore money laundering. What the fuck is that about? Well, I can tell you. We’re so corrupt that our corruption is invisible for its glaring, rude, in-your-facedness.
We’re long lost prisoners of distance way down here and we need help. We’re being preyed upon by monsters who drive Bentley’s and who live in leafy suburbs who know the sweaty handshakes and the meaning of nods over winks. We’re being repeatedly fucked without the kissing and we’re so damaged, we beg, please? Fuck us harder?
There are only two entities who can save our souls. Our farmers and/or The Crown. I know. A scary proposition because that’s all we have?
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_dome
A colour choice of red or blue but yet the same thing. Why am I reminded of a Dom dungeon in Wellington? https://youtu.be/gekhbIfeMOs
Sometimes you have to sup with the devil to achieve your goals
This deal needs a forensic spotlight. 100+ Wayne Hope.
Jack Tame’s interview with Brett Christopher on Q&A, Sunday 11 Aug on the same topic is also worth watching.
lets face it – fossil fuels are fucked – our 200 year boom is over. the sooner we accept each other as fellow humans, the sooner we all move on.
PS. Remember BR was formerly known as Blackstone! And you know what they were famous for.
First Boston-Lehman Bros-Larry Fink. Fink leaves Blackstone to set up Blackrock. They both funded Blackwater. The US militia army of terrorists.
We need more tunnels and motorways and coalmines, we need more cows and cars. We need to invest in public transport a lot less than we do. How are we are ever to fully reach climate boiling if we don’t?
https://www.waikatodistrict.govt.nz/docs/default-source/your-council/plans-policies-and-bylaws/plans/district-plan-review/hearings/hearing-18/legal-submissions/hearing-18—rural-legal-submissions-on-behalf-of-bathurst-and-bt.pdf?sfvrsn=448e8dc9_8
In the Matter of the Resource Management Act 1991 And In the Matter of the Proposed Waikato District Council Plan – Stage 1
…. The plan addresses the positive and adverse effects of energy infrastructure and development and makes provision for the continued supply of coal by recognising and making provision for future expansion of existing coal mines….
Yippee! we are on task
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snTaSJk0n_Y&ab_channel=Movieclips
ASB are right behind Blackrock.
” Kia ora Mat
Did you know that KiwiSaver could be one of the largest investments you ever have, with the possible exception of property? That’s why it’s important to keep on top of your KiwiSaver account.
In this year’s ASB KiwiSaver Scheme annual report, the three key messages you should be across are:
• Right guidance. Bright future: Our free advice is designed to help you reach your KiwiSaver investment goals sooner, no matter what your account balance is.
• BlackRock’s world-class expertise: Two years ago we partnered with BlackRock, one of the largest investment management firms in the world. Together, we focus on the things we believe have the biggest impact on your returns.
• Our ongoing commitment to responsible investing: Last year ASB helped fund the development of and became a Founding Signatory to the Aotearoa New Zealand Stewardship Code. Investment ‘stewardship’ means looking after where your money is invested.
This from ASB on my Kiwisaver annual report.