From the “big is bad” ideology of the new antitrust enforcers at the FTC to attempts to blame inflation on Big Grocery, Big Oil, or any of the other “bigs” allegedly exploiting the beleaguered consumer, we live in an age when the Left is increasingly focused on the alleged evils of business concentration. Despite this, the concentration of business ownership positions held by a limited number of large investment funds, primarily (but not only) indexers, has elicited minimal criticism from the same quarters.
Perhaps their executives’ participation in assisting in the formation of our rising corporatist state through a growing embrace of “socially responsible” investing and ruthless stakeholder capitalism has served as a type of cover.
BlackRock Inc. reported a greater quarterly profit as the investment firm’s assets under management surpassed $10 trillion for the first time, thanks to market gains and new client money.
In the fourth quarter, the money manager reported net income of $1.64 billion, or $10.63 per share, up 6% from $1.55 billion, or $10.02, a year earlier. S&P Global Market Intelligence polled analysts, who projected a per-share profit of $10.22.
CEOs definitely understand how to talk to a major investor. That isn’t a problem at all. What’s more concerning is that an increasing number of them have come to believe in its more nefarious qualities.
Why?
They, along with many of their C-suite colleagues, have realized that, in a world where stakeholder capitalism, not shareholder capitalism, is the dominant ethos in the “private” sector, their rewards will be less reliant on delivering value to shareholders (who can be a demanding bunch) than in the past.
Rather, companies will be required to pay closer attention to the ambitions of their almost nebulously defined stakeholders. In practice, this entails putting “their” companies’ capital, as well as the power that comes with it, to good use.
But knowing what at least some of the company’s senior management thinks of (most of) us is always helpful, even if it’s never been difficult to estimate. Part of the allure of BlackRock’s “socially responsible” investment approach is that it allows a political agenda to be advanced without going through the democratic process.
Nevertheless, this (via Bloomberg):
BlackRock Inc. President Rob Kapito warned that inflation is having dramatic effects on the economy, with an entire generation now learning what it means to suffer from shortages.
“For the first time, this generation is going to go into a store and not be able to get what they want,” Kapito said at conference held in Austin by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association. “And we have a very entitled generation that has never had to sacrifice.”
The Daily Mail adds an additional detail:
The 65-year-old Kapito . . . has an estimated net worth of more than $400 million and made $24.6 million in total compensation in 2020.
When someone worth this amount says that the shortages are coming (even knowing that he might be one of the first one’s against the wall when the revolution comes) it is time to get serious.