Consumers’ Research, an organization dedicated to educating American consumers, warned that BlackRock is “crushing America from within,” releasing a nationally televised advertisement, issuing a consumer warning, and notifying 12 governors of the dangers posed by the firm.
Consumers’ Research’s campaign includes a television advertisement blasting BlackRock and CEO Larry Fink, asserting that they contributed to soaring gas and housing prices, explaining that “BlackRock owned companies are snatching up houses, crippling families.”
The ad also exposes a pertinent connection between the multinational and the Biden administration, noting that “BlackRock’s former ESG czar Brian Deese is Biden’s economic advisor.”
Consumers’ Research also published a consumer warning that accuses BlackRock of “crushing America from within.” The consumer warning states that BlackRock, which manages nearly $10 trillion, “uses its clout to push a radical agenda in coordination with other financiers through a network of international organizations.”
It goes on to state that the firm, led by CEO and Chairman Larry Fink, adversely impacts the American economy and possibly even violates their fiduciary duty by furthering an ideological agenda and “putting your retirement at risk in the name of progressive politics.”
The consumer warning explains that BlackRock utilizes a “progressive coercion vehicle known as ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Governance, which applies highly subjective and ambiguous criteria to measure how closely companies are falling in line with the radical progressive agenda.”
The seven page document notes that the multinational firm has advanced a climate agenda that has resulted in “higher energy costs, inflation, weakened energy infrastructure, the dismantling of fossil fuel companies, loss of (primarily blue-collar) jobs, and weaker national security.”
It also points out that BlackRock has led an effort to get leftist activist investors on the board of Exxon in order to divest from multiple projects, allowing Chinese gas companies to fill in the gap. Meanwhile, BlackRock has invested in PetroChina, despite allegations that the company uses forced labor, land confiscation, arrest, and intimidation.
The consumer warning points out that CEO Larry Fink said during a panel with the New York Times that “behaviors are going to have to change … You have to force behaviors, and at BlackRock, we are forcing behaviors.”
Consumers’ Research continued to document a list of BlackRock’s abuses before issuing guidance to consumers. The organization called on consumers to ensure that they are not using BlackRock’s services, such as the iShares fund brand, when they invest.
Consumers’ Research also suggested that employees contact their human resources department to inquire if their retirement funds are managed by BlackRock and that those with state or municipal pensions “contact state officials to find out if any portion of their pension fund is managed by BlackRock.”
Executive director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild contended in a statement that BlackRock and liberal elites like Fink are “using money that doesn’t belong to them to push an extreme agenda with no regard for American families who are paying the price not only now, but through their pension funds which are being weaponized to the detriment of their potential profits.”
He added that BlackRock’s ideologically motivated investing is “leading to higher costs everywhere from gas pumps and groceries to rent prices and housing costs.”
Consumers’ Research recently created a site called AboutBlackRock, which calls the multinational the “architect of woke capitalism” and features their consumer warnings.
In addition to their consumer warning, Consumers’ Research also sent a letter to the governors of Texas, Montana, Utah, Colorado, South Carolina, Idaho, Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, and Wyoming notifying them of the consumer warning.
The letter notes that these states are “experiencing inflation in the top quintile nationally,” going on to explain that firms like BlackRock are “using your state’s investment dollars against its interests. They are leveraging the voting power of the shares they’ve purchased for clients to hamper American production and competitiveness.”
The letter continued, remarking that “As a result, gas prices are surging, the cost of purchasing or renting homes is near record levels, and common grocery store goods are up more than 10 percent in the last year. This is largely due to firms like BlackRock pushing policies that are politically driven with no regard for the impact to the citizens of your state.”
Meanwhile, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink blamed inflation on the rise of nationalism, immigration restriction, and “a belief that we have to focus on communities that have been devastated by globalization” in an interview with Bloomberg.
“The net effect of their hypocrisy is to place corporations in your state at a significant disadvantage when competing globally for capital and customers. BlackRock’s actions undermine national security,” the letter reads. It even noted that the multinational firm has invested in corporations that “develop equipment for the Chinese military.”
Consumers’ Research previously documented BlackRock’s connection to the Chinese Communist Party.
The letter from Consumers’ Research follows a decision from 19 different attorney generals to send a letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink pertaining to the firm’s “reliance on Environmental, Social, and Governance investment criteria rather than shareholder profits in managing state pension funds,” which has been called “potentially illegal.”
Meanwhile, executive director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild said in a statement that “Fink’s ESG façade is one of the biggest rackets the world has seen.”
Spencer Lindquist is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerLndqst and reach out at slindquist@breitbart.com
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