Originally Posted by
louisvillekid
I saw some video on YT not too long ago, with some chick telling some spooky story about how Blackrock controls almost everything.
I realize that yes they own shares in most all of the biggest Fortune 500 companies, but same can be said for Vanguard, Fidelity, Ishares, Berkshire, State Street, and on and on.
I've always thought Fund managers, especially ones managing pensions and general retirement investment accounts, were all about getting value for their portfolio of clients investments, aka their money/savings.
I remember in that video, the chick was trying to act like my using smaller local/regional banks, or credit unions, and by shopping at smaller mom & pop brick and mortar places, that would help in some large way.
I don't doubt the shop local buy local mantra when it comes to retail & food/beverage/entertainment. Studies over and over show that higher percentage of dollar amounts spend at local independent businesses get redistributed back to local economies.
But on the larger global scale, for those massive fund managers, that chick in the video tried acting like they were immune to social and political issues and/or backlash because of how powerful they were all because of how many shares of a corporation they owned.
I call BS on that narrative. Again, they(hedge funds/investment funds/etc. are about getting value for their clients money.
Most of the funds, like Blackrock or Vanguard, will still hold investment in companies that get boycotted for whatever social/political issue and most will allow and/or accept changes to company policies and or business strategy, in order to keep value.
These massive funds might hold shares in companies that exploit slave labor in zhit-hole countries around the world and also own shares in media companies that allow and/or cater to disinformation or general overall rabblerousing by targeting certain political mindsets, and then also own shares in corporations that are all about diversity and self-expression and blah blah blah. Basically they go where there is value.
A quick example would be: The recent abortion issue - Companies like Apple and Amazon have stated they would pay for employees expenses to travel to get an abortion. Blackrock and Vanguard are largest funds with holding in Apple & Amazon. Even before the abortion issue, both those companies have embraced what would be deemed "leftist" policies on social issues. yes, both companies are still capitalists, and will exploit the labor where possible, but they're still open to people's individual self-expression, within reason of course.
Back to the abortion equation; Obviously if Blackrock and Vanguard have controlling powers at those companies - or were even worried in the slightest about backlash - they wouldn't have allowed those policy changes, or at best try to keep the company changes under wrap and not announce publicly. They probably weighed the options and decided that the possibility of losing a small percentage of users/customers that don't agree with them.
Because let's face it, where would some alt-right religious extreme bible thumpers switch their business/shopping to? Android phones? That's Google. And Google has always been considered "leftist." Or are they gonna stop using Amazon and switch to Walmart? I don't know about all Walmart's, but the ones around me for past decade, or more, have employees across the full-spectrum of beliefs and especially personal appearances. There are people with anime tats, half shaved heads, bright-colored hair, gauged out ears, working alongside old ladies that are soft-spoken and look like they don't miss a sunday church service, and then some guy pulling pallets of stock through the aisles wearing zhit-kickers and Wranglers with a barcode tat on his neck with "F*ck You!" under it, along with a Punisher tat and a mash-up tat of half US flag with half old Confederate flag with flames around it. And not to mention Target, the alt-right crowd definitely wouldn't like Target's social policies.
So, funds like Blackrock are gonna cater and adjust, or at best have a voting say, and let companies they invest in adopt new policies and or business strategies, as long as they are still making money for clients accounts.
People still have the power to make change by boycotts. And funds like Blackrock either go along or jump ship.