Julian Assange
618 weeks of deprivation of liberty for telling the truth
618 weeks of deprivation of liberty for telling the truth
Black Rock : what is it ? Nothing to do with music. It’s a company. How usurped this appellation is! The company is eating bread together, it is to be with each other, it is the group, the meeting, the circle. But the word also designates an economic operator, a meeting of capital, and even a military troop, a battalion, an assault unit.
I have already mentioned in this newspaper(1) the existence of powerful financial groups. After all, one has to be the biggest. It must be Black Rock. In the recent news, he has made himself noticed by inspiring the Macron pension reform plan (opening the door to capitalization wider by squeezing the « beneficiaries » of distribution). The Fund aims to maximize the return on your investment by combining capital growth with income from the Fund’s assets. Normal. The Fund invests at least 70% of its total assets in debt securities. They include bonds and money market instruments. Debt securities may be issued by governments, emerging market government agencies, and corporations and supranational entities (such as the Asian Development Bank) domiciled in, or having a majority of their operations in, emerging markets. Normal.
But, but, I had to pinch myself when I learned that the American multinational financial firm has won a contract with the European Commission to study how the EU could best integrate environmental, social and governance factors into its banking supervision. » This proposal was the best offer technically and financially, with regard to the tender, » says the EU spokesman.
For to inform policy on sustainable finance, the Commission therefore chose the world’s largest energy investor fossils! BlackRock is one of the largest investors in oil. The multinational holds huge shares in fossil fuel companies. He opposed or abstained 82% of the resolutions concerning the climate in the companies in which it owns shares.
They are formidable strategists who are becoming providers for institutional investors. The financial crisis of 2008 was an opportunity for Black Rock to rake up distressed portfolios, then sort out the toxic assets from the potential ones. Black Rock has a decision tool that can « move » without delay on any action. So they know about crisis exit. But the fact that the European Commission chose them to find a new perspective among European financial operators… that’s a mouthful. It’s as if the coach of Standard asked the coach of Anderlecht to give him the strategy to adopt during the derby.
The European Commission, it makes you a Green Deal in an office and it makes you a Kill Dream in the next office. It pushes the glyphosate and organic, nuclear and solar, clean cars and lying engines, cooperation with Africa and treaties of Africa, and in the end, it is the operators who are of very large size that win.
For tourism enthusiasts from lobbyist sites (it exists), Black Rock has an office in Brussels, Square de Meeus, 35, between Luxembourg and Throne.
But why am I panicking? Charles Michel is here, he has great hands, the free skull and the confidence of the great. Not confined for two cents, here he is promising: « With the President of the Commission, I am working on a roadmap and an action plan to ensure the well-being of all Europeans and the return of a Union with strong, sustainable and inclusive growth based on a green and digital strategy ». Mad about it!
In order to situate Black Rock’s global influence, it should be noted that this « company » has just obtained a contract with the FED (US Federal Monetary Reserve) to examine the debts of various operators, debts that must be bought by the Reserve as part of the US recovery from the coronavirus crisis. The fund will therefore be in the front line to advise and operate. This is a relatively unprecedented case of (global) privatization of monetary policy and of the definition of the general interest.
