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You Want Us to Ignore What? A Brief Analysis of anti-ESG Political Rhetoric

You Want Us to Ignore What? A Brief Analysis of anti-ESG Political Rhetoric

Politicians are vilifying “ESG investing”. The trigger for the furor is political opportunism: because ESG issues often mirror political issues, it is easy to mischaracterize them as leftist activism. Texas has already incurred $300-500 million in extra interest obligations by boycotting banks that account for climate impact in their underwriting businesses. This political strategy protects corporations that externalize costs with business plans that don’t account for social and environmental costs. These politicians are enriching corporate executives, but risking the savings of workers.

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Climate-related Risks & Diversified Shareholders’ Interests

Climate-related Risks & Diversified Shareholders’ Interests

TSC and B Lab U.S. and Canada submitted a comment letter on the proposed rule. Our letter argues for a disclosure framework that would also support a beta stewardship approach. An alpha-centered investment thesis is simply not viable in the face of the climate threat.

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Regulation v. System Stewardship: The Fading Promise of Governmental Intervention

Regulation v. System Stewardship: The Fading Promise of Governmental Intervention

ESG activism has failed to stop companies from externalizing social and environmental costs when they can gain a financial advantage. Critics argue that shareholder activism by corporations and investors oversteps their proper sphere of influence in the U.S. Investor activism must focus on the conflict of interest that exists between individual companies and their diversified shareholders.

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Breaking Free from the Business Case Paradigm

Breaking Free from the Business Case Paradigm

Rick Alexander made an appearance on the Breaking the Fever podcast. Rick discusses the need for investors to shift their perspective from one that considers only one company to one that considers the entire portfolio.

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The Pernicious Problem of Multi-Class Share Structures

The Pernicious Problem of Multi-Class Share Structures

Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine spelled out the problem with multi-class share structures. It’s time for underwriters such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to stop enabling what the SEC Investor Advocate described as a “festering wound”

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Response to System Stewardship Challenges

Response to System Stewardship Challenges

A recent article by Marcel Kahan and Edward B. Rock critiqued the sort of system stewardship we promote at TSC. But the authors do not really question the idea that in some circumstances diversified investment fiduciaries would want to address the threat from portfolio companies that externalize costs to other investees

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Johnson & Johnson Proposal Survives SEC Challenge

Johnson & Johnson Proposal Survives SEC Challenge

Johnson & Johnson sought to exclude our proposal asking for a report on the costs it externalizes by limiting access to its COVID-19 vaccine technology, and how its diversified shareholders absorb those costs. By rejecting both arguments, the SEC made clear that shareholders have a legitimate interest in voting on proposals that address the macroeconomic implications of a significant policy issue.

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Here Comes Proxy Season

Here Comes Proxy Season

Proxy season 2022 is right around the corner. This edition is dedicated to the 19 shareholder proposals we’re supporting this year. We also highlight a US$46B asset owner CEO’s public support for system stewardship.

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Hopeful Signs from a Difficult Year

Hopeful Signs from a Difficult Year

Let’s face it: 2021 brought plenty of disappointments. The pandemic ground on, democratic ideals appeared to be in retreat around the world, and the planet continued to accelerate toward and even past critical boundaries. But if we look upstream, 2021 also provided...

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The Beta Steward Proxy Review 2021

The Beta Steward Proxy Review 2021

This is the first yearly edition of The Shareholder Commons’ (TSC) Beta Steward Proxy Review, a progress report on how investors are reframing their shareholder engagement practices to prioritize beta stewardship.

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Our Letter to the DOL

Our Letter to the DOL

The Department proposed new ERISA rule on ESG investing may interfere with the obligations of retirement plans with respect to stewardship.

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Catching Up, Keeping Up

Catching Up, Keeping Up

A recording of the event is available here, and provides a good grounding in the theory behind our work, as well as our plan for shareholder-sanctioned limits

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A 3,000 Year Old Lesson

A 3,000 Year Old Lesson

Companies receiving government assistance should be required to adopt governance that prioritizes the future health of our social and environmental systems.

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Lessons From a Crisis

Lessons From a Crisis

The coronavirus pandemic has raised attention to the broad systemic crisis we face and the need to respond accordingly to guarantee a future in which we all thrive.

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From Alpha to Beta: BlackRock and the ABCs of Sustainability

From Alpha to Beta: BlackRock and the ABCs of Sustainability

Last week saw the replaying of an annual ritual in the financial world. The ritual goes like this: Larry Fink, the Chairman of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, issues a letter talking about the importance of something other than financial measurements in...

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How Shareholders Can Save the Planet

How Shareholders Can Save the Planet

David Webber’s new book, The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor’s Last Best Weapon, might just as well have been titled, “How Shareholders Can Save the Planet.” Webber, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, has written a book that tells a...

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The Problem with Political Spending

The Problem with Political Spending

One key area of focus at The Shareholder Commons is equipping shareholders with the tools to limit corporate political spending. This article takes a few steps back in order to explain why limiting such spending is essential to our mission and to creating a just and...

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This Month’s Ramble: The Purpose of Purpose

This Month’s Ramble: The Purpose of Purpose

Given that The Shareholder Commons is all about making private enterprise act more responsibly, readers might believe we would be all about the current efforts to endow corporations with greater purpose. Larry Fink, who runs the largest asset management firm in the...

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Accountability Now: An Investor Call to Action

Accountability Now: An Investor Call to Action

5 Investment Principles to Measure and Manage Systemic Impact Worldwide equity markets are valued at $70 trillion, and venture capital and other private equity at $10 trillion. The owners of these securities control the private economy, which allocates most of our...

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Together, we're embarking on a fundamental transformation of our financial system...