Well, Michael Bloomberg and I disagree again. He believes in government activism and its moral supremacy, while I don’t.
First, while Mayor of New York, Bloomberg intervened in soft drink size limits; later, he changed his positive view on New York State fracking to an anti-fracker; afterwards,, he advocated regressive taxes to control human behavior at International Monetary Fund Conference (IMF Director Christine Lagarde agreed with him) while speaking there; his views on farming and its simplicity and, lastly, he wrote an OpEd about ESG today, whereby he favors SEC rules that make ESG a material fact belonging in financial reporting of risks, without considering the fiduciary responsibility of Wall Street investment firms to its clients.
Finally, I can’t deny the good Michael Bloomberg has done for global education/arts/culture/clean water, his belief in government activism and ESG are well-intentioned, but wrong-headed.
Below, I have included some earlier comments of mine about the IMF Conference and a quote from today:
“Like Michael Bloomberg, Christine Lagarde is a high priest of regressive taxes and EU dictat.
Bloomberg made his comments during an interview with Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
“The question is do you want to pander to those people?,” he asked, referring to individuals who say taxation of the poor is never a good thing, while also assuming it's the poor who are making that argument.
“Or do you want to get them to live longer? There's just no question. If you raise taxes on full sugary drinks, for example, they will drink less and there's just no question that full sugar drinks are one of the major contributors to obesity and obesity is one of the major contributors to heart disease and cancer and a variety of other things.”
Michael Bloomberg says raising taxes on the poor is a “good thing.”
IMF’s Christine Lagarde interjected, repeating Michael Bloomberg's analysis of regressive taxes.
'So it's regressive, it is good,' she said. 'There are lots of tax experts in the room. And fiscal experts, and I’m very pleased that they hear you say that.'
Lagarde then quoted a well-known phrase, attributing it to the financial experts in the room.
'They all say that two things in life which are absolutely certain. One is death, the other one is tax,' she said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-09-06/on-climate-change-republicans-need-a-crash-course-in-capitalism
Republican critics of ESG have focused primarily on the “E,” arguing that climate change should not factor into investment decisions. Texas has adopted a law restricting the state, localities, and pension boards from doing business with financial firms that seek to limit their exposure to fossil fuel companies. Even firms that have large investments in fossil fuels are being banned, if they dare attempt to price climate risk into their portfolio allocations. Oklahoma has enacted a similar law, and other Republican leaders are moving in the same direction. Last month, Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, supported a resolution barring pension fund managers from considering ESG factors.