ANALYSIS: The Key to ESG: Controlling the Shareholder Vote

Congressional committee holds 3 days of hearings on the firms that vote the shares you own

U.S. House of Representatives in Washington on March 23, 2023. Richard Moore/The Epoch Times

At the same talk where BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told his audience that his firm was “forcing behaviors” on companies, he also divulged a key lever used by the progressive movement to control corporations: proxy voting.

The term “proxy voting” refers to the practice of fund managers using the corporate shares they own to vote on behalf of investors, influencing company activities and strategies. With the rise of mutual funds, pension funds, and index funds, more than three-quarters of all stocks in the United States today are held not by individual investors but by a short list of very large asset management firms.