This summer, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, announced that it was considering a policy change for its biggest exchange-traded fund (IVV), which tracks stocks in the S&P 500 Index.
Beginning next year, ordinary retail investors — folks like you and me — would get more control over how the shares corresponding to their funds are voted in corporate annual meetings.
That’s a big deal, especially since these votes have become increasingly politicized —with encouragement from Biden administration regulators.
The new BlackRock voting policy is clearly designed to blunt criticism that the investing giant has been exploiting its shareholder voting power to push companies toward environmental and social policy positions preferred by the progressive left.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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James R. Copland is a senior fellow and director of legal policy at the Manhattan Institute. He is the author of “The Unelected: How an Unaccountable Elite is Governing America.” Follow him on Twitter here.
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