logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2023
52m 16s

An Insider's Look At ESG Revisited

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PODCAST NETWORK
About this episode

Republican presidential candidates, such as Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, continue to keep ESG in the national conversation. Ramaswamy in particular called it "woke capitalism" in his book and on our podcast. As we take our summer break, we decided to re-release our conversation with Tariq Fancy, BlackRock’s former global chief investment officer for sustainable investing, whose criticism of ESG is based not on its goals, but rather on an insider's knowledge of how it actually works.

We’re taking a short summer break as we put together some fascinating episodes on the past and future of antitrust, the shortcomings of neoliberalism, and whether science and law are for sale in our capitalist system. In the meantime, we thought we might re-share some of our most thought-provoking episodes that are still relevant, maybe even more relevant, today. I hope you get as much out of it on a second listen as we did, and we’ll be back with brand new episodes soon. Thanks for listening. 

Link to our interview with Ramaswamy: https://podcasts.apple.com/is/podcast/is-woke-capitalism-a-threat-to-democracy/id1326698855?i=1000543737590

Up next
Aug 21
Trump's Great Private Equity Bailout, with Dan Rasmussen
For decades, private equity has been the darling of pension funds, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds, promising high returns and low volatility. Now, President Donald Trump has made it possible for everyday investors to get in on the magic with his executive order ... Show More
54m 4s
Aug 7
Should Chatbots Teach Our Children? With Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan
What is the right way, if there is one at all, to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) technology into our education system? For Sal Khan, CEO of one of the world’s largest nonprofit education technology platforms, the answer is to take a step back and ask: Where can AI best co ... Show More
44m 38s
Jul 24
Can The Dollar Be Dethroned?, with Ken Rogoff
Americans are often told that they benefit from the privilege of the dollar serving as the world's currency. A strong dollar makes imports cheaper, facilitates demand for American companies, and is tied to cheap government borrowing. But what happens when this powerful privilege ... Show More
57m 42s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2022
Money Talks: The backlash against ESG
One of the hottest areas of investing in recent years has been ESG: using environmental, social, and governance metrics as ways to assess potential investments. But the idea that you can make profits with purpose has recently come under pressure. Elon Musk has called ESG a scam; ... Show More
43m 43s
Jul 2022
Money Talks: The backlash against ESG
One of the hottest areas of investing in recent years has been ESG: using environmental, social, and governance metrics as ways to assess potential investments. But the idea that you can make profits with purpose has recently come under pressure. Elon Musk has called ESG a scam; ... Show More
43m 43s
Mar 2022
The Illusion of ESG Investing — with Tariq Fancy
Tariq Fancy, the founder and CEO of The Rumie Initiative and the former chief investment officer for sustainable investing at BlackRock, joins Scott to discuss how ESG investing acts as “a dangerous placebo that harms the public interest.” We also hear Tariq’s take on the current ... Show More
48m 13s
Jan 2024
Conservatives vs. ESG
Robert Netzly is an Evangelical Christian trying to realize his values and stay true to his own beliefs while working in investing – and he personifies a bigger war going on in the investment world and American politics over a little acronym called ESG. In the last year, there’s ... Show More
41m 33s
Nov 2021
5 - Inside ESG: A sceptic vs a believer, our experts face off
The amount of money flowing into investment funds that claim to invest in sustainable businesses has surged in recent years. More companies than ever have embraced policies with environmental, social and corporate governance criteria as their central plank. But there's a debate o ... Show More
20m 59s
Oct 2023
Larry Fink on ESG, the Economy and the State of Democracy
On this episode of the Free Expression Podcast, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink tells Wall Street Journal editor at large Gerry Baker about why he thinks ESG investing has become so controversial but also misunderstood. He outlines his concerns about embedded inflation in t ... Show More
46m 20s
Oct 2023
The problem with Bidenomics
Will Bidenomics help the US Democrats win another term in office? Will the policies be effective in tackling the climate crisis? Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, thinks not. In the last in our series on Bidenomics, he tells Gideon why o ... Show More
23m 33s
Oct 2022
How Republicans weaponised climate investing
US Republicans are picking a fight with some major financial institutions over ESG, or environmental, social and governance investing. That means considering things such as climate risks, labour issues and board diversity when choosing investment funds. The FT’s corporate governa ... Show More
16m 40s
Jun 2022
The Changing Future of ESG Investing
Today, we’re following the money. Where does investment go in order to build a zero-carbon future? Where does the money get used, and where does it not?This week Ed is joined by Emily Chasan, Director of Communications at Generate Capital, and Shanu Mathew, Vice-President of Sust ... Show More
54m 45s
Dec 2022
Two Indicators: The fight over ESG investing
"ESG" investing – Environmental, Social, Governance – has attracted a lot of attention from investors, and from Republican politicians who call it "woke investing." On today's show, what the fight over ESG reveals about the potential and limitations of sustainable investing. Subs ... Show More
21m 38s