So, you want to know who invested in the likes of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna and all those ESG funds - look in the mirror – chances are it was and is you!!!

The appointment of the US Treasury Secretary is likely to be announced in the next few days. It is an important one since it provides the accounting for the outcomes of the actions and plans of all the other departments.

I read thus article by Mr Peel and have been “triggered” to respond.

President Elect Ponzi - by Jeffrey Peel - The New Era

This is my wheelhouse, or rather was. I left the “market” ten years ago after many decades acting in many roles in the investment industry, from performance measurement, through investment management, stockbroking and culminating in a consulting role in the selection of investment managers via the verification of past behaviour and ensuring conformance. The last rule was “non-trivial”. The assets of trillions of dollars of pension funds were deployed amongst investment managers with trillions of client funds - from those clients “we” advised and those “we” didn’t.

Client funds were “allocated” to investment managers in every investment sector in every country. There were clear targets set, in terms of excess investment returns relative to a benchmark, risk metrics and costs/fees – constantly monitored by a large team of analysts (over 100), such ss me.

The management f these investments was extremely competitive. Charlatans and politically motivated strategies that could not meet targets were rooted out in the investment manager selection process or fired if these biases emerged.

Ok, here’s the beef with Mr Peel’s article.

He shows a chart of BlakcRock’s assets under management of around 11 trillion bucks. He does not mention that HALF of those assets are PASSIVELY managed I what are called “index tracker funds” that have ZERO discretion to invest differently from the proportions of an underlying index.

All of the investment assets managed by State Street and Vanguard are also PASSIVE.

That still leaves a sizeable sum of 5-6 trillion bucks that are ACTIVELY managed. These actively managed funds can only be retained if BlackRock stacks up against other competitors – such as JPM, Fidelity, DoubleLine, PIMCO, Capital Guardian and a host of others. These other asset managers also compete with each other as well as BlackRock. The “competitive battlegrounds” are many – from Large cap US equities to “cross-over” investment grade to junk bonds, to global equities, to Far-East (ex-Japan) to hedge funds– every permutation you can think of – including ESG and “green funds” – which have been as successful as Solyndra!

How big is the US Retirement industry?

From here:

U.S. Retirement Assets: Data in Brief

“The Federal Reserve’s Financial Accounts of the United States provides data on the amount of retirement assets in the United States.

Retirement assets are held in pension plans sponsored by employers and in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).

As of December 31, 2022, a total of $37.8 trillion was held in U.S. retirement plans and accounts, of which $26.3 trillion was in employer-sponsored plans and $11.5 trillion was in IRAs.

Retirement plan holdings include a variety of financial assets, including equities, securities, debt, mutual funds, claims on owed sponsor contributions, and other financial assets.”

Those numbers were for 31 December 2022, here’s an update from here:

Release: Quarterly Retirement Market Data, Second Quarter 2024 | Investment Company Institute

“Washington, DC; September 19, 2024—Total US retirement assets were $40.0 trillion as of June 30, 2024, up 1.3 percent from March. Retirement assets accounted for 32 percent of all household financial assets in the United States at the end of June 2024.”

There are equivalent statistics for all countries. Blackrock does not manage only US assets for US clients. It operates globally in passive and active markets, offering its services on a competitive basis – in the UK, the EU, Australasia, South America, the Middle East and so on – competing with local investment managers that can have more clients than BlackRock does in their local market.

I do not have data, but I guesstimate maybe up to half of BlackRock’s clients are not based in the US but spread globally and are subject to local securities laws.

Here’s a few previous articles:

Investment Managers act as agents for their clients investments, and cannot act as principals without their clients consent

The focus by investment managers on ESG produces no benefit and costs increased investment management fees - leading to lower investor returns

The 2024 WEF meeting in Davos is over – the WEF is a global pariah – its objective was “Rebuilding Trust” - trust lost because of its virtue signalling of “faux science” of climate change and C19

Of more concern should be the “national security” accounting standards commented on here, that prevent owners of investments (that is you, the reader):

New book “The Medical Pharmaceutical Killing Machine” exposes the satanic implications of a 100 years of “the science” replacing any religious principles, ethics and morals

“… if you and the classification laws and the national security waiver laws, it, that it then includes the defense contractors and the, um, and the big banks.

And essentially, I as an investment person, when I look at the US bond market and the US stock market, what it means is, especially in the large cap stocks and anything related to the government. a huge portion of the securities market is dark and it's a, it's a, an, a remarkable trick because we're saying by administrative policy, we can continue to disobey the provisions for financial management, the constitution, we can continue to disobey the financial management law. We can continue to disobey the financial management regulations, and we can do that by an administrative policy if we all agree.

And, um, and it, you know, it's an extraordinary thing and it's important to understand because the, when most people look at the intentionality behind the killing machine, it's very hard for them to fathom and it's hard to fathom because you can't believe it's economic. “

That’s a comment o FASB56 passed in 2018 – more detail here:

“FASB 56 was approved by Congress in 2018. Her’s what Brave AI has to say about it:

“Fasb 56

FASAB Statement 56, titled “Classified Activities,” was issued in October 2018 by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB). This statement provides guidance on the accounting and reporting of classified activities by federal entities. The main objective is to balance the need for financial transparency with the need to protect national security information.

1.      Key Provisions

2.      Modification of Public Financial Statements: FASAB 56 permits federal agencies to modify their public financial statements to prevent the disclosure of classified information. This includes moving expenditures from one line item to another or reclassifying transactions.

3.      Secrecy around Modifications: The statement allows agencies to refrain from disclosing to the public when modifications have been made to public financial statements.

4.      Two Sets of Books: As noted by Professor Mark Skidmore, this guidance effectively creates two sets of books: a modified set for public consumption and a true set of financial statements that remains hidden from the public.

5.      National Security Waivers: FASAB 56 provides authority for the Director of National Intelligence to waive certain financial reporting requirements for private sector entities, allowing them to maintain secrecy around their financial activities.

6.      Implications

1.      Lack of Transparency: The implementation of FASAB 56 raises concerns about the lack of transparency in government financial reporting, particularly in areas related to national security.

2.      Investor Uncertainty: The ability of companies to modify their financial statements and maintain secrecy may create uncertainty for investors, making it difficult to accurately assess a company’s financial health.

3.      Real Estate as a Safe Haven: The increased secrecy around financial reporting may make commercial real estate a more attractive investment option, as property values and rental income are less susceptible to manipulation.

7.      Reactions

1.      Criticism from Researchers: Professor Mark Skidmore and others have criticized the lack of public awareness and debate surrounding FASAB 56, citing concerns about the potential for abuse and lack of transparency.

2.      Limited Media Coverage: The announcement of FASAB 56 received limited media attention, with few outlets covering the story.”

You may be wondering how your retirement plan plays into this.

Well, if you have a 401k plan, it will invest in PASSIVE or ACTIVE funds run by investment managers like BlackRock. You will see an asset allocation for your plan that is implemented via “wrappers” such as “60/40” funds, balanced funds or target date funds. that matches your retirement date. Within that “wrapper” are other funds that invest in specific sectors – like US shares – each investment sector is run by an investment manager – chances are it is just one. The investment manager will claim that his firm is the best manager in every sector (maybe 5 sectors or maybe 50 sectors). This is unlikely but is tolerated because the manager can switch between sectors and this “asset allocation” ability makes up 80% of excess investment returns!

Hopefully, the fees charged are reduced by using a single manager’s “platform of investment products” as well, since “double dipping” of fees by charging a fee at the top-level and more fees at every subordinate level is “frowned on”.

The point is – US savers for retirement put their money into a retirement plan, which owns the shares of companies.

The investment managers DO NOT own the investments - you do - via your retirement plan Trustee. Your scheme administrator should offer alternatives to the investment managers used by your scheme. The Trustees of the scheme represent you in this regard and can be canvassed.

Onwards!!!

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