Larry Fink is one of the most influential people on the planet. His firm BlackRock mints money. Billions of dollars a year. Their risk management platform handles more than $10 trillion a year. He helped guide the country out of the financial crisis in 2009 and positioned his company to grow unfettered by the very regulatory authorities he advised at the time. He’s by all accounts funny, affable, competitive and compassionate. BlackRock is at the center of a storm in conservative media for pushing companies too hard toward sustainability. That he’s too “woke.” Liberals think he’s behind the housing crisis. Conspiracy theorists believe he’s in the pocket of the Chinese government. The real story of BlackRock is bigger, more mundane and just as terrifying. 

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Chapters

BlackRock Disclaimer: 00:00:05

Intro: 00:02:24

Chapter One: Bank or no bank? You decide. 00:05:31

Chapter Two: Birth of a giant. 00:13:12

Chapter Three: Just how big is BlackRock? 00:24:20

Chapter Four: The ESG Hullabaloo. 00:31:46

Chapter Five: Bring it home, Max. 00:40:11

Post Show Musings: 00:50:48

Outro: 01:09:20

Resources

Vanity Fair: Larry Fink’s $12 Trillion Shadow

BlackRock: 2021 Annual Report

Policy Tensor: Seeing Like BlackRock

Insider: Here are 9 fascinating facts to know about BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager

Bloomberg: Biden Ties to BlackRock Deepen With Latest Treasury Hire

Wall Street Journal: One Firm Getting What It Wants in Washington: BlackRock

OpenSecrets: BlackRock Inc

Office of Financial Research: Asset Management and Financial Stability, September 2013

Bloomberg: In Fink We Trust: BlackRock Is Now ‘Fourth Branch of Government’

BlackRock: Sustainable investing at BlackRock

Banking On Climate Change: The Worst Banks Since the Paris Agreement

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: BlackRock Tells Oil Regulator: Ignore Our CEO’s Climate Pledges

Florida State Board of Administration: August 23, 2022 Meeting

Politico: Wall Street opens its checkbook for Ron DeSantis

Sierra Club: Maine becomes the first state to pass law to divest from fossil fuels

Morgan Stanley Institute For Sustainable Investing: Sustainable Reality

BlackRock: BlackRock and housing: Setting the record straight

The Atlantic: BlackRock Is Not Ruining the U.S. Housing Market

Securities and Exchange Commission: Sallie Mae Proxy Statement

Pensions & Investments: Nestle moves pension assets to BlackRock as it reorganizes internal management unit

CNN Business: Nestle SA

Investopedia: The Top 5 British Petroleum (BP) Shareholders

CNN Business: Walmart Inc

Fintel: BlackRock Inc. ownership in MCD / Mcdonald's Corp

Bloomberg Markets and Finance: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on Inflation, ESG Investing

UNFTR Episode Resources

Student Debt.

The Problem with Conscious Capitalism.

Book Love

David Carey and John E. Morris: King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone

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