Editorial: DeSantis Helps Fight Inflation

Governor DeSantis has taken the gloves off to help Florida citizens in their struggles with rising inflation. One of the causes of inflation is rising fuel prices that impact all Floridians. Environmental Social Governance (ESG) investing guidelines is one of the reasons that fuel prices are rising. 

ESG investing is a strategy that liberal groups have concocted with the help of billionaire hedge fund managers in New York to bypass the legislative arena and foist their liberal ideas on Florida citizens. ESG investing involves a wide range of issues in investments, such as a company’s climate-change vulnerabilities: carbon emissions; product safety; supply-chain labor; and executive pay.

Pension funds control close to 40% of the stock of the country’s large businesses. The largest of these pension funds are government employee funds. Many of these pension funds are controlled by liberal groups. These pension funds with the aid of New York billionaires use their clout to force corporations to curtail business practices that don’t coincide with the pension fund’s leftist agenda.

During the past decade these pension funds have used their voting power in stock ownership to force corporations to support liberal causes. Several years ago, these pension funds forced Exxon to curtail its exploration for additional oil and gas reserves. Today, Exxon has not increased its production of oil and gas and as a result gas prices have doubled. The citizens of Florida are hurting economically because a few  “woke” graduates of northeastern universities decided you needed to pay more for fuel. 

The world wide implications are scary. Fuel is a necessary ingredient of fertilizer and as fertilizer prices are rising because fewer acres of land are being used to grow food. As a result food prices are rising and the poor around the world will not be able to have sufficient food to take care of their families. Needless harm to so many reminds one of the millions of Soviets who starved in the 1930’s as a result of the Communist Party’s agrarian reforms that did not work in the real world.

Governor DeSantis recently required the State Board of Administration, which manages Florida’s public pension funds, to avoid using ESG criteria for investing decisions. DeSantis wants the Board to focus on maximizing the return on investment. Imagine that!

Several years ago this was the standard business practice but today maximizing your company’s return is supposed to take a backseat to the green revolution and transgender rights. These woke groups are forcing corporations to support groups that demand we defund the police and groups that are attempting to teach 1st graders about their sexuality. 

DeSantis has again shown his common sense approach by leveraging Florida’s economic clout to stop “woke” groups from foisting their rigid ideological mantra on corporations. The citizens of Florida will be the beneficiaries of these actions that will dampen the inflation fires.