Walmart Caves: Massive Retailer The Next Woke Domino To Fall Under Pressure From Robby Starbuck

1792 Exchange applauds the meaningful progress at Charles Schwab

Inspire Investing deserves strong credit for years of dedicated corporate engagement and a broader commitment to policies that advance human dignity, viewpoint diversity, and long-term shareholder value. Inspire began engaging Schwab in 2023, constructively raising key issues around political neutrality, employee benefits, and workplace culture. Their persistence helped bring these matters forward and supported productive, ongoing dialogue with the company. We especially commend Charles Schwab for their action to stop covering medical gender interventions for minors and to exit the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. The company confirmed to Inspire that its current self-insured health plan, as well as third-party administered plans available to employees, no longer cover gender-transition surgeries or pharmaceutical treatments for minors. Schwab has also ceased participation in the HRC’s index. These steps reflect strong leadership in refocusing on core business priorities rather than ideological agendas. The company further clarified that religious organizations remain eligible for its employee gift-matching program. Based on these developments, Inspire withdrew its shareholder proposal. Schwab is to be applauded as only the second major company we know to publicly taking this step to protect minors (after Walmart). We know other companies have taken or are considering taking similar action, and we encourage …

ESG Rating Inconsistencies and Their Ideological Ends

Allen Mendenhall’s recent piece on MSCI ranking SpaceX in the same ESG tier as Russia asks a fair question: how does a rocket company advancing American innovation get scored the same as a state waging war? Unbeknownst to many, inconsistencies are common when it comes to ESG portfolios and ratings. In 2022, S&P dropped Tesla from its S&P 500 ESG Index while ExxonMobil landed in the top ten. The EV maker scored worse on an “Environmental, Social, Governance” rating than a major oil company. In fact, according to MIT Sloan’s Aggregate Confusion Project, ESG ratings from major agencies correlate at only about 0.61. Compare that to credit ratings from Moody’s and S&P, which agree 99% of the time. Companies often receive vastly different ESG rating scores from ratings providers, even ones that share a pro-ESG bias. These are the kinds of inconsistencies that led Elon Musk, CEO of the second-largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, to declare that ESG is a scam. Mendenhall concludes himself: the SpaceX rating shows ESG functioning less as “socially conscious investing” and more as “a mechanism for advancing ideological ends.”

‘CULTURAL CORRECTION’: 10 Major Brands Dial Back the LGBTQ Pride

Major Oil Company’s Shareholders Ditch Blue State’s ‘Woke Cartel’ For Texas

Dear Darren Woods and Exxon: Your Insecurity is Showing

ESG isn’t dying. It’s getting voted out