In politics, a phrase may trump – literally in the instance of Donald Trump’s current policy — the economic world’s reality. And for this reason, President Joseph Biden’s first veto should be preserved.
Republicans and a few conservative Democrats passed a measure to prolong Trump’s restriction on the government considering environmental concerns or prospective lawsuits when supervising pension plan investment decisions. The bill’s phrases were social media shorthand for permitting leftist social policies to skew investing decisions and imperil the viability of retirement accounts.
Don’t politicize pension investments.
In reality, there are solid grounds for suggesting that the government’s actions did not create the reported devastation. In addition, there is reason to acknowledge that some environmental damage will have an influence on long-term investments.
For instance (and close to home), Louisiana is a producer of oil and gas, and its economy is highly dependent on the sustainability of those markets. As much as we support the business, we do not believe it makes sense to state that the government’s general guidelines on investment decisions should rigidly exclude a money manager’s judgments on energy-related assets.
The world must deal with climate change, and nowhere more so than in Louisiana, a coastline state threatened by increasing sea levels. This has an economic consequence, and a significant one at that.
We feel that energy investments are necessary for the economy’s long-term viability. This necessitates a prudent evaluation of the long-term prospects for many components of a very dynamic sector.
Biden’s veto is, for the time being, an appropriate response, given the scant evidence supporting alarmism over investment choices’ supervision.
Don’t let politics cloud your judgement while investing for retirement.
Sadly, the president himself was not beyond a little amount of demagogy while discussing this hard matter. “This law would jeopardize your retirement funds by making it illegal to take into account risk variables,” Biden stated.
This contest included easy responses to complicated topics. Neither contributes much to the public discourse.
Political considerations make it improbable that Biden’s veto will be overcome, as that would need a two-thirds vote in favor of a law enacted by a narrow majority.
We may have been on the opposite side in the past, but this is not the catastrophe that has been made up to be.
