Elon Musk Raises Concerns on White House and BlackRock Relations

Elon Musk has weighed in on the relationship between the White House and BlackRock, while Vivek Ramaswamy sheds light on the utilization of private actors like BlackRock to implement policies that face resistance in Congress. Musk raises concerns about the significant influence that passive/index fund managers hold over publicly traded companies.

Elon Musk on BlackRock and US Govt

In response to the connection between the White House and BlackRock, Elon Musk has offered his insights into the matter.

There is a crazy amount of control that passive/index fund managers have over publicly traded companies.

– Elon Musk, July 17, 2023

U.S. Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy further elaborates on this issue, explaining how the White House employs private actors such as BlackRock to implement policies that face obstacles in the legislative process. These policies are often labeled as ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives.

In a parallel development, Bloomberg reported that House Republicans, led by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, have launched an investigation on BlackRock, Vanguard Group, and State Street. The Republicans contend that the efforts made by these companies to combat climate change may potentially violate US antitrust law.

United States Institutions and Crypto

The question of whether BlackRock and Vanguard act as a shadow government has sparked discussions on social media. Some questioning Vivek links to Blackrock and others being critical of DEI/ESG saying- Cigarette maker Phillip Morris having a higher ESG score than Elon Musk’s Tesla shows you the total farce.

Both the institutions have shown an interest in crypto, Vanguard’s total investment in Bitcoin miners is reportedly $560 million. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with over $9.4 trillion in assets, submitted its initial spot Bitcoin ETF application on June 15. Today SEC has added BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application to its list of proposed rulemaking filings for the Nasdaq stock market.

While CoinGape reported that the SEC has already approved the first Bitcoin futures ETF in the United States on June 23, it has not yet granted approval for a spot Bitcoin ETF.