​DEFENDINg ECONOMIC FREEDOM

Treasurer Oaks has formed national partnerships to combat the onerous Biden Administration overreaches.

Efforts:

• Nationally spoke out against the New Mortgage Rule making it more expensive for people with good credit to buy houses.
• Continuously pushes back against politicized de-banking practices.
• Opposed the counterproductive IRS Direct File program.

Masquerading as a sophisticated, holistic, and enlightened way of creating shareholder value, ESG is a dangerous investment scheme. Proponents of the framework argue ESG is designed to provide investors with more information to make better-informed decisions. This is misleading. In truth, ESG has created an uncontrollable impulse to pressure corporations to solve complex global and societal issues. These issues, such as climate, policing, income inequality, guns, and abortion, to name just a few, should be in the purview of a democratically-elected government. ESG hijacks corporate governance to advance ideological objectives often divorced from, and even detrimental to, long-term shareholder value. It opens the door to coercion, bullying, and other forms of compulsion by activist shareholder proponents with little skin in the game. The ESG trend that has infiltrated our capital markets will undermine our free market system, harm our economy, and erode the retirement security of hard-working Americans.

Treasurer Oaks is a national leader in the fight against the politicization of the capital markets. He has appeared on national programs, including Glenn Beck, The HighWire, and Tucker Carlson, and written articles for The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Wire, among other outlets, combating the issue and defending the economic freedoms of Utahns.

Treasurer Oaks helped defeat a dangerous New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) proposal to the SEC to allow for the listing of a new type of company for public investment, a Natural Asset Company (NAC). Under the facade of free-market capitalism and supported by its most esteemed institution, the NYSE, NACs would lock up America’s natural resources by removing public and private lands from productive use. A NAC would raise money from investors globally, including from China and Russia, and acquire the rights to manage the ecosystem services of land. Economically essential activities, including energy production, grazing, logging, mining, hunting, and industrial agriculture, would be prohibited on NAC-managed land. The NYSE ultimately withdrew the proposal due to public backlash. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration’s efforts to financialize Mother Nature continue in other venues.

Efforts:

• Treasurer Oaks published several editorials and made numerous media appearances to raise awareness of the dangers of the proposal.
• Treasurer Oaks helped drive public pushback of the issue.
• Treasurer Oaks testified before Congress on the issue.
• Treasurer Oaks supported state and federal legislation to protect Utahns from the dangers associated with the financialization of Mother Nature