1) One of Three US Investors Still SAY They Want ESG

Our latest 2025 study on Pension Politics will be released next week and...good news: we find that big money managers are retreating from ESG and DEI social investing in a hurry. We've argued for the past three years that ESG investing is a violation of the fiduciary duty of investment firms to earn the maximum returns for their clients.

ESG investing is at best a distraction from the pursuit of high returns.

So our jaws dropped when we saw that Apollo is touting a new Morningstar report which purportedly concludes that investors STILL want ESG and view it as part of the fiduciary duty.

It’s complete nonsense.

What investors tell pollsters that they want, versus how they ACTUALLY invest, are two entirely different animals. We know this because money flows relentlessly into the highest return investments and flows out of low return investments. Period. Hard stop.

We’ve often noted that if investors want to be "socially conscious" and pack their money into firms that are openly ESG - have at it. Those funds are out there. And what we know about these funds is that a) they generally underperform the market and b) they are undersubscribed.

2) Why America Is Winning the Prosperity Race

In one picture:

3) Our Laugh or Cry Item of the Week

There’s something sadly ironic about this headline from yesterday’s WSJ:

According to the article: The blue state governors are launching initiatives "to help states detect and respond to disease threats in light of public-health funding cuts under Trump."

Seriously?

So the very states that cratered their economies during Covid, kept kids out of school for a year or more, and had high death rates from the pandemic are suddenly the defenders of public health?

Our landmark study on state Covid responses show that the blue states had by far the worst public health responses. New York, which is a leader in this latest scheme, had one of the worst records. Remember all the seniors who died when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo put COVID inflected patients into the nursing homes?

Now, these public health experts that so horrifically panicked during COVID are going to “develop strategies to respond to disease threats?” Who’s going to lead this crusade? Let us guess: Anthony Fauci? They might as well call in the Three Stooges.

4) The Supreme Court Must End Racial Gerrymandering

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard a Louisiana case that could determine if racial gerrymandering is finally declared unconstitutional and given an appropriate burial.

The case, Louisiana v. Callais, involves a Congressional map that was drawn in 2024 to create a second majority-Black district in the state.  It snakes across the state for 250 miles, ignoring common sense, and is at times barely contiguous. See map below  

If the court finds against the tortured lines of the district on the grounds that it impermissibly allows the use of race in policy decisions, it could have a profound impact in the drawing of Congressional district lines.

In 2021, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's three liberals in ruling not to strike down lines drawn along racial lines.

But now, both sound much more skeptical. "This Court's cases, in a variety of contexts, have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time -- sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases -- but that they should not be indefinite and should have a end point," Kavanaugh said in this week’s oral argument.

It’s been 60 years since the Voting Rights Act was passed. Today, there are 15 black members of Congress representing districts that are majority white. Today, it is the government, not voters who are obsessed with skin color.

It’s time to end racial districting even though the foolish strategy of packing all the minorities into one or two districts often costs the Left seats in Congress.

5) Has Social Media Peaked?

A global survey of 250,000 people for the Financial Times found social media use declined in 2023 and 2024, with the biggest decrease in the youngest age groups.

Lord, we hope that’s true because so many studies show that addiction to social media is having very negative effects on the social and intellectual development of young people.

6) But Will It Stay Dead?

Interested in booking us for a media appearance? Send an email with the link below.

Know anyone else who would appreciate the Hotline? Please direct them to subscribe at: https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/hotline/
 

Have an idea for an item that should be in our newsletter? Send us any charts, statistics, heroes/villains, or humor that you’d like to see featured!