Diversity Oaths, of a sort, have, as I predicted, spilled out of academia and into the boardroom.
Here’s the headline: Goldman to Refuse IPOs If All Directors Are White, Straight Men.
The ominous warning that starts the article: “Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Solomon issued the latest ultimatum Thursday from Davos.”
And what is that warning, pilgrim?
Wall Street’s biggest underwriter of initial public offerings in the U.S. will no longer take a company public in the U.S. and Europe if it lacks a director who is either female or diverse.
Female or diverse. Diverse? As in “Hi, I’m Trayvon and I’m Diverse.” Individual people are or aren’t “Diverse”. “Diverse” is a property they possess. Diversity, then, is the quest to discover the Land Without Whites. Like Zimbabwe. Since they are so Diverse, those Zimbabweans, they must be doing wonderfully on the economic front. Right?
It anyway follows that a gathering of men of no color, even men of exceptional ability, has no Diversity. A gathering of women of color is thus maximally Diverse. And maximal Diversity spells good corporate governance.
The mandate is the latest in a series of signals that non-diverse boards and management are unacceptable. BlackRock Inc. and State Street Global Advisors are voting against directors at companies without a female director. Public companies with all-male boards based in California now face a $100,000 fine under a new state law.
Not enough. Make it a million, or even ten million. Confiscate their whole damned businesses! No amount of money can cause enough of a sting so that non-Diverse businesses get it out of their heads Freedom of Association is dead. If we allow Freedom of Association, white supremacists could use it to create gatherings of white supremacists, who would then do typical frightening white supremacists things. Like inventing transistors.
“It’s what big investors are looking for these days,” said Fred Foulkes, a management professor at the Boston University Questrom School of Business. “If the board has all white males, that’s a big negative.”
Of course it is! A gathering of men of no color has the potential to do difficult and incomprehensible things! Things that Diversity would never understand! Unfair things, inequitable things, hierarchical things. Like building rockets to escape Diversity.
Goldman Sachs, and of course Solomon, have
acknowledged that “diversity” has other meanings around the world — including in Asia, where racial dynamics are different and gender disparities are sometimes even more glaring. The company said in a statement Friday that it intends to eventually expand its board-diversity mandate beyond the U.S. and Europe.
Don’t be silly. The Chinese will love and adore the introduction of identity politics into every aspect of their lives! Just as we do. President Xi was overheard saying—though I must emphasize this is only a rumor circulated on Weibo—“I wish a lesbian black transwoman was in charge.”
If Xi didn’t say this, Goldman Sachs, and of course Solomon, have the power to make him say it.
“Starting on July 1st in the U.S. and Europe, we’re not going to take a company public unless there’s at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women,” Solomon told CNBC Thursday. He didn’t mention Asia, which continues to lag behind other regions when it comes to board diversity…
“We realize that this is a small step, but it’s a step in a direction of saying, ‘You know what, we think this is right, we think it’s the right advice and we’re in a position also, because of our network, to help our clients if they need help placing women on boards,'” Solomon told CNBC. “So this is an example of us saying, ‘How can we do something that we think is right and help moves the market forward?'”
Forward into destiny!
Say, this makes it sound like Solomon and gang are the true owners, or at least true controllers, of businesses. Doesn’t it?
Solomon can bully American firms, or rather impose his views on them, but only because it won’t hurt his wallet. Trying to strong arm the Chinese isn’t his thing; at least, not yet. Not until Goldman Sachs, and of course Solomon, have better infiltrated the Middle Kingdom.
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Very clever, actually. Destruction of business via incompetenence while idiots follow along like drooling labrador retreivers. In a smarter time, “accidents” would have taken out the evil and things would have progressed. Small businesses are our only hope. Avoid IPOs as much as possible (we still won’t win, but maybe we old folks won’t suffer the fate of the hated children of today). Meantime, when one of Goldman-Sachs kids that they may actually like (though most hate their offspring) dies because a stupid black lesbian on the board makes a monumental error, justice will begin to be felt. At least for a brief moment.
The Chinese will NEVER acquiesce. THEY will finance, as they do with the coal plants now. China will rule the world. This is the plan, of course. Communism worldwide, poverty. At least Goldman-Sachs board members will be the first ditch-diggers and manual laborers in the worker’s paradise.
Soros learned that singling out and killing Jews was a mistake. Kill the entire industry and country with “diversity”, hatred disguised as caring. It helps that the average American and European has the IQ of a pekinese and the need for rewards at the same level. Who would have imagined how incredibly stupid people could become? Of course, for a 1000 of Dark Ages and slavery to happen, and it’s coming quickly, that had to be the course. A child of three in the 1800’s could have seen that. Today, a corporate board person just drools and begs for treats. Sad how truly brainless we have become….Karma will love this one.
While writing about this is cathartic, it’s far too late to stop it. Had anyone given a damn about their kids and the future, it might have been avoided. Oh well, I’m sure Jr. will still love you (NOT) while digging through garbage cans for food though you, the evil, uncaring twit that gave birth to him, did not live long enough to be punished for your own massive sins. That’s for the afterlife.
It’s also truly cathartic to be able to write this and KNOW with 100% certainty that you fools will never, ever listen. I do love stupidity and denial! It’s very freeing.
The leaders of the band have to set an example now don’t they?
not that they’ll ever follow it themselves. Boards will be peppered
with the smiling, uncomprehending, inconsequential, face of diversity
following and fawning in the downward spiral.
The right to freedom of association is the most abused and ignored right in the whole constitution. How is that California law possibly constitutional?
Goldman Sachs, Harvard, and McKinsey, how do we keep pulling from these institutions after such a long list of failures? I know they’re not the exclusive repository of “the best” just by the numbers they can’t be.
Because any board would be better with :
Carly Fiorina
Jill Abramson
Elizabeth Holmes…
According to the statistics, this policy is suicidal for GS, or would be if the government weren’t eager to print another trillion dollars to bail them out: https://blog.jim.com/economics/the-disastrous-effects-of-females-in-power/
So if a South Korean company adds a white guy to the board, that would make it diverse since white guys are minorities in South Korea. Problem solved!
I have a friend who calls Goldman Sachs the Antichrist. They are more than just international bankers; they are manipulators of the world economy and of governments around the world. They are also one of the largest private landowners in the world via their real estate arm, The Nature Conservancy (the name is an oxymoron).
It was GS who triggered the 2008 financial crisis that gave us Barky the Puppet. Interestingly, GS also bankrolls Ted Cruz, so they play all sides. Their “board” is neither the brains nor belly of the beast. The dark halls where the robber barons work their schemes are not visible to the peasantry. Nor are they “diverse” in any sense of that word — though “diversity” would not cure their evils.
If the replacement for the man of no color is chosen only due to color and sex, that diversity is like a baby eating a spoonful of pablum. Once accomplished, many will say, “Good for you!” And the baby then laughs and claps his hands. And the adults all stand around and give congratulations!! But this leaves out the dignity of the honest person who takes the place of the man of no color, which person does not have knowledge that this new position is only to appease others, and that it is not actually an honor nor a position earned at all.
God bless, C-Marie
Doesn’t this just drive more business to, say, JP Morgan? There are plenty of options for IPOs. It will be interesting to see if other investment banks follow suit, or if GS needs to reneg because ultimately nothing is more important to GS than making money.
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