Gov. Ron DeSantis is broadening his attack on “woke” capitalism, promising to punish investment advisers and banks that consider the environmental and social implications of investing and not just the short-term bottom line.
During a news conference Wednesday in Tampa, he singled out the “ESG” investment movement, which stands for environment, social, and governance (meaning the way companies are structured). The movement is also known as “sustainable” investing but DeSantis said it amounts to “the politization of the economy.”
“It benefits the largest, most powerful corporations and it disadvantages the small and medium-sized businesses. And so, this is not something that is empowering, kinda, the little guy. You know, this is something that is, in many respects, crushing the little guy,” he said.
“You have a handful of people in Davos deciding all this, that this is how we’re supposed to live? Not on my watch. Not here in the state of Florida,” he said in another election-year appeal to his Trumpist base following his earlier attack on The Walt Disney Co.
(Davos, Switzerland, is the site of the annual World Economic Forum, attended by the global business elite.)
A display behind the governor read: “Government of laws, not woke CEOs.”
Paul Renner, the Republican representing Flagler and parts…
