Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 4:06:21 GMT
BlackRock is a fiduciary for our clients and helps them invest to achieve long-term goals. Most of the money we manage is for retirement, and belongs to individuals and pension recipients such as teachers, firefighters, doctors, business people and many others. The money we manage belongs to them, it is not ours. The trust our clients place in us, as well as our role as a link between our clients and the companies in which they invest, gives us the great responsibility of advocating for them. This is why I write to you every year, with the intention of highlighting topics crucial to generating lasting value – topics such as capital management , long-term strategy , purpose and climate change . We have long been convinced that our clients, as shareholders of your company, will benefit if you are able to generate lasting and sustainable value for all your stakeholders . I started writing these letters as a result of the financial crisis. However, in the last year we have experienced something even more far-reaching: a pandemic that has affected the entire planet and changed it permanently, claiming a terrible number of lives and transforming the way we live, including the way we live. where we work, learn, access medical services and much more. The consequences of the pandemic have been very irregular.
On the one hand, it triggered the most severe global economic contraction since the Great Depression and the sharpest decline in equity markets since 1987. On the other hand, although some sectors, particularly those that depend on people gathering in person, have suffered, others have prospered. And while the stock market recovery bodes well for growth as the pandemic eases, the current Europe Cell Phone Number List situation remains one of economic devastation, with unemployment at very high levels, small businesses closing their doors every day and Families around the world struggling to pay rent and food. The pandemic has also accelerated profound trends, from the growing retirement crisis to systemic inequalities. Several months into the year, the pandemic coincided with a wave of historic protests for racial justice in the United States and around the world. More recently, the pandemic has exacerbated political instability in the US. This month we witnessed how political alienation in the US, fueled by lies and political opportunism, led to violence. The events at the US Capitol are a stark reminder of how vulnerable and precious the democratic system can be.
Despite the negative aspects of the last 12 months, we have seen signs of hope, including companies that have worked with courage and conviction, on behalf of their stakeholders . We saw companies rapidly innovate to keep food and goods distribution flowing during lockdowns. Companies have stepped up to support nonprofit organizations that help people in need. In one of the greatest triumphs of modern science, several vaccines were developed in record time. Many companies also responded to calls for racial equality, although much remains to be done to fulfill those commitments. And notable is that, amid all the disruptions of 2020, companies moved forward with determination to confront climate risk. I believe the pandemic has presented such an existential crisis – such a palpable reminder of our fragility – that it has prompted us to confront more forcefully the global threat of climate change and consider how it will affect our lives, just as the pandemic has. . It has reminded us that major crises, whether medical or environmental, demand a global and ambitious response. Over the past year, people have seen the growing physical consequences of climate change manifest in the form of fires, droughts, floods and hurricanes. They have also begun to notice its direct financial impact, as energy companies write down billions of dollars in stranded assets for climate-related reasons and regulators focus on climate risk to the global financial system.