Beginning with Citigroup analysts a week ago, a Wall Street move is on to designate defense companies as part of the “ESG” (environmental, social, and governance) taxonomy of companies, whose stocks nowadays perform better than other stocks by financial gleichschaltung. The two Citigroup analysts, whose names are Armitage and Burgess, reportedly wrote, “Defending the values of liberal democracies and creating a deterrent, which preserves peace and global stability, should enable defense companies to carry an E.S.G., or ‘environmental, social and governance,’ label.”
The idea was kicked around in a New York Times article March 4. Then, Bloomberg News on March 13 reported: “Russia’s war on Ukraine has given birth to a once unthinkable idea as the defense industry — long frowned on by sustainable investors — is recast by some as a tool for preserving democracy. SEB AB, one of Sweden’s biggest banks and a pioneer in the field of green bonds, recently said it was updating its sustainable investing policy to make room for weapons. And Commerzbank AG has said its doors are wide open to Germany’s arms manufacturers, many of whom said earlier this year they struggled to get funding.”
