CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: The Free Enterprise Action Fund  Sun Jan 06, 2008 7:07 am | |
| The Social Responsibility Of A Business Is To Increase Its Profits.
Milton Friedman
About the Fund
The Free Enterprise Action Fund is the first mutual fund dedicated to providing both financial and pro-free enterprise ideological returns to investors.
Why invest in the Free Enterprise Action Fund? Left-wing social and political activists are harnessing the power, resources and influence of publicly-owned corporations to advance their social and political agendas. (1) Frustrated by their failure to advance their agendas in the public political process, these activists use capitalism against capitalism under the guise of “corporate social responsibility” and “socially responsible investing.” (2) Their movement threatens shareholder value and the American system of free enterprise.
Leveraging its status as an institutional shareholder in hundreds of America’s largest companies, the Fund aims to defend free enterprise from the Left’s use of capitalism against capitalism.
Our Core Principle. “The social responsibility of a business is to increase its profits.” [Milton Friedman Winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics]
Our Goals. The Fund’s conservative investment strategy is intended to provide dual returns for pro free enterprise-minded investors.
* A market-based financial return from investing in the common stocks of Fortune 500 companies. The Fund is a large-cap blend mutual fund that seeks results corresponding with the return of common stocks represented by the S&P 500 index. The Fund seeks to enhance portfolio return with certain additional investment strategies more fully described in the prospectus.
* A pro-free enterprise ideological benefit through advocacy that promotes shareholder value and defends the American system of free enterprise. By leveraging its shareholder status, the Fund seeks to counter-balance social activist pressure on corporate managements and strive to keep managements focused on lawful maximization of profits and shareholder returns rather than appeasement of social activists. The Fund aims to help enhance the performance of individual companies over the long-term while promoting the American system of free enterprise.
What actions will the Fund take? The Fund expects to accomplish its advocacy objectives primarily by directing efforts at corporate managements. Efforts will also be directed at institutional shareholders, the media and the public:
* Engaging corporate managements. We work directly with corporate managements to advance the Fund’s goals. These efforts may include meeting with management, attending shareholder meetings and filing shareholder resolutions to counter activist pressure campaigns and shareholder proposals.
* Using the media. We work with the media to inform institutional investors, individual investors, employees and the general public about attacks on businesses, how corporate managements respond to those attacks, and the Fund’s principles and actions.
* Marshalling support for Fund activism. We work to mobilize investor and public support to stop corporate managements from surrendering to activist demands and to advance the Fund’s goals.
The New Threat to Liberty: Using Capitalism Against Capitalism. We believe that social activist investors and anti-business activists threaten shareholder value and the American system of free enterprise. A Wall Street Journal editorial recently defined the problem as:
“the new politics of capital,” in which liberal activists attempt to turn entire corporations into lobbyists for their social and political goals, their campaigns all neatly disguised as ‘shareholder activism’… (3)
Having failed to advance their agendas through our public political process, social activists operating under the banners of so-called “socially responsible investing” (SRI) and “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) aim to transform corporations – with their immense resources and influence – into instruments for advancing their social and political goals that we believe will harm shareholder value and the free enterprise system.
In the activists’ own words:
* People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) “It’s far more effective to work through corporations and through the private sector to effect change” (4)
* Rainforest Action Network (RAN) “There has got to be some reassertion of democratic control. It is not happening through our government.” (5)
How anti-business activism works. Fearing negative publicity, personal attacks, shareholder pressure and product disparagement, corporate executives often choose to appease rather than to fight activists. Appeasement strategies, however, are often ineffective and may only signal corporate vulnerability that inspires activists to escalate attacks.
How big is the activist shareholder effort? Social activist investors operate approximately 200 SRI mutual funds with assets of approximately $35 billion. (6-7) These mutual funds provide activists with the institutional shareholder status and the financial resources that enable them to advance their social and political agendas. Social activist investors file hundreds of shareholder resolutions every year in hopes of advancing their agendas. (4)
What is the harm? Activist attacks on corporations may have adverse consequences extending far beyond negative financial impact on shareholder value.
* Circumventing democracy. Our traditional political process can be circumvented and undermined when corporate executives make public policy via private arrangements with activists.
* Eliminating business as a defender of free enterprise. Corporations may be intimidated from participating in public policy debates and are discouraged from funding free market public policy organizations.
* Blocking economic development. Developing nations, which could be a significant part in our future economic growth, are blocked from access to the financial resources they need to develop economically.
More at:
http://www.freeenterpriseactionfund.com/about.html |
|
RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space
Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| | Subject: Re: The Free Enterprise Action Fund Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:12 pm | |
| The lefties have their uses...
" * Circumventing democracy. Our traditional political process can be circumvented and undermined when corporate executives make public policy via private arrangements with activists." |
|
CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
| | Subject: Re: The Free Enterprise Action Fund Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:35 pm | |
| Unfortunately, it's often for the worse...
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| | Subject: Re: The Free Enterprise Action Fund | |
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