Florida is yanking $2 billion worth of state assets managed by BlackRock, escalating the GOP standoff with the world’s largest money manager over its ESG investment policies. Republicans say liberals are using environmental, social and corporate governance investing strategies to advance an ideological agenda that would be voted down at the ballot box. The state treasury will freeze about $1.43 billion of long-term securities and remove BlackRock as the manager of about $600 million worth of short-term overnight investments with the goal of giving that business to other money managers by the beginning of 2023. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through a resolution calling for Florida to stop considering “the ideological agenda” of the ESG movement when investing state funds. . . .
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