In one of the most convoluted lawsuits of all time, a cabal of state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are now accusing financial firms BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard of monopolistic behavior.
The complaint asserts that these firms bought coal stocks and then helped impose radical environmental restrictions on the companies they partially own so that coal output would fall and the price of coal would rise. The lawsuit alleges that this strategy generated "supra-competitive" profits for those investors.
If your head is spinning around trying to make heads or tails out of this loopy conspiracy theory, it should be. If it were true, then these asset managers must be capable of pulling off the equivalent of a triple bank shot in billiards.
They allegedly invested in coal companies, then partnered together with climate change groups to drive coal companies bankrupt, which then drove up the price of coal. If that tactic worked to make money, Kellogg's would stop making Frosted Flakes so that the price of the last boxes on the grocery store shelves sold for $100.
What's laughable about this lawsuit is that the Vanguards of the world didn't need to conspire to restrict coal production: That's what Democrats like Joe Biden and environmental groups like the Sierra Club have been doing for years.
They are the ones guilty of a conspiracy to rip off consumers, bankrupt an American industry, put blue-collar workers out of jobs, and raise energy prices. They ran multimillion-dollar campaigns to "kill coal" by advancing a "net zero" fossil fuel energy policy on America with the explicit goal of shutting down coal plants.
Their plan — at least temporarily — wildly succeeded.
Over the past 15 years, 63 major coal companies have closed their mining operations. And just where exactly are these "supra-competitive" profits that the FTC and state lawyers are asserting?
It's true that, for a short while in 2022 and 2023, coal and oil profits soared as a result of Biden's war on energy. But as Yahoo Finance put it recently, coal is valued at a lower multiple than other sectors because of its lower earnings.
Maybe this isn't taught in the top law schools, but money management firms with trillions of dollars of assets like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard don't invest in companies and then try to steer them into bankruptcy. That's a money-losing proposition every time — except in Mel Brooks' famous Broadway show "The Producers," in which two scamsters conspire to make a show that will intentionally flop.
That was a make-believe comedy. This lawsuit is, too, but no one is laughing.
Even the claim that the three firms on trial here worked with environmental groups to reduce coal output is highly suspect.
It is true that some of the large investment companies promoted the radical climate agenda. And just like Bud Light, they paid a hefty price for their political activism.
Unleash Prosperity — a group I cofounded — has done the seminal analysis over the past several years on how investment firms voted on radical green agenda shareholder resolutions dealing with, among other things, shutting down coal. It is true that State Street has been a strong and persistent supporter of some of these shareholder resolutions aimed at advancing the radical anti-coal green agenda.
But Vanguard almost never votes in favor of resolutions hostile to the industry. And BlackRock in recent years has sworn off the environmental, social, and governance investing fad.
So they can't all be guilty here since their shareholder activism runs in opposite directions! Apparently, their real crime was owning coal stocks at all.
If this lawsuit were to succeed, then three of America's largest investors would pay a giant penalty for that sin. The biggest loser will be the coal industry itself, as a guilty verdict would chase billions of dollars of desperately needed investment out of the industry for many years, which will mean coal miners will lose their jobs.
This may explain why many of the state attorneys general from coal-producing states like Kentucky and Ohio didn't join this flimsy case.
Sadly, Andrew Ferguson, Donald Trump's handpicked FTC chair, may do more to destroy the coal industry than all the radical climate change groups put together.
But wait. Trump ran for president and has signed executive orders to support King Coal in America.
He wants an American coal renaissance. How can that happen when the FTC stands ready to sue these companies' investors if they dare make "supra-competitive" profits?
Sounds like if Trump wants to make American coal great again, he might want to make a call to Ferguson and get him to cease and desist.
Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. His latest book is "Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy." Read Stephen Moore's Reports — More Here.