State Of Tennessee Is Urged To Alter Investing

[DeSwiss]

State is urged to alter investing
Some lawmakers want end to financial links with Sudan

The Tennessean
By JENNIFER BROOKS • Staff Writer • April 3, 2008

For every dollar a Tennessee firefighter or schoolteacher pays into their state retirement account, one penny works its way to the other side of the world to be invested in companies doing business in countries that the U.S. government says sponsor genocide or harbor terrorists.

By the state's own estimate, about 1 percent of the $32 billion invested in the Tennessee state workers' pension system is tied to companies doing business in countries on the federal government's list of state sponsors of terrorism: Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cuba and, the most egregious offender on the list, Sudan, where millions have been forced to flee the threat of genocide in Darfur.

"For everyone who's ever watched the evening news and said, 'This is awful. I wish there was something I could do,' this is something you can do," said Max Croes, a consultant for a Washington, D.C.-based Sudan Divestment Task Force. "You can pick up your phone and ask your state legislators to stop investing in this country."

Twenty-four state pension systems, including California, Texas, Florida, have cut their ties to Sudan and the small list of companies known as "highest offenders." These companies — mainly oil, mineral and power interests based in China, India or Malaysia — have close ties to the Sudanese government, operate projects that bring little benefit to ordinary Sudanese citizens, and have not moved to pressure for human rights reform in the company.

Several state legislators, including Republicans and Democrats, have called for the state to cut such links. But opponents of divestment object to the idea of using state employees' nest eggs to make political statements. Among the opponents is Gov. Phil Bredesen. "I think you get into very tricky waters if you start trying to tell pension fund managers to do anything but to professionally maximize their return," Bredesen said recently. He said he opposed the idea of telling a the fund managers, "Here's a political consideration you have to take into account."

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080403/NEWS0201/804030386">MORE

- Gov. Phil's "economic position" here is the same one that was taken by several US companies with respect to Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. And more recently, the former aparthied government of South Africa. Which not ironically, Ronald Reagan also opposed such divestment as well.

Yes Gov. Phil, let's just let those fund managers "professionally manage" those investments for us without any direction whatsoever. I mean it just gets "so messy" when we have to think about the human impact that our dollars have in supporting blatantly immoral regimes.

Because no matter how many are raped. No matter how many are beaten and tortured. No matter how many become refugees in their own country. And no matter how many die needlessly -- we must always remember that in the end, "its all about the money......"
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DeSwiss


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[southerncrone]

1. Well, that would be my money & my brother's money.

I've feared our retirement was in trouble anyway. This is just another layer of nausea to add.