New home sales decreased 0.3% month-over-month in February… Seasonally adjusted annual rate of 662,000 units.What does it mean – On a year-over-year basis, new home sales were up 5.9%. Yet, the median sales price decreased 7.6% yr/yr to $400,500 while the average sales price fell 2.8% to $485,000. February marked the sixth consecutive month of a year-over-year decline in the median selling price.Blackrock gets caught misleading investors on ESG investing…About time. We all know Blackrock, Vanguard, Fidelity, and others have been charging higher fees on specific funds and utilizing their overall revenue to push their political agenda through forced ESG and DEI departments. This is a cost that does hit every investor and affects your returns as investors in the funds as it is an added expense to maintain and hire ESG and DEI departments at every company they invest in. Blackrock has been caught red handed pushing policies that make it more difficult for small business creation that has led to massive regulation hurting entrepreneurs and American small businesses. Large companies are more willing to swallow the cost as it is other peoples money and while private companies see this as a massive expense and another hurdle to manage and a cost that deteriorates the value of meritocracy.What does it mean – It is completely fine for investors to invest in ESG as long as the investor understands the higher fees and how this will affect long-term investing, increase the costs of every company that is forced to comply to create and manage ESG and DEI departments. By imposing higher costs on companies that you invest in, it ultimately will reduce the returns. We are now seeing corporate America divorce itself from these imposed policies by large investors like Blackrock and Vanguard. If an investor values social justice and redistribution, then have at it. This is “the land of the free”.
