By David Sirota, Too Much Information, July 8, 2020
Sometimes if you look closely enough, you can see government officials not just making bad or negligent decisions -- but actually acting like comic-book villains. Three recent moves by Trump Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia make it seem as if the agency is intent on being Legion of Doom that funnels workers’ retirement savings to Wall Street billionaires and fossil fuel conglomerates.
First came Scalia’s announcement about private equity. He said that in order to make sure “ordinary people investing for retirement have the opportunities they need for a secure retirement,” his agency is expanding the kinds of investments that financial managers are allowed to shift workers’ retirement savings into.
The new letter allows for investments in private equity firms that charge notoriously high fees and often do not deliver returns that beat inexpensive stock index funds. Those firms also have made headlines fleecing investors, laying off workers, gutting local economies, strip-mining media outlets and creating public health and environmental disasters -- all while pumping investors money into fossil fuel assets.
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