Today’s guest is Christopher Lingle, a Professor of Economics at the Escuela de Negocios at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the American Institute of Economic Research, along with connections to several other academic posts. We spoke about the political economy of Covid, along with other topics related to Covid repression and the possibility of future political repression under the global flag of ‘environmental protection’. Along the way, we also mentioned the Great Barrington Declaration, the Swedish response to Covid, the World Economic Forum, and several other tangentially aligned subjects.
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Timecodes
- 0:00 – Intro
- 1:24 – Who is Christopher Lingle and what is his academic background?
- 4:08 – Where did he get stuck during the Covid period?
- 5:43 – Thoughts on Professor Neil Ferguson
- 13:08 – Thoughts on the Swedish Response
- 20:49 – Jeffrey Tucker’s Covid article in the Epoch Times
- 24:23 – Background interventions by the IMF, Bill Gates, and the WEF?
- 32:10 – Will people accept environmental repression?
- 38:42 – How can we resist the almost inevitable environmental repression?
- 45:22 – Did we miss anything?
- 46:51 – Wrap-up
Christopher at the AIER:
Christopher on Facebook:
Jeffrey Tucker’s article on libertarian elites over Covid, as mentioned in the program:
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Very interesting discussion. But your interviewee Mr Ingle doesn’t seem up to speed with the ESG requirements being imposed on businesses. He concocts an elaborate theory about why C.E.O.’s are all ‘going woke’, whereas the truth is in fact far simpler; – ‘ESG’ (Environmental, Social, Governance) ‘rules’ are being driven largely by Black Rock, which practically controls every company in the known universe. Companies have to observe these ridiculous criteria if they want to survive in today’s insane business world. If not, they will have their funding cut off and possibly their bank accounts closed. No longer do businesses concern themselves mainly with their fiducary duty to their shareholders – their main focus is now on keeping the ‘woke’ mob happy.
Just to give one example – Exxon were committed to expanding oil-drilling. But Black Rock got so many ‘Greenies’ appointed to the board that they reversed this decision and voted to CUT drilling operations instead. In the middle of an energy crisis.
Not only do businesses have to worry about their own ESG score; they are also now held responsible for the ESG scores of everybody ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ of their businesses (i.e. their suppliers and their customers). Taken to its logical conclusion, this will bring business to a complete standstill. Which is pretty much what Maurice Strong was advocating over half a century ago.
I know several investors who have given up on going to investment conferences in the past few years, because they have simply become dull ESG conventions. You make a valid point, and I’ll try to bear it in mind if similar points come up in future interviews.