CNBC:
BlackRock's Larry Fink and other CEOs are "extraordinarily hypocritical" to push companies for more social responsibility, billionaire investor Sam Zell told CNBC on Tuesday. ...
"Either they're a passive fund that follows the market or they're a leader that's setting the tone," Zell said in an interview on "Squawk Box," adding BlackRock can't have it both ways.
Zell questioned whether America is ready to have BlackRock "in charge of the NYSE," saying "I didn't know Larry Fink had been made God."
The function of an index fund is to match up to the return earned by the relevant index. Any administrative costs incurred by the fund mean that the fund will underperform the index to the extent of those costs. Spending money to encourage corporate social responsibility will increase Blackrock's costs but has no guarantee of increasing its returns. So Fink's approach defeats the purpose of indexing.