By Ross Kerber
Jan 21 (Reuters) - This is the weekly Reuters Sustainable Finance Newsletter, which you can sign up for here .
A key actor during the springtime U.S. corporate meeting season has been Andrew Behar, CEO of the California-based shareholder activist group As You Sow. You can read my Q&A with him in my column this week, linked below.
You will also find links to several of our recent stories discussing the hands-off approach of U.S. CEOs to the latest unprecedented moves by U.S. President Donald Trump. This is a break from the past, when business leaders emerged as some of the strongest voices opposing Trump's actions. Some critics say the CEOs are taking a short-sighted perspective.
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Shareholder activist Behar says Trump is "disassembling capitalism"
I meant only to get a rundown on pending shareholder resolutions when I scheduled a call with Behar the other day. But as usual, he was tracking a much broader range of topics and I wound up typing from a recording of our call.
It is fair to call Behar an unreconstructed true believer in the power of shareholder voting to change corporate behavior and improve returns. He stands against pressure from various Republican politicians who say the work of As You Sow and allies diminishes profits.
Behar says many companies will not freeze out investors as new Trump administration policies could allow, since executives will be more concerned with keeping investors on board and keeping access to non-U.S. markets.
You can click here to read the column and watch our Q&A video.
Company news
Many small businesses in Minnesota have barred U.S. federal agents from their premises, but officials have had little luck convincing local corporations like Target TGT.N to take similar steps as immigration raids continue, my colleagues and I learned.
Also related to the Trump administration's immigration raids in Democratic-run cities around the country: a group of Home Depot HD.N investors wants the retailer to spell out how its data is used and shared with law enforcement. Migrant day laborers often gather at Home Depot stores.
Trump pressed his intention to cap credit-card interest rates, and JPMorgan Chase JPM.N CEO Jamie Dimon warned the proposal would amount to economic disaster.
On my radar: business leader edition
A gripe of Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales was that big tech companies were training their LLMs with his online baby. Good news for him, the service's parent said that Amazon.com AMZN.O, Meta Platforms META.O and Microsoft MSFT.O became "enterprise" partners.
BlackRock BLK.N CEO Larry Fink, who now helps run the Davos conference, said at an opening event that income inequality is unsustainable for a healthy society, with AI poised to exacerbate the situation.
The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Suzanne Clark, called on CEOs to be "fearless" in defense of free markets, but analysts and investors see American business leaders cowed by pressure from the Trump administration, I heard while reporting this piece.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
((ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com; (617) 412 0093;))
