Caterpillar Pulled From Social Indexes

[Purveyor]

By BLAKE SOBCZAK
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A U.S. investment firm has removed Caterpillar Inc. from three of its popular indexes that track socially responsible investments, citing concerns about the Israeli military's use of company bulldozers in the Palestinian territories.

The decision by the American investment-support firm MSCI Inc. was welcomed Wednesday by pro-Palestinian groups that have called for boycotts of companies that profit from Israel's occupation of the West Bank. It has already had at least one concrete effect, leading mutual fund giant TIAA-CREF to divest itself of $72 million in Caterpillar stock from its "Social Choice" fund, which tracks one of MSCI's indexes.

In a statement, MSCI said one of the "key factors" in Caterpillar's downgrade was "an ongoing controversy associated with use of the company's equipment in the occupied Palestinian territories." It also citied employee safety concerns, environmental issues and a January 2012 plant closing in Canada.

The decisions by MSCI and TIAA-CREF, both made in March, were only recently disclosed in their latest quarterly reports.

MORE...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_CATERPILLAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-06-27-09-13-05

[Swede]

1. Statement on Request by Jewish Voice for Peace

June 24, 2010

While TIAA-CREF acknowledges participants’ varying views on Israeli and Palestinian policies and the Gaza Strip and West Bank, we are unable to alter our investment policy in accordance with those views. Our responsibility to earn a competitive financial return on the retirement savings entrusted to us by 3.7 million participants obliges us to invest in a diverse line-up of companies across all sectors of the global economy.



http://www.tiaa-cref.org/public/about/press/about_us/releases/pressrelease341.html

[King_David]

2. see here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=12616

Response to Scurrilous (Original post)
Sun Jun 24, 2012, 12:35 PM
shira (14,360 posts)
2. PA buys Caterpillar equipment, BDS and Corries silent

Palestinian Tractor is a truly Palestinian enterprise and is set to play a leading role in the country's economic and industrial development, as well as training and development to its Palestinian staff.

Palestinian Tractor and Equipment Co. Ltd. was established in 1995 as a sister company to Jordan Tractor and Equipment Co. and as an affiliate Company to M.E. JALLAD the dealer of Caterpillar Inc. in Lebanon and Syria since 1929. It is a part of Caterpillar dealers network established all over the world.

As a Caterpillar dealer, PT&E are able to bring to the country not only the finest quality products but also the expertise and the know how of a world leader in the productive use and management of machines that serve various segments of the market.

... As a Caterpillar dealer it is our aim to bring to the customer a quality product which is reliable and is best suited to his job requirements.


http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/06/pa-buys-caterpillar-equipment-bds-and.html

[oberliner]

3. Caterpillar boosts 2012 outlook after 2Q profit surges 67 percent on strong equipment sales

PEORIA, Ill. — Caterpillar Inc. says its quarterly profit soared 67 percent because of strong global sales of its construction and mining equipment, so the company boosted its outlook for the year.

Caterpillar said Wednesday that it generated $1.7 billion in net income, or $2.54 per share, in the second quarter. That’s up from $1.02 billion, or $1.52 per share, a year ago.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/caterpillar-boosts-2012-outlook-after-2q-profit-surges-67-percent-on-strong-equipment-sales/2012/07/25/gJQAHYKf8W_story.html

[Bradlad]

4. This is totally crazy

This is one of those bizarro claims by (some) liberals that make me realize that even though I've always considered myself a liberal - that we have no monopoly on sanity, as I used to assume.

Folks, a tractor is not a gun or a bomb. It can be used for all kinds of wonderful life-supporting purposes, like building sewage treatment ponds that keep kids from getting dysentery or building roads that allow subsistence farmers to bring some of their crops to market - or bring the bus that takes their kids to a school. This makes as much sense as divesting from Boeing because some jihadis flew Boeing airliners into the WTC.

Maybe I was actually right about liberals having a monopoly on sanity. But that was then and this is now.

Added: And even guns and bombs (and soldiers and militaries) can have a noble and moral purpose - such as defending peaceful nations from megalomaniacs like Hitler or defending innocent civilians from jihadis who fly airliners into World Trade Centers.

[azurnoir]

5. IMO it is not "tractors" in general it is the specially armoured D-9 bulldozer

which is build for military operations such as razing the homes 'extraneous' people that is causing the contention

[Bradlad]

6. Your argument is senseless and disingenuous.

Your argument is senseless and disingenuous. In the majority of cases the armored Caterpillers are used to destroy smuggling tunnels and other structures used for offensive military purposes which the Geneva conventions clearly allow. The armor is to defend the driver from those who are at war with Israel and use those structures to transport, hide or store those weapons, or shoot from those structures to attack the innocent civilians of another state.

Is it that the armored Caterpillars are so successfully used to defend the innocent civilians of Israel from smuggled weapons that get's your panties in a bunch?

[azurnoir]

10. senseless? IMO senseless is attempting to distract from the uses of the D9 to bulldoze homes

but I would expect no less

be sure to remind folks not to pay any attention to that man behind the curtain now

[holdencaufield]

7. D9 Tractors are armoured...

... to protect the life of the driver. D9 tractors have withstood IEDs and direct RPG rounds saving the lives of the drivers inside.

If the Palestinians didn't fire at the D9's with heavy weapons -- they wouldn't need to be armoured.

Thank you Caterpillar, for saving the lives of Israelis.

[eyl]

8. Well, they would,

given that D-9's are designed for actual wars (a tank column will have a D-9 at the head to clear obstacles, IIRC).

In any event, according to the OP there were other reaons for this decision as well, it's not just because of Israel.

[azurnoir]

9. tractors and bulldozers are 2 different vehicles period

to attempt to claim otherwise is disingenuous, and yes they bare armored as people tend to angry when their homes, orchards, and fields are being bulldozed for some strange reason

[holdencaufield]

11. Caterpillar...

... has been making armoured bulldozers since World War II. I'm pretty sure that doesn't fit with your narrative that the things were created solely to uproot Palestinian olive trees.

If that's the case, I'm going to have to give props to Caterpillar for such an aggressive business plan in such a niche market.

[azurnoir]

12. nor did I say that Caterpillar built D9's expressly to uproot olive trees

my comment was applicable to the I/P situation but I am sure you would give "props" to Caterpillar