ERSRI Files Mastercard Shareholder Proposal to Curb Sales of Ghost Guns

The Rhode Island pension fund is concerned that ghost gun sales will lead to costly litigation and reputational damage to the company.



The Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island has filed a shareholder proposal requesting that Mastercard conduct an evaluation of the role of its payment systems in the purchasing of untraceable firearms. The shareholders would also require Mastercard to publish a report of its findings and how it intends to reduce the number of transactions on its system involving ghost guns.

Ghost guns are homemade firearms that lack serial numbers, which makes them untraceable in the aftermath of a crime. Between 2016 and 2019, approximately 45,000 ghost guns were recovered at crime scenes in the United States, according to the Department of Justice.

The staff at ERSRI argues that the continued allowance of the purchase of ghost guns on Mastercard platforms could result in financial harm to the company and reduce shareholder value.

“We are concerned with the ongoing reputational damage to the Company as lawmakers, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and investors call for the Company [to] stop facilitating the sale of ghost guns. We are also concerned that inadequate board oversight at Mastercard will result in lengthy and costly litigation or require the Company to respond to enforcement actions, each of which may affect shareholder value,” says the notice of exempt solicitation filed by Seth Magaziner, Rhode Island’s general treasurer .

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Mastercard is holding its annual stockholder meeting on June 21. Its board has unanimously recommended voting against the proposal.

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Oil Price Will Keep Climbing, by Another 12%, Goldman Says

Demand continues to be high and that’s not about the change, the firm says.

So how high will oil prices go? Higher than now, despite a surge of more than 50% this year. Goldman Sachs pegs it at $135 per barrel this year. The good news, sort of, is that we are well on the way there: Brent crude, the international oil price, is $120 today. Upshot: There’s another 12% of price hikes to go.

The problem right now is that, despite the world’s economic unease (due to the Ukraine war, high inflation, etc.), its thirst for oil continues. Add supply constraints—from Russia, owing to bans on its exports, and from the Middle East, which wants to keep petroleum prices up—and you have ever-elevating prices.

Americans with sticker shock at the gas pump are livid about this situation, and energy costs now make up one-third of Consumer Price Index increases.

Strong demand for oil is not flagging. In fact, world oil demand is still growing, although the International Energy Agency says the expansion is slowing to 1.9 million barrels per day this quarter, from 4.4 million in the first period. But with the recovery of summer driving and air travel, that pace should pick up to 3.6 billion through September, the agency forecasts.

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At the moment, futures contracts show the price stabilizing over the next several months at slightly lower than the current rate, at around $112.

But Goldman thinks that Russian production will continue to shrink, because of sanctions. Meanwhile, the Chinese pandemic lockdowns appears to be easing, so the firm’s analysts expect will boost its demand for oil, which has recently ebbed. That all spells continued high demand and not enough supply. Hence more upward price pressure.

“The negative global growth impulse remains insufficient to rebalance inventories at current prices,” the Goldman analysts wrote in a report. “Oil prices need to rally further to normalize the unsustainably low levels of global oil inventories.”

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