The Virtue Economy Is Over
The DEI and ESG movements are well-intentioned, but executing on the vision has always been a problem.
Good idea, but how to make it happen?
Photographer: Ludovic Marin/AFP
The virtue bubble has not only peaked; it is starting to deflate.
For the last few years, the ESG movement has affected both how people invest and what they buy. Now the acronym (it stands for environmental, social and governance) is becoming a “dirty word.” Companies are scrubbing it from their websites, and CEOs are no longer mentioning it in their speeches. And if there is an acronym that that sparks even stronger feelings than ESG, it is DEI (which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, and is part of the S and G in ESG). Depending on your view, DEI is either a cure for America’s structural racism or proof that the fight against it has gone too far. In either case, its power is also fading; firms facing narrowing profit margins are cutting jobs in DEI departments.