The virtue economy is over

THE virtue bubble has not only peaked; it is also 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 chief executive officers are no longer mentioning it in their speeches.

And if there is an acronym 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.