Ending Esg and Restoring the Economic Enlightenment (Paperback or Softback)

This is a bold and timely takedown of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, where Sen. Phil Gramm, Terrence Keeley, and a lineup of leading finance voices expose the inefficiencies of ESG, its flawed rating methodologies, and its clash with fiduciary duty, making the case for free markets, capitalism, and impact investing as the path to restoring the Economic Enlightenment and the prosperity it once unleashed.

The 18th-century Enlightenment liberated mind, soul, and property. It established the world-changing principle that labor and capital are private property, unleashing unprecedented explosions in work, thrift, and innovation that lifted millions of people out of abject poverty.

But the modern-day phenomenon known as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing threatens that prosperity.

The implicit promise of ESG investing is that you can do well and do good at the same time. Investors presume they can make a market return while lowering carbon emissions or reducing income inequality. However, this seemingly noble pursuit does more harm than good.

In Ending ESG and Restoring the Economic Enlightenment, Sen. Phil Gramm and Terrence Keeley bring together a collection of insightful essays considering the many problems with ESG. The authors draw parallels between pre-Enlightenment practices and ESG’s mistaken attempt to enrich society by extracting rents from workers, consumers, and capital owners. They explain the inefficiencies of ESG investing, the flaws of ESG rating methodologies, and the conflict between ESG and fiduciary standards. They also show how impact investing is a viable alternative for those who genuinely want their capital to do well and do good.

Featuring the writing of Mike Edleson, Alex Edmans, Hester Peirce, Andy Puzder, and Mike Solon, this insightful volume illustrates why ESG is so ineffective and ultimately dangerous. ESG, at its root, is a return to the pre-Enlightenment world, where a self-chosen elite use nondemocratic means to extract the rewards that come from the sweat of the workers’ brows and the sacrifice of their thrift. We have seen this drama play out many times before. The sooner we end the ESG experiment, the sooner we can restore the principles that have always allowed humanity to flourish.

Phil Gramm is a former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Terrence Keeley is the chairman and CEO of 1PointSix and the Impact Evaluation Lab and the author of Sustainable: Moving Beyond ESG to Impact Investing (2023).

Mike Edleson is a retired chief risk officer of the University of Chicago’s endowment and the former chief economist of Nasdaq and the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Alex Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School and the author of Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit (2020).

Hester Peirce is a Securities and Exchange Commission commissioner.