• ESG is a dead duck.
• Stakeholder capitalism has been exposed for what it is…
• … an attempt to get a board seat without paying for shares.

Good morning from sunny, cool Il Piemonte!

Have you ever wondered why the grape that produces such great wines like Barolo and Barbaresco is called Nebbiolo?

Nebbia is Italian for “fog.” So Nebbiolo grapes are those that grow in valleys that become shrouded in fog.

Credit: Consiglio Regionale del Piemonte

“It’s a real peasouper, Watson,” Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes once said to Edward Hardwicke’s Watson.

Today, I’ve got my first sign of the upcoming autumn thanks to the thin film of fog in Asti this morning.

And yet, things are clearing up.

The stock market may still be in trouble, and our credit troubles are going nowhere.

But one incredibly positive trend is happening: the “woke” economy is getting exposed as the ridiculous imposter it is.

Living in Europe, I’m particularly pleased about this. Europe’s economy is in the toilet thanks to the German government’s suicidal choice to embrace deindustrialization.

The knock-on effects are being felt all over Europe.

Luckily for America, its economy is flexible enough to shake off this nonsense. And yet, one can argue American companies suffered the most, twisting themselves into knots to appease The Woke.

But let’s not argue who’s suffered the most today.

Instead, let’s look at how the environMENTALS and other woke fanatics are losing the arguments, thanks to the alternative media.

Methanol Ships

Today, I happened upon this tweet from Ursula “Broomsticks” von der Leyen:

Credit: @vonderleyen

I admit, I thought, “Wow, I wonder how they managed to do that…”

Luckily, I clicked on the tweet and scrolled down. I saw this article posted:

Credit: CleanTechnica.com

In the article, Michael Barnard writes (bolds mine):

The methanol industry likes to assert that manufacturing methanol is relatively low carbon, at 20 grams CO2e per MJ or 400 grams CO2e per kg, but independent modern assessments put it at 110 grams CO2e per MJ and about 1.4 kg CO2e per kg methanol. So that’s problem one with methanol as a shipping fuel, or even as an industrial feedstock. It’s not nearly as bad as pure hydrogen, but still, more CO2e to manufacture than is created of useful product.

And, of course, when you burn it, CO2 is released into the atmosphere. It only creates about 43% of the CO2 that diesel does when equivalent masses are burned, so that seems good. And as an alcohol, it burns much more cleanly than diesel with a lot fewer pollutants, so that seems good too. And it’s a liquid at room temperature, and in fact, at any temperature range that it’s likely to be used as a fuel on earth or sea, which is also a useful characteristic.

But there’s a catch there, as well. The energy density by mass is lower as well, with about 45% of the energy density of diesel. So, when you burn it, you have to burn over twice as much to get the same energy. And that means that burning it results in virtually the same CO2 as diesel, about 97%. Doesn’t seem so good after all, does it?

And methanol is about the same price as diesel per gallon or liter in normal times, about $1.80 per US gallon or $0.48 per liter, although spiking recently with the energy crisis. At 45% of the energy density, you need more of it, so the actual cost for the equivalent of diesel is about $4.00 for the equivalent of a gallon and about $1.07 for the equivalent of a liter. More than doubling the price of fuel seems a bit problematic, and that’s for the cheapest form of methanol, stuff that’s produced from natural gas with the atmosphere used as an open sewer. Everything lower carbon costs more, sometimes a lot more.

We should consider ourselves lucky that someone is crunching the numbers.

Articles like this are turning the ESG narrative on its head.

Stakeholder Capitalism is Dying

First, let’s define “stakeholder capitalism.”

The term refers to an economic model in which businesses prioritize the needs of their employees, customers, suppliers, local communities, and the environment.

Long-term value creation for all stakeholders, not just shareholders, is the focus.

Or, as I like to put it, stakeholder capitalism gives non-shareholders a seat on the board.

Stakeholder capitalism is based on the following core beliefs:

• Companies should care about more than just their bottom line.

• Decision-makers owe it to all those with a vested interest in an organization's success to consider their concerns.

• Value development over the long run is prioritized over earnings in the short term.

• Long-term prosperity requires a focus on sustainability.

Though I don’t buy them, here are the main arguments in favor of stakeholder capitalism:

• Allegedly, it has the potential to improve one's judgment. Businesses can better make decisions that benefit the company and the community at large when they consider the views of all relevant parties.

• It has the potential to raise morale and output in the workplace. If workers believe their efforts are helping others, they are more likely to care about their jobs and perform well.

• Customer and public confidence can be bolstered in this way. Businesses that demonstrate social responsibility and long-term viability are more likely to succeed financially and earn public approval.

• It can aid in the formation of a more long-lasting future. Businesses may do their part to protect the earth by reducing pollution by considering the effects of their actions on the environment.

There are, however, counterarguments to the proponents of stakeholder capitalism.

• Striking a middle ground between competing priorities is challenging. There may be occasions when one stakeholder group's interests are at odds with those of another.

• Stakeholder capitalism is expensive to execute. To satisfy the needs of all parties involved, businesses may need to make investments in new technology or processes.

• Stakeholder capitalism's effects aren’t always easy to quantify. The positive effects of stakeholder capitalism, such as increased employee morale and consumer loyalty, are challenging to measure.

Here’s what Brandon Smith of Alt-Market.uswrote about its failure:

ESG [Environmental, Social, and Governance] was intended to be the tool that globalists and governments would use to force companies into the stakeholder capitalism model. It is much like the Chinese communist social credit system, but for businesses rather than individuals. The higher a company’s ESG score, the more access lending and government funding they would have (easy money). It started out in 2005 focused on climate controls (influencing corporations to accept carbon credits and taxation). But, by 2016 it became something else; ESG widely adopted woke politics including Critical Race Theory, feminism, trans ideology, various elements of Marxism, etc.

This was the modern ESG that all of us are aware of today. The goal was to incentivize corporations into bombarding the public with woke messaging 24/7. Every movie, every TV show, every book, every comic, every children’s cartoon, every commercial, every product, every major social media site, every employee handbook, every social interaction would be tainted with the poison of woke propaganda. There would be nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape the messaging. And it worked, for a little while…

The exposure of ESG is perhaps one of the greatest triumphs of the alternative media. It was proof that the “wokification” of our economy and society was not the result of some grassroots activist movement or the natural evolution of civilization. No, everything woke was a rigged agenda, an astroturf movement forced into existence by corporations and globalists using ESG as the vehicle.

And not a moment too soon for cash-strapped consumers and failing private businesses.

Wrap Up

I’m thrilled that the alternative media is bringing down stakeholder capitalism, ESG, and its newly Christened Frankenstein’s Monster, known as “inclusive capitalism.”

No one asked for this nonsense, and it’s running the world economy into the ground.

I’m all for using technology to create cleaner businesses. But it mustn’t come at the cost of people starving or freezing to death.

Let plain old capitalism take care of the problems. It always comes through.