Name: Profit vs. Progress
Price: 27.95 USD
Availability: PreOrder
Author: Brad Swanson
ISBN: 9780262051590

Why socially responsible investment promises to make investors richer and the world better—but fails at both.

Wall Street thrives by telling investors that clever financial strategies can reverse the trade-off between corporate profits and social progress. But the link between greater corporate social responsibility and improved financial performance is an illusion.

Profit vs. Progress dissects the massive $30 trillion “socially responsible” or “sustainable” finance industry—and finds the emperor has no clothes. At best, sustainable investing typically delivers average rates of financial and social returns. But it makes social and environmental crises harder to overcome, by using financial gimmickry to distract our attention from real solutions.

Author Brad Swanson argues that corporations in competitive markets act without moral values, and ethical investment can’t prod them to take greater social responsibility. The only way to change the outcome of the game is to change the rules. The solutions will have to come from legislatures, not corporate boardrooms.

Swanson calls for public policies to make businesses better serve all of society, not just their shareholders—without blunting their edge. His recommendations include breaking up the cartel of large asset managers, rebuilding the influence of organized labor, curbing the rapacious behavior of the private equity industry, and eliminating the conflict of interest that pits corporate directors against the greater good of the community.

The author shows that in previous eras of social crisis caused by corporate excess, meaningful reforms emerged through the political process. Today as well, the path forward is clear—if we have the will to follow it.

Included in Publishers Weekly‘s Spring 2026 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview

“Profit vs. Progress: Why Socially Responsible Investment Doesn’t Work and How to Fix It by Brad Swanson argues that sustainable investing delivers few of its intended outcomes and distracts from real solutions to social and environmental crises.”
—Publishers Weekly

ENDORSEMENTS

“Swanson has written an invaluable critique of the failure of the social investing model he himself practices, and argues provocatively that only legislation, not market forces, can transform investing into a social good. Brave man!”
—James Sterngold, award-winning former correspondent, The New York Times; author of Burning Down the House

“Swanson sets out in crisp, clear analytic detail how socially conscious investors are often misled by corporate and financial professionals. Using his extensive experience in international investment, Swanson importantly points to possible ways forward.”
—Robert Sharer, Assistant Director, International Monetary Fund

“Even as he professes a deep love of capitalism, Brad Swanson delivers a devastating takedown of ESG investing and rips the fig leaf from the voluntary carbon market. Swanson’s insider expertise and vivid prose make Profit vs. Progress a must-read, especially for those laboring under the illusion that corporations will put aside greed and undertake climate action of their own volition.”
—Vivian Thomson, Retired Professor of Environmental Policy, University of Virginia; author of Climate of Capitulation

“Brad Swanson’s book is the first to provide a complete, honest, and sobering look at how the ESG/impact investing movement failed to make any credible/meaningful change in the social, environmental, and governance space.”
—Derek Horstmeyer, Professor of Finance, Costello College of Business at George Mason University

“Perhaps the most important question of our time is how we reconcile the laws and regulations around investments and corporations with our commitments to our planet, our democracy, and our human equality. In Profit vs. Progress, Brad Swanson has made an important contribution to answering this question by not only explaining how our investments have so often failed to make a better world, but also by showing how we can do better.”
—Brendan Ballou, Former Special Counsel at the US Department of Justice; author of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America

“Swanson’s incisive book provides an insider’s view into how socially responsible investment fails to live up to its unrealistic promises. The crux of the problem: investors’ unwillingness to exchange financial for social return.”
—Jeff Fuhrer, Nonresident Fellow, Brookings Institution; author of The Myth That Made Us

“Swanson provides an important historical perspective of the rise of sustainable finance and impact investing; a practical dose of skepticism about some of the fads; and a cautiously optimistic view based on lessons learned from his highly readable perspectives.”
—Brian L. Trelstad, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School; Faculty Chair, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative

Profit vs. Progress

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By Brad Swanson