Why CEOs Play Nice with Dictators
The men at the Business Roundtable know that Trump could hurt them and Biden won't.
1. Capitalists and Rope
Last Thursday Donald Trump met with the titans of American industry. According to Andrew Ross Sorkin, it was not a reassuring conversation.
“Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” said one CEO who was in the room, according to a person who heard the executive speaking. The CEO also said Trump did not explain how he planned to accomplish any of his policy proposals, that person said.
Several CEOs “said that [Trump] was remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought [and] was all over the map,” CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
So why would Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Brian Moynihan (Bank of America), Jane Fraser (Citi), Charlie Scharf (Wells Fargo), Tim Cook (Apple), Doug McMillon (WalMart), and scores of others show up to kiss the ring of a man they privately mock?1
It isn’t because Joe Biden’s administration has been bad for business:
Corporate profits are at a record high.
The stock market is at a record high.
GDP growth is robust.
Inflation has been tamed.
Unemployment is near historic lows. (And at the historic low for African Americans, if you care about that sort of thing.)
And it isn’t because Donald Trump’s administration was good for business.2 When Trump left office:
Unemployment was just under 7 percent.
The DOW was 13,000 points lower.
GDP growth had gone negative.
No, my friends. There is a simple reason why these CEOs are cozying up to Trump and showing Joe Biden the back of their well-manicured hands:
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