Posted on 01/11/2017 4:29:54 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
This morning I heard Bryan Williams (of all people) say that today is “one of the busiest news days” since the election. I suppose that’s true if you butter your bread in the cable news game. But while much of the press corps prefers to discuss secretive and probably imaginary meetings in Prague of whatever bits of dirt they can dig up on the cabinet nominees, there have been some other things happening. Ever since Donald Trump was elected there’s been a not always quiet undercurrent of concern flowing through companies who do a lot of outsourcing or build factories in other countries. Having seen what’s happened to some of their competitors, CEOs are becoming worried about the President Elect calling them out for being unamerican and many have begun modifying their plans or at least making contingency preparations. (Reuters)
Some U.S. companies are reviewing potential mergers while others are rethinking job cuts or looking at their manufacturing operations in China for fear of being cast as “anti-American” by President-elect Donald Trump, according to Wall Street bankers, company executives and crisis management consultants.
Having seen some of America’s largest companies, including General Motors Co (GM.N), Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and United Technologies Corp (UTX.N), bluntly and publicly rebuked by Trump on Twitter, many others are worried they may be his next target – especially if they have significant overseas manufacturing, have had U.S. job cuts or price increases for consumers.
“Any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. without retribution or consequence is WRONG!” Trump, who assumes office on Jan. 20, tweeted in December.
This article contains some remarkable interviews with people in companies who have not yet made announcements about repatriating jobs or increasing investments in US operations, some of whom preferred to speak on background. White Mountains Insurance Group had been in talks to structure an “inversion” deal where they would move their headquarters overseas for a more favorable tax position. That proposal fell apart in late November, largely because buyers were quoted as saying that they feared the move would be portrayed as unamerican. The CEO of Fitbit, which does it’s manufacturing in China, is quoted as saying that his company is looking at “contingeny plans” right now. Other business leaders told Reuters that they have set up special programs to monitor Trump’s Twitter feed so they can be prepared to answer if he comes after them, even while they prepare to invest more in the United States.
Ford scrapped that plant in Mexico at an awfully convenient looking time and now we’ve learned that Fiat is preparing to invest a billion dollars in plants in Michigan and Ohio and has pledged to hire 2,000 new American workers. It’s almost as if an entirely new “Trump practice” (as Reuters describes it) is taking hold in corporate boardrooms across America and it’s leading to a philosophy which balances maximizing profits against sustaining an America First image.
Corporate leaders, say the advisers, can no longer focus only on maximizing shareholder value; they must now also weigh national interest.
“CEOs are talking to their boards saying we’ve got to be viewed pro-America. If something is more on the margin – like layoffs, or moving manufacturing, then they are not going to do it,” said one Fortune 500 CEO, who said he had spoken with other U.S. companies.
I think I’ve written about this here in the past and I know I’ve brought it up on social media, but this is the question I can’t help but keep coming back to. Was really this easy the whole time? And if so, why did nobody else think to do it? There are no new laws on the books forcing this to happen. Heck… Trump hasn’t even been sworn in yet and Congress hasn’t begun to take up any of his promised legislative goals. These are just business leaders who are taking the national temperature and responding accordingly. Rather than big government regulatory moves, this is an example of the laws of capitalism in action.
Is the Trump Effect real? It’s still too soon to say. But if you’re in the camp which seeks to dismiss anything which could be seen as positive about Trump’s victory, the evidence seems to be getting harder and harder to ignore.
I wonder how much the tech consultants charged them for those special programs.
It was always so easy to stand up for America, but they were all paid off, or scared to be too bossy. Thank God Trump loves this country. Btw, he’s been talking about these concepts all the way back in the eighties. We’ve needed a patriot for a long time!
Corporate leaders, say the advisers, can no longer focus only on maximizing shareholder value; they must now also weigh national interest.
Does anyone believe for a second this would even be discussed if anyone but Trump won the election?
Neither do I.
We will see if Trump can turn things around.
Trump’s. For. Real.
(All this winning - I can’t take it!)
FIFY
After the last ten years, I want more!
I would love to phone in on some matter regarding customer service in various industries and have an actual American citizen in my country speak with me.
Yes, that would be amazing!
I would like to stop hearing "press 1 for English" as well.
Speaking of *phones*....I’d like to see EVERY 0bamaPhone either cancelled, or at the very least, exchanged for flip phones.
Give them basic, party-line landline phones like rural people had 40 or 50 years ago. Cell phones should be for people who pay for them out of their own pocket.
When the President has not been bought and paid for by the K Street mafia good things happen.
Agree!
But, they’ll say “that’s raciss.....that not everyone has a crib of their own!!”
Seems to me the stock market has approves of Trump’s America first policy. So the stockholders are benefiting too.
My tagine says it all
The 0bomb's been usurping credit for that too.
They euphemistically call it the “Trump Effect.” It’s just good old fashioned leadership on display, but few today can recognize for what it is when they see it.
And there it is. Do not let them enjoy having a phone. A handout is not supposed to be fun, it is supposed to be a tolerable necessity.
I don't even like the idea of giving free phones to indigents, and most especially not free phones that they can entertain themselves with.
Make them all flip phones is a brilliant idea. Nobody can say they are being denied any necessary functionality, they just won't be able to use it for anything but a phone. I think the numbers of requests for free phones would quickly drop.
Exactly.
Hope Trump or legislature picks this up.
The implication: setup
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