David Raymond Amos@DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos @alllibertynews and 49 others Methinks Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase is just
another desperate bankster saying desperate things Everybody knows it was he and
his cohorts who caused this ongoing nonsense way back in 2008 N'esy
Pas?
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase and a member of the Business Roundtable, says the American dream is 'fraying.' (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
U.S. corporate leaders swing left to fix 'frayed' American dream
1596 Comments Commenting is now closed for this story.
Amy Mason That
does seem to be the quick summary of the idea. They want to promote the
idea they'll regulate themselves so that the government can continue
doing nothing about the problem.
David R. Amos Reply
to @Amy Mason: Methinks Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase is just
desperate bankster saying desperate things Everybody knows it was he and
his cohorts who caused this ongoing nonsense way back in 2008 N'esy
Pas?
Matthew Hu-White American corporate leaders “swing left”. Hilarious. I always knew this was a comedy site.
Matthew Hu-White
Reply to @Matthew Hu-White:
In other news, wolves going vegan in attempt to soften “bad boy” image.
Tom Shultz
Reply to @Matthew Hu-White:
American social media corporate leaders are working to silence conservative views, and the progressive left is delighted.
These leftists are "useful idiots", they don't realize they are next to be eaten. Then who will be left standing?
Standing up for free speech of your political opponents is not an altruistic act, it is actually a selfish one.
David R. Amos
Reply to @Matthew Hu-White: Welcome to the circus
U.S. corporate leaders swing left to fix 'frayed' American dream: Don Pittis
But critics call 11th-hour conversion a smokescreen to block new rules and taxes
Traders
on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month. A
powerful group of U.S. business leaders say they are expanding their
remit beyond their shareholders. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
In what's being described as a radical
departure from their single-minded focus on pushing short-term share
prices ever higher, a powerful group of U.S. business leaders say they
are expanding their remit to include "generating good jobs, a strong and
sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic
opportunity for all."
Traditional liberal thinkers may say that's what free markets are supposed to do anyway.
But
the fact that nearly 200 members of the Business Roundtable — a group
which includes star CEOs like Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos,
JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and Mary Barra of General Motors — signed
the new "Statement of Purpose of a Corporation" may show they think the
existing capitalist model is flawed.
That
would be no surprise to social activists and politicians on the left.
From leaders of the biggest companies in the U.S., it comes as an
epiphany.
The new statement is merely a change in wording and by
no means binding, but the world's business news organizations seemed
flabbergasted by Monday's announcement.
The powerful group,
whose history goes back to 1972, has previously fought anti-trust
legislation, fought to weaken labour laws, backed favourable tax cuts
and successfully lobbied to dilute restrictions on executive
compensation.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase and a member of the Business Roundtable, says the American dream is 'fraying.' (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
The language of its mission statement has been tweaked over the years.
But
every version, since 1997, "has endorsed principles of shareholder
primacy — that corporations exist principally to serve shareholders,"
the group said in a statement.
The new one "supersedes previous statements and outlines a modern standard for corporate responsibility," the group said.
The
new statement — especially the parts about good jobs and economic
opportunity — seems to reflect the same kind of disenchantment that
swept U.S. President Donald Trump to power. Even though interest rate
cuts and lower taxes have sent stock prices higher under Trump, there
are still plenty of complaints that shareholder wealth is not trickling
down to ordinary people and to the broader economy.
It
suggests even those secure in their personal wealth and position realize
that a failure to share the wealth is having an impact on the wider
state of the U.S. economy; that corporate leaders have finally realized
that the long-term success of business depends on the long-term success
of society and that, in many ways, that society is in trouble.
"The American dream is alive, but fraying," said Dimon in a statement.
"These modernized principles reflect the business community's
unwavering commitment to continue to push for an economy that serves all
Americans."
The
new statement from corporate leaders may put the Business Roundtable at
odds with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose policies have pulled the
teeth from environmental rules. (Leah Millis/Reuters)
Split from Trump?
In
the past, some business thinkers worried that a growing economic divide
would mean large portions of society won't be able to afford the
products corporations produce, a reversal of the idea that Henry Ford
made his Model T cars cheap enough for his own workers to buy them.
"What
that gave us was an industrial middle class, and an economy that was
driven by consumer demand," labour economist Harley Shaiken once told
U.S. broadcaster National Public Radio.
The
new policy statement may show the business leaders are adopting the
views of French economist Thomas Piketty who, in his 2014 book Capital in the Twenty-First Centurysaid the survival of capitalism depended on a certain amount of redistribution of wealth from the richest to ordinary people.
Rather
than just handouts, Piketty suggested one of the essential things
countries must do is improve education for the poorest, something that
would have a long-term impact on relative wealth. As others have said, a
more widely educated population does not just create consumers,
it is more likely to create wealth.
Reference
to the environment may also show a split between corporate leaders and
Trump, whose policies have pulled the teeth from environmental rules and
withdrawn the U.S. from its Paris climate change commitments.
Many credible international studies have shown climate change and other kinds of environmental degradation are eroding the natural wealth that corporations depend upon. The new statement may show business leaders have come to a similar realization.
Skewed wealth and power
Of
course critics are skeptical. Instead of actually wanting to change
their ways, the statement may just be public posturing — saying "Don't
worry, we've got it covered," as legislators try to force corporations
into being better public citizens.
"I'm wary," Larry Summers,
the economist who served in high-profile roles in Democratic
administrations told the Financial Times. "I worry the Roundtable's
rhetorical embrace of stakeholders is in part a strategy for holding off
necessary tax and regulatory reform."
It may also hint at their
fear that previous periods of skewed wealth and power, such as the
gilded age of the late 19th century, ended in marginal tax rates for the
rich of more than 75 per cent. In North America's golden age of
the 1950s, the marginal tax rate on the richest was more than 90 per
cent.
But
as the world fears a painful recession — that would likely lead to a
decline in stocks and a public backlash against the business
elites responsible — maybe it's a good time to claim high share prices
are not the be all and end all.
Free market critics point out
the new plan flies in the face of the view that, for the sake of
efficiency, companies should be single-minded in maximizing the bottom
line, leaving governments to develop the set of rules
corporations operate under.
But taken at face value, the new
statement of purpose may represent the first step in the realization
that giant corporations can't go on eating their seed corn. Instead,
long-term profits and long-term survival depend on nurturing the health
of the society they depend on to survive, even if that requires being
open to new government restraints.
Don
Pittis was a forest firefighter, and a ranger in Canada's High Arctic
islands. After moving into journalism, he was principal business
reporter for Radio Television Hong Kong before the handover to China. He
has produced and reported for the CBC in Saskatchewan and Toronto and
the BBC in London. He is currently senior producer at CBC's business
unit.
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