The corporate emphasis on shareholders over stakeholders is maybe the single most significant factor. Once stock price/profit became the singular purpose, employees, customers and the broader community were viewed as entities to take advantage of rather than take care of.
And that started under Ronald Reagan, who both at the time (I recall it vividly) and now is regarded as a saint by Republicans. There's schools, airports, and other buildings and places named in his honor. Reagan helped gut the middle and especially working class, but they still see him as a hero. Nothing ever seems to change with these people.
It 100% will not end in better trade deals. We already had the best trade deal of all time: GATT. And Trump scuttled it.
Speaking as a former professor of corporate law and corporate governance, I disagree with this. Stakeholders never had much presence in corporate law. There was some hand-waving about it in the late 1980s but that was basically to justify the poison pill.
Just so we are clear, you believe that it is a good deal when businesses have to pay more for goods and materials.
Because they can inside trade on the information they receive.
I just think we shouldn’t sublease factories in other countries to produce what we buy. The world is turning a little more introspective, and self sufficiency as much as you can get is a good thing.
That’s not what you said, though. You said we would end up “with better trade deals.”
There were a couple trade situations which needed some revision. But carpet bombing tariffs to every country such a haphazard way is reckless and short-sighted. It's bully politics at its best.
