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Strategies & Market Trends : World Outlook -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (47243)	8/22/2025 3:57:05 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51246

How Trump is capturing the private sectorFrom tariff carveouts to pro bono legal work by law firms, Trump is exerting power over businesses in ways that surpass even Bernie Sanders's aspirations. By Sam Sutton08/22/2025 08:00 AM EDT The U.S. government is going into business whether businesses like it or not. President Donald Trump wants to convert $11 billion in federal contracts and subsidies awarded to the struggling chipmaker Intel into an equity stake. The Pentagon is now the largest shareholder in a rare earths mining business. Trump conditioned Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel on his receipt of a “golden share” that grants him significant control over its operations. He has announced plans to slash prices on U.S. pharmaceuticals and hatched deals that entitle Treasury to a slice of the revenue that Nvidia and AMD generate from Chinese chip sales. From tariff carveouts to pro bono legal work from white-shoe law firms, Trump is exerting power over U.S. businesses in ways that go beyond even Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) aspirations. His ability to inject his agenda into private enterprises and dealmaking has shaken the guardrails that protect businesses from sudden political shifts and defied the free-market orthodoxy that was a hallmark of Republican economic policymaking. But Trump’s approach has also created new risks that could divert capital from some of the domestic industries he has sought to promote, from semiconductors to pharmaceuticals. Investors hate uncertainty, and the president’s spur-of-the-moment demands for the government to exert control over private investment could suppress the very market forces that he needs to deliver economic growth. “The more you politicize business decisions, the less efficient they’re going to be,” said Gregory Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard University and a former top adviser to President George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. The president’s ad hoc forays into the private sector are “fundamentally inconsistent with free enterprise and the rule of law.” “It’s really a big step toward crony capitalism,” Mankiw added. Politico