By Robert Pembroke
My good friends at our “Breakfast Club” assured me that the economy would tank under a Trump presidency. But, lo and behold, something different has happened. Economic growth, hourly wages, consumer confidence and personal spending are all accelerating.
Our economic boom has nothing to do with who is president of the United States. In fact, it was during Bill Clinton’s presidency that the foundation was laid for our present-day economic success. Twenty years ago, the first large-scale fracking oil well was brought in and low energy prices became the norm in America. The U.S. is now the largest oil and related petroleum products producer in the world — ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Of course, the digital revolution that began in the 1970s and blossomed in the early 1990s was spread over the terms of multiple presidents. And look what it has brought us: better lifestyles for all, creation of millions of new jobs, businesses investing in American workers and communities and, of course, longer life spans for all.
But something else is happening and it could be very big. The new tax law, proposed by Trump and passed by Congress, could be the foundation of future prosperity. I have always believed that minimal taxation and regulations that are cost-effective could propel the United States to a position of prominence over our global competitors.
Trump’s war on regulations is also beginning to bear fruit. So far, his efforts have been minimal. He has ordered his administration to hold down the number of new rules. According to Politico, in Trump’s first 12 months, the White House’s regulatory office has approved only 156 regulations compared with Obama’s 510 rules in his first 12 months.
Trump could make something really big happen if he tackled the unrealistic cost that businesses suffer in complying with existing regulations, rules and executive orders. How would you like to be a small U.S. manufacturer who has to cough up $30,000 per year per employee just to comply with existing regulations? That figure comes from the National Manufacturers Association. What is sad about this is the lost wages that smallbusiness employees desperately need.
When it comes to global prosperity, the U.S. has withstood the challenges better than the rest of the world. America’s political system is now in its 230th year, but if you listened to Fareed Zakaria’s show on CNN on July 8, you would think the U.S. was destined to follow the woolly mammoth into extinction.
With about 10 minutes left in the hour-long show, I turned to my wife and remarked, “Wow now that’s depressing.” It wasn’t until the next morning that I got my mojo back when I read the Wall Street Journal article “African Americans, Lesser-Educated Workers Flock to Labor Force,” which said that 62.2 percent of African-Americans were actively working or looking for work. Presently there are 24 million black Americans working or looking for work as compared to 18 million in December 2013.
The article continues to say that there were only 4 million African-Americans in June looking for work as compared to 18.2 million in December of 2013. This is due to the rise in participation of black workers who are in their prime age while white workers are retiring. It looks like, “over the longer term, jobless rates for black workers and the less-educated workers have trended downward sharply since spiking in the wake of the recession.”
The American democratic governance system is chaotic and Donald Trump fits the mold as an extremely chaotic president. I do believe that our Founding Fathers had this in mind when crafting the Constitution. As Walter Russel Mead said his Wall Street Journal article “America’s Decline Never Seems to Arrive,” “It is the union of sound institutions with a strong national spirit — ordinary Americans’ patriotism, democratic faith and enterprising ambition — that has made America such a force in the world.”
Robert Pembroke is the former chairman and CEO of Pembroke’s Inc. in Salt Lake City.