“What’s remarkable is the amount of anger, whether it’s on the Republican side or the Democratic side,” Schwarzman told Bloomberg Television in Davos.
Anti-establishment candidates are making inroads because “Middle America has lost faith in the economy,” said Tim Adams, head of the Institute of International Finance, and a U.S. Treasury official under the George W. Bush administration. That “leads people to extreme options and outcomes.”
‘Get Sane’
While the U.S. economy has recovered faster than other developed nations from the global slump of 2008 and 2009, wages haven’t kept pace with a rebound in corporate profits. That’s helping candidates like Trump and Sanders who say the system is rigged against average Americans.
Johan Dennelind, head of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera AB, called the current phase of the presidential contest “fascinating” -- but said he hopes it won’t last too much longer.
“It’s hugely important that you don’t get this populism to spread on too large a scale. It’s not just bad and ugly, it can be dangerous,” Dennelind said in an interview in Davos. “Hopefully it will get sane leading up to the real race.”