If the Trump administration wants to maintain the U.S. economic outperformance that has helped business prosper, it needs to move forward on four main fronts:
• Design and implement an infrastructure rehabilitation and modernization program to help boost growth.
• Deepen labor-training and retooling efforts in order to offset growing shortages of skilled labor, enhance productivity and wage growth, improve labor force participation, and reduce the troubling marginalization and alienation of certain segments of the population.
• Form a unified front with Europe to deal with China and lift faster the cloud of uncertainty associated with the continuous escalation of trade tensions.
• And finally, adopt a more inclusive approach at home to support the most vulnerable segments of society, as well as more multilateral policy coordination to counter the risk of global recession and financial volatility.
The key is to make policymaking more strategic, more cooperative and less uncertain. Meanwhile, business cannot just wait for such a pivot. CEOs themselves can do a lot more to rebalance the profit-wage equation, expand beyond shareholders in thinking about serving stakeholders, and broaden corporate social responsibilities. They could also be doing more to support the pursuit of these four goals.
CEOs know that no matter how successful they are, it’s hard for their companies to be good houses in a deteriorating global neighborhood. They have a responsibility, just as the government does, to prevent that from happening.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.