Trump’s election highlights deepening conflict between society and the market - Nomura

According to Richard Koo, Chief Economist at Nomura Research Institute, although President-elect Trump has yet to be inaugurated, he has continued to post actively to Twitter and claims to have persuaded a number of well-known companies to cancel plans to move production overseas.

Key Quotes

“It is unprecedented for major corporations to alter their behavior based solely on the tweets of a man who has not even become president. I suspect this unusual turn of events is a result of executives waking up to the deepening conflict between society and the market.”

“I use the term “society” rather than nations (the conflict between nation states and markets was a popular subject at one point) because the latter have a legal framework that guarantees companies the freedom to act and that would enable executives to oppose Mr. Trump’s policies. When companies are dealing with a society, however, the question goes beyond one of law and becomes one of “what sort of people do we want to be?” I think many executives have opted to change course because they sense this change in the national mood.”