FINANCE
POTUS HIATUS
by Dick Jenkins , Chief Executive of Bath Building Society
The new President of the US has certainly ruffled a few feathers since he took up office bringing jeers from many liberal minded folk around the world and cheers from his own supporters back in the heartland states of the US which elected him .
We can hardly be surprised with the flurry of Executive Orders that have come out of the Oval Office ; after all , Trump is only doing what he repeatedly said he would do on the campaign trail . In fact , you could argue that it ’ s a pretty damning statement about American politics that anybody may be shocked that he is doing what he promised on the stump ; the inference being that politicians usually don ’ t !
It ’ s far too early to say whether Trump will be good for America , but is Trump good for Britain ?
He has positioned himself as an anglophile friend of the UK at a point in time where the UK is likely to ruffle a few feathers of its own in Europe and perhaps needs a friend or two . He ’ s clearly keen to do a trade deal with Britain as we leave the EU and he appears to be no friend of the EU . He says he doesn ’ t like multi-state agreements and prefers to deal bilaterally . Call me cynical , but part of me wonders whether he likes to deal individually with others so that he can do his usual trick of using scale and power to get on the best side of any agreement that he makes . I believe we need to treat our new “ best friend “ with caution !
And so I turn to the international agreement on capital levels in banking . What ’ s known as the Basel Agreement in my world . After years of wrangling between dozens of nations they were supposed to reach a final agreement in January 2017 , but at the last moment it got delayed and now finalisation of this falls into the Trump presidency . I can just see The Donald sitting down with Wall Street and trying to work out how best to tilt the tables to his side of the pond ... we live in interesting times !
Dick Jenkins , Chief Executive of Bath Building Society
@ BathBuildingSoc
4855-Businessexchange _ Halfpagelandscape _ 210x122 _ OUT . indd 2 05 / 10 / 2016 17:16
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