Speaking at a conference last week, I was preceded by a senior executive from a private Swiss bank. Not my usual crowd, but when it came to our assessment of Donald Trump, we had more in common than I expected.
I was there to set out my view (spoiler alert: highly negative) of Trump’s impact on geopolitics, the banker to give her assessment of the global economy. So inevitably she covered Trump and his impact on the investments of those in the room, who were either very wealthy in their own right, or managing vast wealth on behalf of others.
Perhaps what we had most in common was the viewpoint that trust is a precious commodity, and lying has consequences, among them the erosion of the trust required for sound economic management and, in geopolitics, strong and enduring alliances of mutual benefit.
Anyone remember the name Erika McEntarfer? I had forgotten it too, but she played a significant role in the Swiss banker’s presentation.
McEntarfer’s sacking by Trump from her position as commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics last August was cited as a dangerous development. Trump fired her because he didn’t like a report suggesting there had been a slowdown in job recruitment. “Rigged,” he claimed. “Fake news,” chimed his MAGA cheerleaders.
Trump says and does so much that we tend to forget all but the most shocking of his words and the most dramatic of his actions. But the sacking of McEntarfer suggested to experts and economists that Trump did not want accurate economic data; he wanted all and any official or expert body simply to echo his propaganda talking points, most of which I witnessed in the long, lie-laden Davos ramble about which I wrote last week. The chasm between his assessment of the US economy, and the objective analysis to which I was privy at the conference, was stark. Added to which was the clear sense that the US economy is being dragged along by artificial intelligence, which might well be a bubble preparing to burst, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Independently produced economic data is a key ingredient of a trusted economy, every bit as much as the rule of law, also being undermined by Trump, and anti-corruption (enough said). The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which sits in the Department of Labor, is the independent agency responsible for collecting and publishing data on employment, unemployment, wages, inflation and productivity.
The point was that McEntarfer’s sacking, alongside Trump’s relentless attacks on Jay Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, has eroded confidence in the administration’s use of economic data, and respect for financial institutions. That, my fellow speaker pointed out, has consequences; as will any success Trump has in undermining the independence of his nominee to succeed Powell, Kevin Warsh.
One of the most interesting graphs on show indicated how the dollar was weakening, in part because of the diminution of trust. She suggested that may well be the beginning of a downward cycle. Then came the direct exhortation to her clients in the room… don’t keep all your investments in the dollar. Economic facts, it would seem, are chasing down the political lies.
Because of their excess packaging, their role in the destruction of high streets, and their oligarchical approach to employee relations, I use Amazon only as a very last resort. Now the sheer tackiness of Jeff Bezos and his carefully sculpted wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, has been added to my boycott factors.
Their wedding in Venice last year was as grotesque as it was grandiose, and last week’s posing and preening at Paris Couture Week has confirmed them as wannabee A-list celebrities with a greater desire for self-promotion than for doing good for the world.
Bezos’s funding of the Melania Trump documentary cements the tackiness, with a large dose of corrupting political sycophancy to The Orange Man Boy thrown in. Forty million dollars to make the film (most of it going the way of “executive producer” Mrs Trump); another 35 million to market it. Now playing at an empty cinema near you.
We all have to care about what Trump says and does, because as US president he has enormous power. Next to nobody cares about Melania, because their marriage would seem to be a transaction more than a marriage, she shares many of his abhorrent values, and she rarely says or does anything interesting.
Bezos knew all that when he made the deal for her “story”. Spaffing 75 million bucks to ingratiate yourself with the most corrupt president in US history is about as tacky as it gets.
Suggested Reading
Venice cannot be bought, Mr. Bezos
And just as tacky was Melania’s rare public utterance, when she was wheeled out on Fox News to plead for unity on the streets of Minneapolis after the murder of innocent people by her husband’s Stormtroopers. Had it been a Betty Ford or a Rosalynn Carter, people might have heeded the call, for it would have come from a place of care and compassion that had long been established as their key characteristics in the public mind.
As it was, it felt more like a desperate attempt to generate a bit of publicity, and remind people she had a film out, which was en route to being a global capital-F Flop.
Seventy-five million bucks means nothing to Bezos, not least given his multibillion-dollar contracts with the government. But someone should remind him that reputation is the greatest currency of all, and he is doing an awful lot to drain his reserves.
When I was a Daily Mirror journalist, the pictures illustrating my stories were so often taken by Alisdair Macdonald, that my dad (largely in jest) asked me if I had forgotten the family history. This a reference to the Campbell-Macdonald clan enmity, which culminated in the Glencoe massacre of 1692. To this day, go to Glencoe’s Clachaig Inn, and you will see the sign outside: “No Campbells or hawkers”.
Alisdair was a lovely guy, and a terrific photographer, and died way too young, just 67. I spoke at his funeral, as did his daughter, Helen Macdonald, whose name you may know as the best-selling author of H is for Hawk, a book inspired by the crushing grief that followed her father’s sudden death in 2007.
The book is now a film, starring Claire Foy as Helen, and Brendan Gleeson as Alisdair. Gleeson is Irish, which Alisdair was not, and plays him with a Scottish accent, which Alisdair did not have. Physically, Gleeson is also a lot chunkier. Yet he caught something of his quirky character, professionalism, obsessiveness and love for his family.
H is for Hawk is a great book, and the film a lovely watch, attracting crowds Melania can only dream of. Alisdair adored his children, and would be unbelievably proud of Helen’s success as an author, if somewhat bemused that he is now the stuff of the silver screen, portrayed by an actor who has played Winston Churchill, Donald Trump, and now him.
So there I was reading the New York Times, when I came across a piece about calls in Germany and France for a European boycott of the FIFA World Cup. As for England and Scotland, the report said “nobody of note” had entered the debate, before going on to quote, er, me, doing exactly that.
“Nobody of note”!!! How very dare they? I played with Diego Maradona, you know!
I note, too, that the comedian John Bishop has said he will boycot the World Cup, and that Queen guitarist Brian May has said his band will not be touring the US, deeming it to be unsafe. It will be fascinating to see this year’s Soft Power Index, which usually has the US and the UK vying for top spot. Bishop is doubtless relieved that in the film based on the story of how he got into stand up, Is This Thing On?, he is played by a Canadian, Will Arnett, not an American. Canada’s soft power is soaring.
