Trump Brags Of “Saving” US Jobs. His Commerce Pick Shipped Thousands Of Jobs Abroad
Donald Trump regularly promises to bring American manufacturing jobs back from overseas, but a recent report shows that his pick for Commerce Secretary, like Donald Trump himself, actually outsourced thousands of jobs in just the last dozen years. Billionaire financier Wilbur Ross sent jobs in three different sectors to countries like India, Mexico, China, Nicaragua, and Taiwan as part of his investment empire WL Ross and Co.
Significantly, it would be Ross’ job as Commerce Secretary to bring more jobs to America, in order to satisfy Trump’s numerous campaign promises to voters, which he called “Trumpnomics” in a Washington Post editorial that contained a glaring factual error.
Reuters News discovered, entirely based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that Ross exported jobs in “textile, finance and auto-parts companies controlled by the private-equity titan” and that he “eliminated about 2,700 U.S. positions since 2004.” Here’s a chart showing how Ross exported both manufacturing jobs and service sector jobs which most experts say are more difficult to outsource:
Wilbur Ross refused to give comment to Reuters, but said in his editorial last year in Washington Post that regulations were skyrocketing (they weren’t, hence the major factual correction in an opinion column) and that sending jobs offshore – like he spent years doing – creates a drag on America’s economy:
For example, when Ford offshores new production facilities to Mexico, that both boosts the Mexican economy and reduces investment in this country, subtracting from future economic growth. That’s offshoring drag.
Trump’s choice for Commerce Secretary is also the vice-chairman of one of the world’s most heavily Russian-linked banks – the Bank of Cyprus – for which he hired two disgraced former CEOs from Europe to handle its restructuring.
With hearings set to begin on Wilbur Ross’ nomination for Commerce Secretary, the Senate is just beginning to learn about whom the President-elect has chosen to create the proper conditions in America for economic growth and prosperity. From what we know thus far, Mr. Ross sees a path to prosperity by sending American jobs overseas and buying up failed, Russian money laundering linked banks and rehabilitating them.
To those of us outside the American oligarch class, that seems like a dubious way to make America great, but an elaborate way to insert a billionaire into high office to help others create the conditions to eliminate more jobs in this country to make way for ever greater corporate and private equity investors’ profits.
H/T Reuters for their linked graphic.
