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Mr President, history is clear that tariffs raise prices, unemployment and inequality while lowering productivity and economic growth. The US central bank chair said as much on Wednesday.
As CEOs of public companies, we disagree with your trade policies in the strongest possible terms. We hereby promise to do everything in our power to challenge them. Do not doubt our unity and resolve on this issue.
And by the way, the 250 signatories below control two-thirds of public equity markets by value, $25tn in annual revenues and 35mn employees. Our global tax contribution last year exceeded a trillion dollars.
Did you see this full-page message from the world’s top chief executives in the Financial Times yesterday? No, you did not. There wasn’t one. Not in this newspaper and not anywhere else, either.
The silence of CEOs in the face of Donald Trump’s tariff chaos is one of the biggest failures of leadership in corporate history. Where are they when we need them? In the corner shuffling their shoes.
Some bosses are said to have voiced concerns behind closed doors. Very brave. Others argue that engagement with administration officials behind the scenes is a better approach.
How is that going then? Shareholders have already lost trillions. So you’re strategically not speaking out lest the White House retaliates? It’s like worrying about a punch to the stomach after your throat’s been cut.
A few CEOs have been robust, we are told. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon says that “this uncertainty is challenging”. The head of Delta Air Lines called the situation “self-inflicted”. Healthcare equity could suffer, warned AstraZeneca’s chair.
Oh, stop! What became of the “mega-corps” — and those who ran them — becoming more powerful than nation states? We now know who wears the trousers.
The irony is that most of our supine CEOs have been through some sort of leadership training. Almost 40 per cent of S&P 500 bosses have an MBA. Corner suites teem with coaches exhorting them to “walk the talk”.
Worldwide there are currently 160 management programmes specialising in leadership. Last year, 7,000 students began a senior leadership masters in the UK alone. And don’t forget the shelves of corporate leadership books published every year. Amazon lists more than 30,000, urging CEOs to Start with Why if they want to go from Good to Great.
Lame to average would be nice.
So why have global bosses failed to lead when it is clear that every one of their stakeholders will suffer if anything like the tariffs being discussed come to be?
We cannot blame the teachers. Harvard University — home to arguably the top MBA programme on the planet as well as countless leadership courses — has declared all-out war with Trump this month. That’s gutsy. What excuse does its alumni — from the heads of McDonald’s to Citigroup and Novartis — have?
Privately they say the law is the law. Tariffs are implemented under executive authority — having been delegated by Congress decades ago to combat unfair practices or issues of national security.
But unlike other policies, there are few checks and balances with tariffs. Congress can’t undo them and there is no need for the administration to demonstrate benefit, let alone defend an economic cost.
Not much can be done, in other words. But there is nothing to stop chief executives pressuring Congress to revoke executive authority over tariffs. They already sign off $4.5bn annually on US federal lobbying.
Short of that they could also urge lawmakers to tighten the criteria for imposing tariffs, as suggested by the Brookings Institution, introduce mandatory reporting or strengthen judicial oversight.
A dozen CEOs demanding these changes would fail. Hundreds or indeed thousands of bosses acting as one — representing consumers, employees and suppliers — would be impossible to ignore.
Chairs and boards have to step up. Decades of peace and economic stability have allowed technocrats, operational chiefs and finance-wallahs to rise to the top of business. Many suffer from imposter syndrome for good reason. They must be replaced with true leaders of vision and steel, less skilled at empathy workshops but ruthless when it comes to fighting for what is right — for shareholders and, frankly, all of us.
A supine response to tariffs suggests the current lot of CEOs should be fired — as someone in the White House might say.
stuart.kirk@ft.com
