Business Makes the Case for a Post-Trump Reset

A group of company leaders and former policymakers argue that “globalism” isn’t an epithet. Instead, they argue, it is the way forward.

By Andrew Ross Sorkin

“Business leaders must realize that they not only have a moral obligation but also a commercial stake in advocating for a fairer, more equitable system. Unless and until the core problem of inequality is addressed, all other overarching objectives and desires will remain elusive.”

That sentence comes from a provocative memo being circulating among policymakers on both sides of the aisle and the Biden transition team ahead of his inauguration. It is even more notable for who wrote it.

The memo comes from an under-the-radar group of global boldfaced names that act as a private advisory committee to JPMorgan Chase. They include Tony Blair, the former British prime minister; Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger, two former secretaries of state; Robert Gates, the former secretary of defense; Alex Gorsky, chief executive of Johnson & Johnson; Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH; and Joseph C. Tsai, executive vice chairman of Alibaba, among others.

The group, whose members could be considered part of the globalist establishment that fell out of favor during the Trump years, typically meets once a year in a far-flung location with JPMorgan’s chief, Jamie Dimon.

The group’s discussions are usually kept private. But given the precarious state of the world during a pandemic and change in leadership in Washington, the group put its views on paper in hopes of persuading policymakers to address what it sees as the most pressing priorities.

The resulting document is a manifesto of sorts calling for a reset, a return to the pre-Trump days. It seeks to turn back the clock to a time when being called a globalist wasn’t an epithet, but acknowledges the failures of globalism and seeks to correct them.

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