Open For Business

It may take a little time
A lonely path, an uphill climb
Success or failure will not alter it
--Howard Jones

Of his speeches thus far as president, Donald Trump's address at the World Economic Forum in Davos may have been his best. For those unaware, the Davos event is an annual gathering with a recurring theme of how to plan and control economic activity around the globe. As such, it attracts elitists and statists of all stripes.

Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, used the Davos platform to wax apologetically about America's economic capabilities and position, and to pledge his support for collectivist pet projects such as global warming. In fact, one has to go back several administrations to Ronald Reagan to find a US president who has taken an overtly pro-market stance at Davos.

That drought was broken yesterday when Trump took the podium. After sharing ways that his administration has removed stifling restrictions on US production and trade, he declared that, "America is open for business, and we are competitive once again."

At the outset Trump acknowledged that he was there to "represent the interests of the American people and to affirm America's friendship and partnership in building a better world." The US can do this best, he argued, through production and trade. Subsequently, he suggested that leaders in other countries who take similar stances will build a better world. He is correct, as it is production and trade done in axiomatic self-interest--not selfishness--that advances standard of living in a virtuous cycle.

Trump highlighted the virtues of cutting taxes and regulation ("Regulation is stealth taxation") in building economic momentum and shared empirical examples of its positive effects during his first year in office. He also spoke of lifting restrictions on energy production, thereby firing a shot across the bow of curtailed production in the name of 'climate change. He also spoke of securing a US immigration system that "is stuck in the past." In Trump-esque language the president promoted "lifting people from dependence to independence because we know the single best anti-poverty program is a very simple and very beautiful paycheck."

It is hard not to relish in the hand ringing among the Davos statists that must have coincided with these remarks...

Trump's speech was not without some warts. For instance, he said that the US "support[s] free trade but it must be fair." When presidents use the word 'fairness' it is almost always a code word for use of government force to advance a political agenda. By definition, free trade has no rules or restrictions. On the other hand, bilateral trade agreements such as those suggested by the president at Davos restrict trade rather than free it. Free trade requires no treaty.

There was also no mention of the burgeoning debt that envelops the US and the world. Unless quickly reversed, this debt will surely darken the light currently being generated by some positive domestic policies.

Still, it has been so long since the we have heard a pro-market, however imperfect, voice unapologetically projecting from the world stage that Trump's "Open For Business" remarks provide a source of inspiration.