Donald Trump was elected president this past week to reform government, bring the economy back strong, and as he stated, to make America great again. The position of Treasury Secretary will be one of the most important cabinet seats the new president will fill, and he no doubt will be looking for the ideal candidate.
I strongly suspect President-elect Trump will want someone, who like himself, has been successful in business and has run a great company, one that is strong in assets with low debt and takes a conservative approach business-wise. He will also want someone who agrees with his views on public policy, on how the new administration will make America great again, and who supports strongly a prosperity agenda that will lead to economic growth and the creation of millions of jobs.
That candidate is James Tisch, the CEO of Loews Corporation. Tisch has done an excellent job managing Loews as CEO; it’s a company with more $4 billion in cash on hand and debts of only about $875 million. Loews is a conglomerate holding company that seeks out businesses to purchase that have long term prospects of success, that are not just short term “fashions” or makers of products that are fads.
“We like to buy strong, solid, traditional businesses that are not, in any way, a fashion business. When I say fashion business, I’m not just talking about clothing. I’m talking about high-tech businesses, businesses where you have to recreate yourself every few years or you need to develop new products. We like businesses that we know are going to be around for the next two, three, four, five decades and businesses that have a real need and niche within our economy,” Tisch says about Loews.
After eight long years and not real recovery from the Great Recession of 2008, having a Treasury Secretary who will help in the pursuit of a prosperity-oriented economic policy will be of great importance. Tisch understands how lowering taxes, especially where tax rates are excessively high, will bring about economic growth and increase tax revenues at the same time. He advocates reducing the 35 percent long-term capital gains tax rate to the lower individual capital gains tax rate, which alone would bring about economic growth. Additionally, he favors reducing corporate taxes, that are far to high, to the same as individual tax rates, an idea that would also help the economy grow.
While some have called for a windfall profits tax on large American oil companies, Tisch has stated this is “really a dumb idea. I mean, I can’t be diplomatic about it. All a windfall profits tax will do is cause us to rely more on OPEC and foreign energy producers.”
Additionally, he supports expanded offshore drilling and states the improvements in technology allow this to be done in an environmentally safe way. Drilling for and producing much more of our own domestic oil allows us to become less dependent on foreign sources of oil. Achieving energy independence would also help grow our economic as well.
The new president could do no better than to appoint James Tisch as the new Treasury Secretary. He’s the right candidate, with the right views, the right background, and eminently qualified for the job. Donald Trump should definitely appoint James Tisch as Secretary of the Treasury!
