I went to a seminar recently where Merryn Somerset Webb, the Editor in Chief of UK Personal Finance Magazine MoneyWeek and writer for the Financial Times, was one of the speakers. I thought I would share a recent article by Merryn which states that yes, Donald Trump is in fact an alien.
Not that in his real form he takes on the appearance of green skin and enlarged eyes (although some may beg to differ) but that stories of alien abductions in the 1980’s and 90’s actually foretold Trumps rise to power. Apparently alien sightings occur more frequently when society starts to look for “some sort of control that will replace social systems that are being perceived as betrayers”. They come when “we are fixated on terror rather than on working through instability” and when (as a result) “culture is about to undergo profound change”.
Donald trump being elected can be seen as a change in the tide in how society want their leaders to behave in this new age of globalisation in terms of being able to gain back some of the control that seems to have been taken over by large corporations and the banks.
Public companies in the US are now on average 3 times larger than they were in 1997 due to their global integration. But there is more call from voters that politicians need to be the ones leading the control of interest rates, immigration and wages rather than corporations holding all the power.
We have seen this change in society’s attitude in the UK during the EU referendum. Looking at the slogans used by the leave and remain campaigns tells a story of a society who are not happy with the way things are and want some kind of action, no matter what that may be. The “Britain stronger in Europe” line used by the remainers denotes a very passive message, why would we want to upset what we have for something that may or may not be better. However, the leave campaign slogan “Let’s take back control” sends a message of action, that things will be done, decisions will be made. It is this that the public were longing to hear, a public no longer satisfied with letting things carry on how they were. This was a message that could, and did, resonate with many people.
The same can be said for the US presidential election campaign. “Make America great again” makes voters believe that change will happen, even if they are not sure what the results of this would be, at least something will be done. I believe many people will struggle to remember the election campaign by Hilary Clinton however.
As well as increasing interest rates, both Trump and May have previously stated their ambition to decrease the power of the big companies by putting a stop to profit shifting, which allows companies to manipulate the tax rules.
It’s still early days in Trumps and Mays leaderships so we will have to wait and see how they handle the changes society is anticipating and whether these changes will be for the better.
