Trump’s Economic Priorities: Deregulation, Tax Cuts and Protectionism – LAHT

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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for treasury secretary and commerce secretary have provided a clear signal of his future administration’s policy priorities: tax cuts, financial deregulation and protectionism.

Although there had been few doubts about the real-estate mogul’s economic recipe, the announcements that he planned to nominate former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin to lead the Treasury Department and Wilbur Ross to be his commerce secretary point to a return of classical economic liberalism with a nationalist streak.

Just hours after being tapped for the post, Mnuchin said the Trump administration’s economic agenda would include significant tax cuts for the middle class and the rollback of parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, which increased oversight of large financial institutions following the December 2007 to June 2009 Great Recession.

Trump’s proposals in large part involve reversing policies implemented by President Barack Obama, who inherited an economy at its lowest ebb since the 1930s and whose administration bailed out beleaguered insurance giant American International Group and iconic automaker General Motors.

Now that the economy is on a much stronger footing, with the official unemployment rate (4.6 percent) at its lowest level since 2007 and inflation starting to tick up, Trump appears to be proposing that the federal government get out of the way and cede the initiative to the private sector.

With respect to Ross, a 78-year-old billionaire investor and corporate turnaround specialist who has been critical of U.S. trade agreements, the pick was a sign of Trump’s commitment to boost job creation and ensure the United States benefits from its international trade deals.

Trump on Thursday celebrated a deal with heating and air-conditioner maker Carrier to prevent the outsourcing of some 1,000 jobs to Mexico, warning in a speech at one of the firm’s plants in Indiana that companies that move their operations overseas would face consequences.