For all of the accusations of dog-whistling and coded messages against it, subtlety has never been a notable feature of the Trump administration’s modus operandi. It and its potentially fatally fearless leader really do just say the quiet parts out loud. Why, it did so just last week, ordering federal agencies the stop all diversity training, building on a September executive order banning “offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating” that looks like it was written by John Paulson.
Like Paulson’s own missive to the Spence School, these fulminations aren’t likely to be effective. In Paulson’s case, his own cowardice and dedication to the leg up provided to his daughters by a prestigious private education has kept him from taking any real action to protect them from being infected with an SJW mindset by a $55,000-per-year elite bastion—like, saying, yanking them from Spence and having them be home-schooled by a more ideologically-neutral person such as Eric Blankenstein. In the Trump administration’s case, it’s more a factor of their incompetent inability to do anything in a clear, cogent and enforceable way.
Contractors are concerned and confused, said Jim Paretti, a partner at employment law firm Littler Mendelson and a former chief of staff at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The government has never before tried to regulate the content of companies’ diversity training, he said, adding that his firm has received dozens of calls from clients with questions about the order.
At first, Littler believed the changes wouldn’t go into effect for 60 days. But last week, the agency overseeing federal contractors launched a hotline for workers to report their companies for potentially violating the order.
Steve Bucherati, the former chief diversity officer at Coca-Cola Co. and now a diversity consultant, said, “Clearly the administration doesn’t understand the purpose or value of diversity training, and that its intended outcomes are to create greater understanding and more inclusive, fair and equitable workplaces.”
Actually, Steve, that’s one thing they do seem to understand quite clearly, and they don’t like any of it at all, preferring diversity initiatives that look more like Credit Suisse’s or Morgan Stanley’s.
Microsoft Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. were contacted last week by the U.S. Labor Department questioning their plans to hire more Black employees as they seek to diversify their management ranks…. Wells Fargo in June pledged to double Black leaders at the bank over the next five years. It recently received a letter from the same agency reminding the bank that it may not discriminate on the basis of race to provide additional opportunities and that quotas are prohibited.
On the other hand, Wells and its ilk are equally clearly well aware that the election is in 27 days, and are extremely thankful for that.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is pledging to use its financing weight to push clients to align with the Paris agreement and work toward global net zero-emissions by 2050. The bank said it would invest in technologies that help reduce carbon emissions and will work with clients to cut their own carbon footprints…. Other banks have made various pledges to stop supporting Arctic drilling and coal companies. British banks NatWest Group PLC (the former RBS Group PLC) and Barclays PLC have both committed to using their business to further the Paris agreement, the 2015 deal that called on global governments to curb rising temperatures. Citigroup Inc. earlier this year said it would walk away from clients that aren’t taking climate change seriously.
Goldman economists pointed out that polls “suggest a ‘blue wave’ in which Democrats gain unified control of Washington is becoming more likely” — and they’re not suggesting investors dump stocks.
In fact, “all else equal, such a blue wave would likely prompt us to upgrade our forecasts,” Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius wrote in a Monday report….
Goldman Sachs wrote that a blue wave would “sharply raise the probability” of a fiscal stimulus package of at least $2 trillion shortly after the January 20 inauguration. The bank also cited Biden’s longer-term spending plans on infrastructure, climate, health care and education.
Taken together, this spending “would at least match the likely longer-term tax increases on corporations and upper-income earnings,” Goldman Sachs wrote.
Labor Department Questions Microsoft and Wells Fargo Over Pledges to Hire More Black Employees [WSJ]
JPMorgan Pledges to Push Clients to Align With Paris Climate Agreement [WSJ]
White House Order Against Diversity Training Generates Confusion [WSJ]
Goldman Sachs: A Democratic sweep would mean faster economic recovery [CNN Business]
The Short Tenure and Abrupt Ouster of Banking’s Sole Black C.E.O. [NYT]