Donald Trump has unleashed the ‘animal spirits’ in America while companies in Britain face a ‘slow death’ after Labour’s tax hikes, business leaders warned.
As US stock markets hover close to record highs, City tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell said the President-elect has turbocharged business morale on the other side of the Atlantic.
And Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon welcomed the prospect of ‘a more growthy kind of playbook’ from the new administration.
By contrast, corporate sentiment has tumbled in Britain after Rachel Reeves used her first Budget as Chancellor to announce £40billion of tax hikes.
Insolvency expert Ric Traynor, boss of restructuring group Begbies Traynor, yesterday warned of a wave of UK company failures in the coming months as firms are hammered by the tax raid.
The comments underlined the stark difference in mood in the US and the UK following Trump’s election victory and the Labour Budget.
Trump effect: Donald Trump’s election win has sparked a wave of dealmaking including this week’s proposed merger of advertising giants Omnicom and Interpublic
Political and economic turmoil in Europe – with Germany and France in crisis and the euro tumbling – have further exposed the transatlantic divide.
Julian Jessop, an economics fellow at think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: ‘Trump and his new team have some real business experience and can sell an appealing narrative on the economy.
‘The contrast with Keir Starmer and the new government in the UK could hardly be starker.
‘Labour ministers have spent most of the year talking down the economy and seemingly doing their best to undermine the confidence of households, businesses and investors.’
Trump has promised to lower taxes for businesses and individuals and to slash red tape.
But Ashley Alder, chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, warned of the ‘clear dangers’ of a regulatory ‘race to the bottom’ with Trump.
And his threat of tariffs on goods from China, Mexico, Canada and Europe has sparked fears of a damaging global trade war.
Some observers believe, however, that this rhetoric is a negotiating tactic to secure a better deal for the US when he returns to the White House.
Jenny Johnson, chief executive of Franklin Templeton Investments, said: ‘Trump is a deal-maker. The US needs China – and China needs the US.’
Corporate America lit up on so-called ‘Merger Monday’ at the start of this week when US companies agreed close to £30billion of deals – including the mega-merger of ad giants Omnicom and Interpublic.
Sorrell, 79, who is executive chairman of digital ad group S4 Capital having previously turned WPP into the world’s largest advertising business, pointed to a change in mood since Trump’s election victory.
‘In the second Trump era, what we’re seeing is a huge increase in what I call animal spirits in America,’ he told the BBC.
‘The deregulation feeling that Trump is generating means that deals and the North American market are big and strong. Deal mania is on the rise.’
Goldman chief Solomon said: ‘If you were to talk to CEOs across the US corporate landscape, they would say that in the last few years the regulatory environment was a headwind to growth and investment.
And it appears that we’re going to swing that pendulum back a little. Most CEOs that I talk to, when I talk to our clients, they’re excited about a prospect of having that swing back.’
But experts fear many companies in Britain will struggle to survive Labour’s tax hikes.
Traynor warned that some face a ‘slow death’ over the next six months following the £25billion rise in employers’ National Insurance Contributions.
He added: ‘UK insolvencies remain at elevated levels. Businesses face continuing demand pressures and cost challenges, including the recent rise in costs following the Budget.’
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