A survey by the Fuqua School of Business has identified the most popular presidential candidates among leaders in the business world.
In its quarterly poll of chief financial officers, Duke University CFO Global Business Outlook asked 468 CFOs to judge candidates based on their ability to improve the economy and business relations. Although no candidate received a majority of the votes, Donald Trump received the highest support at 19.4 percent. Following Trump were Carly Fiorina with 14.1 percent of the vote and Jeb Bush with 13.9 percent of the vote. John Kasich and Hillary Clinton were fourth and fifth in endorsements, respectively. The popularity of Trump and Fiorina made it clear that business people prefer a candidate actively engaged in the realm of business.
“Business people who control and invest vast sums of money are much less likely to be taken in by what candidates say because they can't afford to live in dream worlds,” wrote Michael Gillespie, Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard professor of political science, in an email.
Connel Fullenkamp, professor of the practice of economics, suggested that the largest fiscal concern is the ballooning of Medicaid and Social Security payments. He added that, unlike the topic of tax policy, the topics of international trade and commerce appear to have been neglected by the candidates. Most of the candidates do not seem to view the expansion of business and international commerce as first-order concerns, Fullenkamp said.
“The candidates really ought to ask why businesses have accumulated so much cash over the past 6 or 7 years," he said. "They haven’t spent that much of it on expansion or investment.”
Fullenkamp predicted that, if Bernie Sanders were elected, the country would move in a socialist direction. Due to resistance from other parties and the unrealistic nature of the nation’s adoption of a socialist system, the idealistic picture Sanders paints would be nearly impossible to achieve, Fullenkamp said. On the other hand, some Republican candidates' proposals would not directly impact most Americans.
"If Ted Cruz or Ron Paul were elected, each candidate would exponentially lower the taxes on top earners," Fullenkamp said.
Gillespie warned that radical change cannot be enacted within a condensed period of time. He pointed to Ronald Reagan's campaign promise to eliminate the Department of Education—and his failure to do so.
"The governmental system as it is now is designed to thwart rapid change," Gillespie wrote.
Thus far, healthcare has proven to be the most divisive issue among candidates, agreed Fullenkamp and Gillespie. In order for real change to be enacted, the cost of medical care for the elderly under Medicare must be re-evaluated, they said.
“The medical industrial complex is in the process of turning every American into an ATM machine that only they can access,” Gillespie wrote.
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