Trump will boost growth, says aide

US president-elect Donald Trump’s administration will push through infrastructure spending, a tax overhaul, and cuts in regulation to spread economic growth beyond a concentrated faction of “global elites”, said one of his economic policy advisers.

Skybridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos that 97% of the world had not benefited from the global financial recovery and recalled the “desperation” felt by many who attended Trump rallies during the campaign.

After Chinese president Xi Jinping warned the meeting “no one is a winner in a trade war”, Mr Scaramucci said the new administration only wants “free and fair trade”.

Citing a concentrated group of elites who had not recognised economic reality, Mr Scaramucci said the incoming US president will focus on spreading economic benefits through growth.

“We all got through the crisis; we’re all worth at least as much or a little more, but the common person has really struggled,” said Mr Scaramucci yesterday.

Speaking only a few days before Mr Trump takes office, Mr Scaramucci upheld the independence of the US Federal Reserve, though he said policy makers need to be “careful” about an appreciating dollar that could hold back growth.

He later said in an interview on Bloomberg Television that Mr Trump “represents a hope for globalisation” because if his job-creation plans are successful, US wages will rise, increasing demand for imports.

“If we can really come up with the right policies to see real wage growth in the United States, that’s going to be great for the world,” Mr Scaramucci said.

The Trump administration will propel growth with a “fairly dynamic” infrastructure policy, tax policy that’s “a lot more simple” and a fast-track “executive-order rollback” of regulation, Mr Scaramucci said on the Davos panel.

Mr Scaramucci said that the US and China have “common cause” and even though there is a need to reassess trade policy, the Trump administration is not seeking a trade war.

“What we’d like to have is a process of free and fair trade,” he said. “All we’re asking for now is to create more symmetry in these trade agreements.”

Poor trade relationships have “hollowed out American manufacturing, it’s hurt the American middle class and it’s crippled the American working class”, he added.

Mr Scaramucci had discussed possible joint investments in a meeting in Davos with the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund that the US sanctioned in 2015, the fund’s press service said.

The meeting with Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10bn (€9.4bn) state-run investment vehicle, is the first public contact between the incoming administration and Kremlin-backed business.

Mr Trump has suggested he could ease the sanctions on Russia if the Kremlin co-operates on his policy priorities.

Mr Scaramucci confirmed the Davos meeting. In an interview with the Russian state news agency Tass yesterday, he also criticised the sanctions as ineffective.

Bloomberg