"Yesterday was not a good day for Novartis." That's what the chief executive of the pharmaceutical giant told his staff in the wake of embarrassing reports that it was among a handful of large corporations that made questionable payments to President Trump's personal fixer Michael Cohen. Novartis, which initially struggled to come up with a plausible explanation for its $1.2 million contract with Cohen, ultimately admitted it was a "mistake."
Nine major publicly traded corporations that are funders of the American Legislative Exchange Council just reported earnings from the first quarter of 2018. Trump's recent massive corporate tax cuts were sold as a job creation mechanism, but rather than creating jobs, all nine companies reported layoffs that have recently taken place or are planned for 2018.
Corporate members of ALEC are benefiting from the deregulation frenzy of the Trump Administration. Advance America is the largest payday loan lender in the United States, with 2,500 locations.
The Trump administration's treatment of Advance America and the predatory payday loan industry shows how the Trump team's "deconstruction of the administrative state" often pits the low income and working poor against giant companies, companies that enjoy the protection of the politicians who take their money.
ALEC held its annual Spring Task Force Summit on April 27 at the Amway Grand Plaza in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Further education privatization was on the agenda, along with measures to please fossil fuel companies, marijuana companies, and more.
