Just the other day, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unveiled his economic advisory team, the group of people who will be helping him finalize policies that will revive America’s economy and restore the country’s credit, credibility and stature through smarter trade, higher employment and jobs for American workers fixing the country’s ailing infrastructure.
Trump’s team of 14 advisors is drawn from a variety of fields and backgrounds, but most of the group are veterans in the realms of investment finance and government. Like Trump, a few members of the team are self-made billionaires with long experience in running profitable companies.
Leading the finance-drawn component of the team is billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, who was called “one of the most prominent names in finance” by The New York Times and “a man who made one of the biggest fortunes in Wall Street history” by Business Week by betting against subprime mortgage loans prior to the financial crisis of 2008.
Another financial member of the team, Steve Mnuchin, is the CEO of Dune Capital Management, which sponsors a hedge fund that invests in media, financial services and real estate. Dune also invests in entertainment and has partnered with media conglomerates Fox, Warner Brothers and others on film ventures.
A veteran of the New York real estate world is billionaire Steven Roth, the chairman and founder of Vornado Realty Trust, one of the New York’s largest property management firms and the owner of office space totaling almost 35 million square feet in the Big Apple and Washington, D.C. Vornado is a respected New York landlord and real estate management firm with a history dating back to 1982.
Yet another New York real estate firm, Vector Group, is led by Howard Lorber, a fourth member of the team. In addition to real estate interests, Vector Group also has investments in tobacco, hotels and golf courses. Forbes Magazine named Vector Group one of America’s 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in 2013.
Thomas Barrack, a fifth member of the team, heads up Colony Capital, another real estate investment firm. Barrack served in the administration of former President Ronald Reagan as the Deputy Undersecretary of the Department of the Interior.
Other members of the team also have past experience in government. Member David Malpass served in the Reagan and George W. Bush presidential administrations as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and as an Assistant Secretary of State, respectively.
He was also the chief economist at investment bank Bear Stearns prior to its 2008 sale to JPMorganChase, earning the second-highest ranking for an economist from Institutional Investor magazine three years in a row.
Member Dan Kowalski is the current deputy staff director of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and has served in that role since 2009. In the past, he’s worked for both the Congressional Budget Office and for former GOP presidential candidate John Kasich.
Member Peter Navarro is a Harvard University-trained professor with a doctorate in economics who specializes in U.S.-China trade relations. He currently teaches at the University of California at Irvine.
Member Stephen Moore formerly served on the board of financial broadsheet The Wall Street Journal. He’s better known as the founder of the conservative Club for Growth, a political action committee. The Club for Growth has been a strong advocate for cutting income taxes and estate taxes over the years as well as balancing the federal budget.
Another member of the team is Steve Feinberg, the co-founder of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which has over $30 billion worth of assets under management. Cerberus is better known as the firm that helped rescue Chrysler in the wake of Daimler-Benz AG of Germany walking away from its buyout of the car company in 2007.
Other members of the team have strong backgrounds in banking. Member Andy Beal is the founder of the Beal Bank group of companies in Texas, which has combined assets worth more than $7.1 billion. Stephen Calk is the CEO of Federal Savings Bank, which focuses on mortgages and personal banking and is owned by military veterans.
Team member Dan DiMicco is the former CEO and current chairman emeritus of Nucor, a producer of steel based in North Carolina.
And finally, team member Harold Hamm is an oilman and billionaire, the founder of oil and gas producer Continental Resources. He has been discussed to possibly head the Department of Energy in a potential Trump administration.
Together, this solid team brings decades of financial and economic experience to Trump’s camp. Trump previously has had informal economic advice from economist and conservative commentator Larry Kudlow, a veteran of the government’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during the administration of President Reagan.
By publicly presenting his team to the country, Trump is in a position to make a strong argument that he can best lead the U.S. out of the economic doldrums that it’s arguably been in for the better part of two decades.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
