The self-proclaimed businessman candidate for president, Donald Trump, doesn’t get much respect from business economists. In fact, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, who was a multimillionaire businessman (not a billionaire businessman) before he became governor of New Mexico, gets a slightly higher rating.
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In a survey of 444 members of the National Association for Business Economics, just 14 percent said Trump is the candidate who would do the best job of managing the economy vs. 15 percent for Johnson and a whopping 55 percent for Hillary Clinton. Fifteen percent said they didn’t know or had no opinion.
The survey, conducted between late July and early August, also found that by a wide margin, business economists think the country is worried about the outcome of the election: 62 percent said uncertainty about the election is holding back economic growth, with 10 percent calling it a significant factor.
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A wide majority of business economists — 66 percent — say the chief aim of fiscal policy should be “to enact structural policies to stimulate more robust economic growth.” Only 14 percent said the primary focus should be reducing the deficit and national debt.
The point on which the most respondents agreed was high-skilled immigration: 80 percent said the government should remove restrictions on immigrants with expertise coming to America.
