Letters to the editor

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A necessary relationship

Business has always been entwined with politics in America (“The political CEO”, April 17th). Our cultural narrative likes to view politics as being separate, and for only fair pursuits. But take the constitution. Michael Klarman’s “The Framers’ Coup” sketches the urgent commercial interests of the colonies, which ditched freedoms that obstructed trade from the preceding Articles of Confederation. And Sam Thomas, the curator of the T.R.R. Cobb House museum in Athens, Georgia, reminded us in Harper’s recently that slavery was not always a predominately moral issue. For many people in the 1800s it was the economics that mattered. An equally racist north bristled at the business advantage of free slave labour in the south, which limited the north on everything from international trade to westward expansion.

Trying to put a border between business and government is a non-starter. It is critical we understand this if we want to tackle ethical issues like climate change and racism; solving them is not the preserve of government.

MARTIN GIESBRECHT
Villa Hills, Kentucky

It’s a little rich to write, after the past several decades of American political life, that businesses are suddenly too involved in politics. The ClearChannel Radio network organised nationwide pro-war rallies before the invasion of Iraq, and led a boycott of the Dixie Chicks when the singers dared say they were embarrassed by George W. Bush. Hobby Lobby fought to remove contraception from corporate health care. Agriculture and oil firms co-write legislation in Congress. That a few companies pay lip service to voting rights is notable only as PR.

Treason is bad for the brand. Racism is bad for the brand. Businesses are distancing themselves from politicians now because they see that the majority of consumers overwhelmingly oppose Republican attacks on fair elections. The real question is why companies are more accountable to the opinions of the electorate than Republican lawmakers.

CHRISTOPHER BENZ
Portland, Oregon

Myths have persisted about what Milton Friedman said in his famous essay in the New York Times. American executives in fact were already well aware in 1970 that generating profits for shareholders was the primary objective of the corporate enterprise. The famous Dodge v Ford Motor Co case in 1919 made this point clearly. Friedman himself said very little about what executives should seek to achieve and did not mention shareholder value. His essay instead focused on what corporate executives should not be doing—spending their corporations’ money in accordance with supposed social responsibilities. The points he made on this count remain as salient now as they did 50 years ago.

BRIAN CHEFFINS
Professor of corporate law
University of Cambridge

I found much of the argument made by Sherrilyn Ifill to be rather disingenuous (By invitation, April 16th, digital editions). Ms Ifill wants to add issues to the corporate social responsibility agenda, including voting rights. But her list plainly does not embrace opposition to the policies of the Marxist groups that have sprung to prominence since the death of George Floyd. Nor will it include the religiously minded stand against late-term abortion, nor the constitutional position of supporting gun rights, nor any right-of-centre position held by millions of Americans.

What Ms Ifill wants is a fallacy of companies pushing for a better democracy, but in practice for her side only. Ms Ifill must accept that mixing business with politics cuts both ways, not just her way.

LUKE CLAPSON
Sydney

Investment in Saudi Arabia

Referring to $106bn of foreign direct investment into Saudi Arabia over the past decade (“The prince’s big bet”, April 24th) obscures the fact that from 2015 to 2019 net inflows from FDI totalled a paltry $26bn, according to the World Bank. The recently announced FDI target of $500bn over ten years appears an even steeper sand dune to climb. In addition, the Saudi sovereign-wealth fund aims to generate 1.8m direct and indirect jobs by 2025. The government wants to do this in part by replacing expatriate workers with Saudi jobseekers. A directive announced in April required shopping malls to hire only Saudi citizens, a scary policy.

ROBERT MOGIELNICKI
Resident scholar
Arab Gulf States Institute
Washington, DC

Crowds and cattle

Francis Galton’s description of an ox-weight guessing contest at a livestock show in 1907 is often misrepresented as an early step in crowdsourcing (“Welcome to the Cosmic Bazaar”, April 17th). Galton did not make a case for the wisdom of crowds. He used the median estimate because it “expresses the vox populi”, not because it was accurate. In fact, 40-60 of the guesses in that contest were more accurate than the median.

DAVE SIEV
Ames, Iowa

What is it good for?

Should women also be required to register for the military draft in America (“Gender war”, April 10th)? A better question is why anyone should register? The draft was abolished in 1973, but the government still spends millions of dollars each year retaining a database of young men of fighting age. If this isn’t an example of a useless government programme that refuses to die, I don’t know what is.

DAVID PERRY
Chicago

Politics in Singapore

Banyan’s latest column on Singapore was more condescending than usual (April 17th). Contrary to the piece, Singaporeans took the decision of Heng Swee Keat, the deputy prime minister, to step aside as the leader of the younger generation of ministers in their stride. So did markets and investors. First, because the announcement was neither occasioned by, nor did it result in, political upheaval. Politics in Singapore, including within the ruling party, is not fractious or riven by factions. And second, as the prime minister has noted, political succession in the ruling party has never been about a contest for the top job but the gradual building of a leadership team. The team chooses the person best able to bring them together, whom they then support as primus inter pares. It is a leadership ethos based on service, and what is best for the country in the long term.

Such a succession mechanism is neither perfect nor guaranteed to work, but it has worked well for Singapore. In some other countries, leaders chosen in fierce contests have to forever look over their shoulders at once and future rivals. It is debatable if this has worked well.

Mr Heng’s decision to step aside is undoubtedly a setback for succession planning, but he remains an important member of the cabinet. In the meantime, the younger ministers have committed to making in good time a fresh choice from among themselves.

T.K. LIM
High commissioner for Singapore
London

Football crazy

Well done. You scored three goals against the European Super League in just one issue (April 24th). Bagehot opened the scoring by pandering to Boris Johnson’s populist instincts against the league, Lexington put the second in the net by raving on against the Americanisation of European sports and you sealed your hat-trick by making a case against the ESL in “They think it’s all over”, your business piece. Liberalism and capitalism must truly be on their way out when even The Economist rages against “greed”. You romanticised a model of football that no longer exists.

ANDREJ BELOGLAVEC
Ljubljana, Slovenia

You used a typical English eye-rolling reference to football as “what Americans insist on calling soccer”. In fact, the term originated in England. Elite students in the mid-19th century called association football “assoccer” to distinguish it from “rugger”, rugby football. The term was shortened to soccer and took off in America to differentiate it from American football. One might ask the publishers of Britain’s oldest football magazine why they insist on calling it World Soccer.

BOB GOUDREAU
Cary, North Carolina

Lexington compared a cold football night in Stoke to a corresponding baseball game in Pittsburgh. As a native of Pittsburgh, I should be offended. However, as it was not long ago that the Pittsburgh Pirates set a North American record for any professional sports team of 20 consecutive losing seasons, I guess I have to go softly into the night.

ED ARNOLD
Pittsburgh