Andrew F. Puzder

Andy Puzder, the former CEO of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, says that "capitalism" is not a dirty word, and thankfully President Trump understands this; his pro-business policies will bring back economic growth and secure our future.As a successful CEO in the restaurant industry, Andy Puzder uniquely understands how important the profit motive is to our country's ultimate prosperity. Furthermore, as the grandson of immigrants, the son of a car salesman, and someone who worked his way up from earning minimum wage to running an international business, he has a first-hand view of how America's exceptional capitalist spirit can lift everyone to success.In 2016, the American people faced a stark choice between two very different presidential candidates. Hillary Clinton spent most of her adult life involved in politics and promised to uphold and advance the progressive legacy of President Barack Obama who had first won the White House on promises to "spread the wealth around." Donald Trump, on the other hand, came from the business world, was an unapologetic capitalist, used his own personal wealth as inspiration, and promised simply to "Make America Great Again."By choosing Trump over Clinton, the American people put a stop to decades of government expansion under progressive leadership, and they might just have saved our economy by doing so.America was once a land where everyone was encouraged to seek their fortune - the more prosperous our citizens, the more our whole society could in turn prosper. But leftist forces in the United States have been seeking to tarnish the pursuit of prosperity and to paint profit as an evil motivation fit only for greedy plutocrats. Andrew Puzder understands this first-hand after a progressive smear campaign stopped him from joining President Trump's cabinet. As Puzder explains in his new book, The Capitalist Comeback , this was an act of desperation from a left wing facing irrelevance with a pro-business president in the White House. From its roots in the Progressive Era to labor unions to education to entertainment to its political resurgence with avowed socialist candidates such as Bernie Sanders, Puzder traces the development of the anti-profit forces in the United States and shows how, under President Trump, they can be vanquished for good.

A Tyranny for the Good of its Victims exposes how massive financial firms are employing so-called Stakeholder Capitalism to advance a collectivist “ESG” agenda shrouded in a thin veneer of post-modern morality and collective responsibility. By investing other peoples’ money, asset manager mega-giants BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard have accumulated unprecedented levels of stock ownership in virtually every major US company. Because they vote the shares they hold for others, this massive share ownership empowers them to force their “environmental, social and governance” or “ESG” agenda on the American corporate sector and, by extension, on all of us. Although their traditional duty is to maximize returns for their investor/clients, these financial elites rely on so-called “Stakeholder Capitalism” to expand their duties and impose their preferred ESG goals under the guise of benefitting an amorphous group of non-investors. This elitist dominated economic system is nothing more than Socialism in sheep’s clothing and ESG defines its champagne socialist agenda – an agenda only the rich could afford that would devastate the poor and impoverish working- and middle-classes globally. In the face of rising opposition to this 21st century collectivist threat, these financial elites are now endeavoring to change the names they use to conceal their intent, abandoning the acronym “ESG” but not its goals as they endeavor to transform our consumer driven free market economy to one that is subject to their elitist demands, overriding the will of the people who they deem incapable of governing themselves.

Entrepreneurship professor David Newton and corporate CEO Andrew Puzder show how The Certainty Factor is the primary driver of economic growth, and explain the core principles of how robust job creation really works. The American private sector has always been the initiator of new employment. Entrepreneurial ventures and R+D investments consistently introduce the product and service innovations that create new industries, expand existing markets, and put millions of people to work. But government doesn't understand it. Government's misguided attempts to orchestrate labor markets and the economy through higher taxes, increased regulatory requirements, and wealth redistribution are antithetical to both job creation and American free enterprise. Centralized government planning and federal intrusion into the private sector have long track records of consistent failure, as runaway deficit-spending, endless borrowing, and higher taxes do nothing except create more economic uncertainty that discourages venture investment, profit incentives, and job creation. The authors provide a framework for instilling strong optimism among U.S. businesses to renew domestic investments in profit-making opportunities that will create millions of new jobs in the coming years.

As we begin the process of reopening our economy, it is critical that we get back to work. The economic shutdown was intended to slow the spread of a lethal virus, not to permanently sacrifice our freedoms—and certainly not to expand government power and “fundamentally transform” America. During the shutdown, we’ve learned what that transformed America would look like, and it is ugly. With millions of people out of work and dependent on government—lacking the dignity of a job, the security of a paycheck, or the opportunity for a better future—depression and despair are creating an “epidemic within the pandemic” of suicides and drug and alcohol addiction. While there are risks, if we follow safety protocols and protect the vulnerable, we can safely reignite our economy as we undo the lockdown, eliminate policies that discourage work and enact policies that encourage hiring and growth. It’s time to reject the transformation to permanent government dependence and return instead to individual freedom and prosperity.

Over the last two months, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a robust American economy into disarray, completely shutting down major business sectors and putting millions of people out of work overnight. With so much at stake and with all options seemingly on the table, it is crucial that we commit ourselves to the long-term goal of restoring the sorts of free-market policies that led to the Trump Economic Boom prior to the China Virus crisis. Although massive government interventions that Barack Obama pursued following the Great Recession might presently appear beneficial or even essential, a return to Obama’s “new normal” of stagnant growth would lead to disastrous and persisting economic damage. We must instead return, as soon as is safely possible, to the Trump model of economic prosperity that produced the strongest labor market in modern history.

A study conducted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in 2017 found that 69% of millennials couldn’t accurately describe socialism to their interviewer, yet that hasn’t stopped a disturbing number of young people from believing that it is the right path forward for America.They’ve been taught that socialism is not just desirable, but necessary to protect the oppressed masses from capitalist greed.But is that really true?If you’ve ever had a conversation with a young millennial that believes or wants socialism for America, you’ve likely seen them cite the allure of its seductive promises. You’ve probably heard them talk about the Nordic countries of Denmark, Sweden or Norway where socialism “is working.”You may have also found it difficult to give them the truth about why it’s wrong for America.“Why Millennials Should Embrace Capitalism, Not Socialism” today, you will be able to give them the truth like:How the demand for socialism in America’s youth happenedWhat they believe about capitalism—the economic system that America was founded onWhether or not Denmark is actually a socialist countryWhether or not socialism promotes care for others or selfishnessWhat happened that caused a drop in the number of people living in “extreme poverty” by 84 percentage pointsAnd much, much more...

At their core, ESG investing and woke capital are a rejection of our nation’s founding principles and virtues and a serious threat to both our economic freedom and our personal liberty. In addition to being an attempt by the cultural Left to take over the last of the Western institutions of cultural transmission, woke capital is and always has been a tool to centralize power in the hands of corporate elites, enabling them to use the American private sector as the means to avoid the inconvenience and messiness of free elections and free markets.Starting on January 20, 2021—the first day of the Biden presidency—woke capital began evolving in a different and more malignant way as well, creating an environment in which Big Government and Big Business could marry their power and impose their will on the nation and its people. No one elected any of these business overlords, yet massive Asset Managers are now working with the Federal government’s Wilsonian bureaucratic elites at a host of agencies to create the “woke-industrial complex,” and to turn corporations into vehicles for social change rather than generators of prosperity.The centralizing tendency of democratic institutions and, in turn, the bowdlerizing propensity of centralization have combined to threaten much of what makes the United States and its strain of free-market capitalism unique and powerful.

by Andrew F. Puzder, Businessman and Author, The Capitalist The Trump Boom and the Left's Plot to Stop It. Mailing labe address has been marked out.