The billionaire who might run the Commerce Department
As Donald Trump considers who should fill the country’s key economic roles, Wilbur Ross is said to be a top contender to lead the Commerce Department. An ally during Trump’s election campaign, the 78-year-old mild-spoken Ross is known for rescuing the types of old-fashioned industrial businesses that Trump has vowed to revive: steel, mining and textiles.
Ross is chairman of WL Ross & Co., an investment firm that specializes in corporate restructurings. As Commerce Department secretary, Ross would serve as the country’s chief business promoter and overseer of trade and investment issues, in addition to running such major agencies as the Census Bureau and Patent and Trademark Office. During the campaign, Ross often appeared on business news shows to explain Trump’s positions, sometimes softening or downplaying the candidate’s protectionist trade policies.
While Ross doesn’t have the type of lobbying or banking ties that have raised eyebrows with some of Trump’s other potential administration picks, he doesn’t lack for his own entanglements and controversial history. He built his estimated $2.9 billion fortune by snapping up distressed industrial businesses, such as steelmaker LTV.
While that helped save jobs in hard-hit Rust Belt states, workers often bore the cost in the form of pared-back retirement and health care benefits. That has led some to label him a “vulture investor” more interested in stripping corporate assets for profit than reviving ailing companies.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/the-billionaire-who-might-run-the-commerce-department/ar-AAkoqD8?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=edgsp
= new reply since forum marked as read