How businesses are preparing for the U.S. election outcome
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Good morning.
How are businesses planning for the U.S. election outcome? PwC put out a survey yesterday of 578 CFOs and other C-Suite executives that provides some insight. If Biden wins, 57% say they are more likely to increase investments in tax planning, compared to 43% who say the same in a Trump reelection. But under a second Trump term, 45% would increase investment in supply chains—reflecting concerns about China trade tensions—compared to 37% for a Biden administration.
Interestingly, regardless of the election outcome, 70% of respondents think business tax rates will rise to pay for COVID-19 relief, and 63% believe trade restrictions between the U.S. and China will increase.
The business leaders were in strong agreement (95%) that more fiscal policy action is needed to help the U.S. economy. And a majority (54%) said they “strongly agree” that a federal COVID-19 strategy is critical to improve consumer confidence, which is trending downward.
Separately, the CEO of TripAction says business travel has picked up a little recently, but is still down about 80% since February—compared to the 90% drop in March. And the CEO of Snowflake, this week’s hot tech IPO, tells Fortune how he went from sailing to cloud computing.
Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com