Andrew Ross Sorkin in the Jan. 19 New York Times revealed the existence of a memorandum sent to the Biden transition team by “an under-the-radar group of global boldfaced names that act as a private advisory committee to JPMorgan Chase.” Among others, they include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger; Bush and Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky; LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault; and Alibaba executive vice chairman Joseph C. Tsai.
The group, writes Sorkin, “whose members could be considered part of the globalist establishment that fell out of favor during the Trump years,” typically meets once a year in a far-flung location with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
The memo is “of sorts calling for a reset, a return to the pre-Trump days. It seeks to turn back the clock to a time when being called a globalist wasn’t an epithet, but acknowledges the failures of globalism and seeks to correct them. Without saying it in so many words, the group argues that engaging in policy and commerce with other countries isn’t a sign of weakness or against the interests of the country. In many ways, it is actually ‘America First.’” On this point, Gates said that “the government has failed to ‘bring home to the American people why international cooperation and engagement on the international front and the relationships with our allies, why that all serves America’s self-interest.’ The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrates the perils of an anti-globalist approach, the group claims.”
The memo calls for a return to engaging with China, especially on climate issues and global health, while acknowledging the “significant challenge” the country poses. The memo states: “‘The best outcome for U.S.-China relations is likely managed competition—an accommodation that avoids military conflict while allowing for limited cooperation,’ it reads. ‘It is impractical to think that supply chains and manufacturing can be moved simply, affordably or comprehensively out of China.’
