Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) speaks as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump looks on during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri.Getty
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman does not sound pleased with the US presidential election process.
At Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead conference in New York on Tuesday, Gorman said that it would be more productive to focus on issues that impact people’s lives the most, rather than on the most opinionated thing either candidate said.
“I’m looking forward to a time when we can get past the rhetoric and we can talk about real substance and how real things get changed,” Gorman said.
Gorman is originally from Australia, and became a US citizen in time for the 2004 election.
Gorman suggested that much of the criticism of the US economy heard on the campaign trail is far from reality.
“Stepping back… the fundamental truth that has come out, to my mind, is the country has done much better than the population, meaning the aggregate performance has done better than the individual,” Gorman said.
“How is it possible that with all this innovation, all these technological advances, that the vast majority of people feel that they got left behind, not just for five years or ten years, but for three decades. And in fact wages would suggest that they’re right?”
Gorman said he does not believe much of the campaign rhetoric represents views that would be held in “all circumstances.”
“So many things have been said that are so absurd that the good part of me just wants to believe that they’re not truly held beliefs,” Gorman said.
“This is the world’s leading democracy, and all of us want to see it continue to be that way.”