Checks and Balance: CEOutrage
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2021
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
American companies used to keep quiet about politics, relying on behind the scenes donations and lobbying. But they are increasingly speaking out on a range of issues— most recently on Georgia’s restrictive new voting laws.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, of the Yale School of Management, organised a recent meeting of CEOs and says this is a great opportunity for businesses. Henry Tricks, The Economist’s Schumpeter columnist, surveys the history of corporate activism and we explore international comparisons.
John Prideaux, our US editor, hosts, with New York bureau chief Charlotte Howard, and Jon Fasman, US digital editor.
For access to The Economist’s print, digital and audio editions subscribe: economist.com/USpod
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Imagine you, you in a nice comfy seat with your hands behind your head, taking in the views, |
| 0:09.6 | instead of taking on the road, maybe even taking a nap. That's the bliss of getting where you |
| 0:15.5 | need to go without worrying about driving. Book your train journey via avantiwascoast.co.uk |
| 0:23.0 | and we'll take you there. Avantiwascoast, feel good travel. |
| 0:30.4 | In late 1990, as he was preparing to lead the Chicago Bulls to their first ever NBA championship, |
| 0:40.5 | a 27-year-old Michael Jordan found himself under pressure to take a political stand. |
| 0:46.5 | It centred upon the Senate race in his home state of North Carolina, where the Democratic candidate |
| 0:51.6 | Harvey Gantt, an African-American, was running against the incumbent Republican, Jesse Helms, |
| 0:57.0 | an unabashed racist who'd voted against the Civil Rights Act. Gantt hoped that an endorsement |
| 1:02.3 | from Jordan, who even then was one of the most famous people in America with a line of |
| 1:06.5 | Air Jordan footwear that helped transform him from athlete to icon, would swing undecided |
| 1:11.7 | voters in his favour. But Jordan ultimately declined to come out in support of Gantt, explaining |
| 1:17.4 | his decision with a phrase that came to haunt him. Republicans by sneakers too. Michael Jordan |
| 1:24.1 | may have been speaking off the cuff, but those four words, Republicans by sneakers too, |
| 1:28.7 | neatly capture a principle that America's biggest corporations have followed for decades. |
| 1:33.6 | Getting too involved in partisan politics is bad for business. However, as the Biden administration |
| 1:40.0 | inches towards a hundred days, that calculus appears to have shifted. This is Chex and Balance. |
| 1:46.0 | I'm John Prado, the economist's US editor, and each week we take one big theme shaping American |
| 1:55.5 | politics and explore it in debt. Today, is it worrying or welcome that corporations are playing an |
| 2:06.5 | increasingly prominent role in American politics? The Ferrari over restrictive voting rights legislation |
| 2:18.0 | in Georgia, passed by that state's Republican controlled legislature at the start of this month, |
| 2:22.8 | has by now spread far and wide. And this week, some powerful new voices joined the chorus, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Economist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Economist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.