MRLC Series of Lectures Phrase VIII: “Trump’s ‘Casinos’ and America’s Future” was Held Successfully in Renmin Law School
2016.10.27
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2016.10.27
On October 27th, 2016, China-Korea Market and Regulation Law Center (MRLC) series of lectures phrase VIII: “Trump’s ‘Casinos’ and America’s Future” was held successfully in Room 301 of Mingde Law Building of Renmin University. Professor Jonathan C. Lipson from Temple University Law School was invited as a guest speaker. This lecture was held by Associate Professor Yao Haifang of Renmin Law School, and Associate Professor Song Biao of Renmin Law School was invited to be the commentator.
Before the lecture, Associate Professor Song Biao gave a warm welcome to Professor Lipson and gave a brief introduction to Professor Lipson's academic experience. Subsequently, Professor Lipson made a wonderful speech on Trump’s “Casinos” and America’s Future under the background of the recent popular US election.
First, Professor Lipson made a detailed interpretation of Trump’s proposition in the US presidential election. In the third debate of the 2016 US presidential election, which took place on October 19th, Trump claimed that he could create more jobs, and one of the reasons is that he was CEO or dominant shareholder of three casinos. Second, Professor Lipson introduced the development and the specific situation of bankruptcy of Trump’s casinos in Atlantic City, and made an in-depth interpretation of jobs, revenue and salary data from Casino Control Commission. Through the analysis of the open data, Professor Lipson found that, from 1997 to 2010, compared with the other casinos in the same period, Trump casinos had a poor performance. Trump casinos lost much more employees than other casinos, and the loss of revenue reached up to $50 million. Trump casinos went through Chapter 11 four times, which created a “record” in more bankruptcies than any other major business in America. However, Trump personally did make a lot of money. Finally, Professor Lipson described the significance of analyzing these data. Jobs and the economy are key factors for many U.S. voters, Trump appears to be a successful businessman who could “create” jobs. Meanwhile, the data show that in the face of “foreign” competition, Trump casinos’ performance are poor on the jobs and revenues. But, having taken credit for “creating jobs” as a key claim in his campaign, he must take the blame for failure. Trump may not be an effective manager or businessman for large complex businesses, and running government is quite different from running a casino or hotels. Trump is also called “the king of debt”, as the debt is key to economic plan, Trump may cause catastrophic economic consequences. Moreover, Trump is not an effective negotiator. He could not negotiate successfully with creditors, and thus, casinos went into bankruptcies four times. In short, there is every reason to suspect that Trump will make America worse.
During the question-and-answer session, Professor Lipson answered questions from the commentator and the students. In the end, Associate Professor Yao Haifang concluded this lecture, and thanked Professor Lipson for his wonderful speech, which provided a new perspective for the students to think and study.
