Barry Ritholz sums up the impact President Donald Trump will have on your investments:
….We start with an overlooked truth: Presidents, regardless of party, get too much credit for when things go right and too much blame when they go wrong.
….Yes, Donald Trump can and will affect the economy and the markets. But we should not put all of our focus on the marginal impact of the president while giving short shrift to more important things such as corporate revenue and earnings, the Federal Reserve, interest rates, inflation, congressional spending, employment, retail sales, Supreme Court decisions, and, of course, valuations.
Quite right. Janet Yellen probably has more power over your investments than Trump does.
….I think we all hoped that once the election was over, we could go back to our normal lives without the incessant parade of campaign news.
No such luck.
Investors need a way to sequester the noisy news flow out of the White House. It is too easy to let the relentless and disturbing headlines throw off long-term financial plans. Investors must read the news, but not let it interfere with thinking clearly.
Look, let’s be honest about the commander-in-chief: He is the world’s leading Twitter troll, a man whose main goal is to interrupt your thinking, misquote and insult other people, engage in rhetorical sleight of hand, and impugn the integrity of those trying to do honest work. What all trolls want is a reaction, something Trump has achieved to great success.
Rule No. 1 on the internet is “Do not feed the trolls.” No one can really ignore the president of the United States, but it’s probably best to view much of what he says or tweets as minor background noise.
The President is not a conciliatory figure who is going to govern from the middle. The acrimonious feud with Democrats and the media is likely to continue for most of his term. So long as the GOP have a majority in Congress and the Senate, Trump has a fair shot at tax reform and infrastructure programs. If that should change, expect Obama-style gridlock.
Source: The Only Question Investors Have Is About Trump – Bloomberg
It’s a curious thing that a man can get to Trump’s age and still not grasp the difference between right and wrong as it affects other people. From my media-provided observations, Trump’s understanding of right and wrong seems to be limited to whether something makes him feel personally good or personally bad. The effect on others doesn’t seem to register. It’s as though his empathic brain cells (a.k.a. mirror neurons) never matured. I’ve read that this can happen when a person is raised by sociopathic parents, or had empathy drummed out of them during formative years by stern authority (eg military training, religious extremists, etc). But according to Wikipedia, Trump’s parents were decent enough people for the times, so it’s not clear to me why their son turned out to be a bully. I suppose rapid wealth and surrounding one’s self with sycophants could also do it. President Kennedy supposedly had Asperger’s disorder, so maybe psychological screening should be part of the political candidate selection process in progressive democracies? You’d think at least some degree of mental normality would be desirable for a person entrusted with the nuclear button (North Korea is a case in point). Perhaps here too?
Great opinion from Tony Schwartz in the SMH: I wrote The Art of the Deal with Donald Trump. His self-sabotage is rooted in his past
I have respect for Trump, from my perspective he is doing a reasonable job but bedevilled by entrenched Public Servants and Media Lefties (Democrat Appointments?) who aim to pull him down. We in Australia have similar problems. Trump is a man for the times, America need him, the forgotten workers and those who aspire to work need him. America under Clintons and Obama went backwards exporting its industries to Asia and China, hopefully Trump will fight his way through to bring back Industry to America.
I am dismayed that a President cannot talk to a Russian President and stands accused of giving away secrets. Why? It’s not logical. Does that mean that at a Leaders G20 Meeting Trump is banned from talking to Putin? Common strategies that are good for both should be discussed and not condemned. I am amazed how puerile the NY Times is on this and allows air time. The World and America, if not the Republicans need Trump to succeed.
Let’s give him credit. I respect some of the appointments Trump has made. And he is right, collusion between politically correct idealism and crony capitalism has hurt the working class and needs to be halted. Also captive regulators and lawmakers will only end when the revolving door between Wall Street and regulators — and Capitol Hill and lobbyists — is dismantled.
But I believe that Trump’s weaknesses will pull him down. His enemies may assist, but he will provide them with a steady stream of ammunition. His intentions may be good but, like many disruptors, his execution is poor. They are better at confrontation and breaking the old system down than at conciliation and building a new system. Trump is first and foremost a deal-maker, with a short attention span to match. What is now needed are strong organizational skills to implement a new system. I am afraid that is where he is out of his depth.
What we need is a bait-and-switch, with Trump handling the confrontation and tearing the old system down, then handing over to a more conciliatory figure who has the organizational ability to execute the plan.