Donald Driver

Packer Fans calm down, we’re not referring to the all time leader in Green Bay Packer yards receiving, but rather to the other Donald and what drives him, namely the Stock Market. Much like Clinton’s unhealthy obsession with the Bond Market, Trump seems to view the Equity Markets as his daily barometer of policy efficacy. This shouldn’t surprise us as both are highly irrational and short -term focused. While Clinton’s fixation on the Bond Market was primarily driven by budgetary deficits hawks (there used to be those), Trump looks at the daily gyrations in prices as justification for policies not driven by any sound fundamental underpinnings, but rather by the empty campaign promises of an avowed populist. The problem lies in the fact that companies make capital decisions based on their best guess of what the future may look like 5, 10, 15 years hence, and a scattershot policy agenda involving not only trade, but immigration, health care and a host of other third rail issues, is only a deterrent to the domestic capital investment requisite for sustainable long-term growth. While an Obama Presidency did leave us with a legacy of bureaucratic overkill, the current disrupter-in-chief has left us with an environment of permanent upheaval, an environment not conducive to either rising prosperity or equity markets.