Stock Market Response to Trump Crisis

There is an excellent letter to the Editor in the New York Times by a citizen decrying the unending and ever more dangerous behavior of Donald Trump, and especially his reckless disregard for the country’s security and stability. In it, the writer correctly calls out the Republicans in Congress who remain silent and in hiding, caring far more about their careers than the country’s welfare.

The Republicans in Congress are, indeed, out there for themselves. They have made that abundantly clear – all of them. The country has never, in recent memory, seen anything as pathetic and as blind to the huge crisis the country is facing. The United States is at the brink, and that is neither an alarmist statement nor an exaggeration in any way. It is fact.

But, there is another huge segment of the United States turning a blind eye on reality – on all that the President is doing to damage the country. And that is the stock market, more specifically the investment community. Ever since President Trump assumed power, stock market indices have consistently rallied beyond even the most optimistic expectations. Very much like the Republicans in Congress, investors are focusing exclusively on their self interests, ignoring the many flashing red lights of the country’s impending crisis. Over and over again since the election, market behavior has become totally unplugged from reality. Unlike past behavior where markets have consistently (like clockwork) adjusted to external realities, today’s American markets have lost their internal barometers and have turned amazingly blind eyes to the obvious synergy between major political crises and economic well-being. So instead, one watches the country slide into an abyss from which it may not be able to pull out of, while at the same time markets, day after day, turn a blind eye to what is truly happening. It seems that companies and markets are so relieved that Democrats are no longer in office that they haven’t stopped to realize that – truly – Republicans aren’t either – and that the country is at the brink and no one with a responsible national purview is in charge. The result of all this is both obvious and catastrophic.