Posted on 06/13/2016 6:04:10 AM PDT by expat_panama
Businesspeople often say political uncertainty put a brake on expansion. This year it may be true.
In election years, it’s common to hear businesspeople talk about political uncertainty acting as a brake on expansion and a stiff headwind. I’m generally a little suspicious of such claims. Entrepreneurs decide whether to open another restaurant, or a furniture store, or a hedge fund, based on whether they see demand or market opportunity – not on who they think might control Congress next year, or whether a presidential candidate might propose raising the tax rate on capital gains.
But this year might actually be different, in large part because presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump seems to revel in fomenting uncertainty. Trump has consciously set out to violate or alter the norms surrounding political campaigning, and has succeeding (beyond everyone’s wildest expectations) in doing so.
As a result, all of that uncertainty is likely to give pause to a large number of companies and employees in a range of industries. In fact, it’s possible that May’s poor jobs numbers ...
...Trump’s pledge on Obamacare
The vast health care sector, which is heavily dependent on direct government spending and the policy that shapes the behavior of insurers and providers, accounts for about 16 percent of the U.S. economy. In the past 12 months, health care has added 487,000 jobs – about 20 percent of the total added...
...the Affordable Care Act has... ...more than 200,000 people have signed up. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, or gutted, as Trump and his allies in Congress propose, some 20 million people could lose access to Medicaid, and...
...There’s always a certain level of uncertainty inherent in any investment. In this political season, the level is simply higher...
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
The “stiff headwind” against economic expansion was already there, and one major component was this highly convoluted “Obamacare” mandate, that drew very sharp distinctions as to the size of the employment rolls being some sort of division as to the requirements to comply. Add to that the unnecessarily complex rules for coverage (or non-coverage) that the plans that did exist were burdened with, and the outright denial of certain entities to even continue business.
Another part of the “headwinds” would have to be attributed to taxation policies, and the apparent encouragement coming from the Current Regime to have corporations shift their operations OUT of the US, both because of the tax rates, and to find more accommodating degrees of engagement with government authority. Also, the degree to which enforcement of rules by EPA to control “greenhouse gases”, a dubious policy at best, has been ramped up to cover any number of minutiae and obscure interpretations of those rules.
Plus, of course, the marginal costs of adding even one employee to the payroll often exceeds the value that new employee could ever bring to the work product.
There is one “political certainty” here - that if Herself does get elected, well, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
For months everyone has been responding to Trump as if he was already President.
If Trump can do all this as just a candidate, think how much he can do as President !
Nothing much surprises me anymore.
We have had 7+ years of tremendous political uncertainty under the Obama regime. No one knows what will be legal or not from one day to the next.
Investing is completely a crap shoot based on the political whim of the moment.
To try to blame this on Trump is idiotic, but that sort of idiocy has been going on for decades by the “progressive” media.
Sure I believe it.
I have been telling people to watch for this narrative.
It will be just like Clinton taking credit for great economy when the recovery had already begun before his election, and had tanked into recession before he left office.
B0 Stevedunhambarrysoetorobathhousebarryhusseinsoebarkah let the last administration take the hit for bail out and had tons of stimulus money to spend, had the “sea quester” that was “not gonna happen” and the fracking revolution. He squandered it all and only made the economy look good with monumental fraud and book-cooking.
Watch the narrative. B0 saved GM, gave everybody “health care” and ended unemployment while cleaning up the environment. DT plans to unravel it all and this is scaring the economy into recession.
B0 will escape without a scratch and leave a mess that will be almost impossible to clean up.
Of course, Fortune is run by liberals.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.