With things going along well for the American economy, and with interest rates picking up seemingly everywhere (see Ken's blog), I got to wondering who is unhappy with such a situation and what are they doing about it.
OK, the Democrats cannot be happy about America's financial revival since all the credit goes to Trump, whom they hate. There was not a single Democrat vote in Congress for tax reform, so they are unable to claim even a scintilla of credit for the good news.
But much more importantly:
Q: What can they do about this unwelcome situation?
A: Shut down the government over a matter (immigration) totally unrelated to budgets, etc..
Ken has stated, correctly in my view, that the rising stock market is supportive of higher interest rates for us savers going forward. Ken believes a steadily advancing stock market will tend to draw money out of financial institutions (i.e., banks and credit unions) causing them to raise interest rates in order to hang onto their deposits and attract new deposits. Hence let's ask:
Q: What does the stock market abhor as much as anything?
A: Uncertainty
Yes, the very same sort of uncertainty contributed to vigorously by an unwanted and unnecessary shut down of the Federal government. We see the Democrats are quite creative in bringing about the demise of, or at least mitigating, the ongoing positive trend in the American economy . An important part of this is negative stock market impact. Ensuing halt to rising interest rates will be merely collateral damage.
So do the Democrats care if the current positive economic trend is derailed? Not at all. A nearly stagnant American economy suited them just fine for eight years under the previous administration. They will be delighted to see things get back to, what is for them, "normal".
