I & I Editorial BoardUnder normal circumstances, it takes a year or two before a president can have an impact on the economy or world affairs. But Donald Trump won’t be president for almost two months, and already we are feeling the effects of his election.
Consumers are more confident, manufacturers more optimistic, investors more bullish. Canada is promising to toughen up its border controls. Ukraine is talking about how to end its nearly three-year-long war. There’s a ceasefire in the Middle East.
Heck, even Trump’s favorability rating broke through 50%, a rarity since he first announced his candidacy in 2015.
Let’s look at the evidence:
The RealClearMarkets/TIPP Economic Optimism Index jumped 13.4% in November to 53.2, the highest in more than three years. Anything over 50 indicates a positive for optimism, and this is the first time the index has been positive since September 2021
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index was up 2.1 points in November and “reached the top of the range that has prevailed over the past two years,” according to chief economist Dana Peterson, who added that “the proportion of consumers anticipating a recession over the next 12 months fell further in November and was the lowest since we first asked the question in July 2022.”
Manufacturers are more upbeat. Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, says, “The mood among U.S. manufacturers brightened in November (and) optimism about the year ahead has improved to a level not beaten in two and a half years, buoyed by the … prospect of stronger economic growth.”
Investors are more hopeful about the future. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 7% since Nov. 4, as is the NASDAQ. The S&P 500 is up 6% “as investors cheer the president-elect’s plans to cut taxes and deregulate,” notes Bloomberg.
This can’t be dismissed as meaningless emotionalism. Those who are optimistic about tomorrow are more likely to take risks, invest, and spend today — spurring real growth.
Internationally, Trump is already having an effect. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “promised Donald Trump that Canada would increase surveillance over the long undefended joint border, a senior Canadian official said on Sunday,” the Guardian reports.
The New York Post reports that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky “says he’s willing to cede territory to Russia in exchange for NATO protection in stark departure from previous stance.” That war has cost U.S. taxpayers $114 billion and counting.
Over in the Middle East, Trump is promising that there will be “Hell to pay” if Hamas fails to release its hostages before his inauguration. (As our clock at the upper right of this page shows, Hamas has been holding American citizens hostage for 424 days.)
“Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East – But it’s all talk, and no action!” Trump posted on Truth Social. We suspect Hamas is listening.
Meanwhile, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire deal last week. “Everyone is coming to the table because of President Trump,” said Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Trump’s pick for national security adviser.
Sure, these could all be coincidences. But we doubt it. To us, they are signs that a cloud has lifted – a cloud seeded by President Joe Biden’s addled fecklessness and his administration’s utter incompetence.
Will these good tidings last? Who knows? But there’s a chance they will. And that’s much more than we’ve had in the past four years.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Would you guys STOP treating Ukraine like they are in a war of choice? Ukraine finally “talking about how to end the war”?? You don’t even mention putin or russia! putin is literally targeting women and children trying to break Ukraine’s will to fight! I am fine if your opinion is don’t spend money to help but at least show some concern…something! Never mind that russia is our enemy…good opportunity to destroy that subhuman nation too! You people are unbelievable!
I hear you man and agree that Ukraine is clear of any blame. The point that I think he is making, by saying that, is up until recently Ukraine was acting like they were gonna fight to the last American or that their liberty is worth every dollar in our treasury. They finally seem to understand that isn’t how its gonna be and should get their heads out of the clouds.
Russia has been created to be our 21st century enemy (oh to think of them in our orbit instead of the ccp). The Ukraine war is a very optional war begun and perpetrated by the MIC. Why ought Christians kill other Christians for them? Your Russia hatred is unwelcome and unwanted.
Nope. You are apparently unaware of the regime change in 2014 and the host of other anti-democratic actions undertaken in Ukraine since at least 2004 by Western elites – removing Ukrainian governments that were friendly to their neighbor and replacing them with puppets with open intent to turn Ukraine into a FOB with missiles parked on the Russian border (etc.) Not to mention censorship, propaganda, outlawing churches and a host of other dictatorial actions. If the Russians had done the same to Mexico and announced it would be joining an anti-US alliance and nuclear missiles placed on the Rio Grande where they could not be intercepted before reaching their targets, would you have advocated letting Russia operate so freely?
If Russia were targeting civilians as such there would be 1000X more evidence of it. Instead they are fighting hard to defend themselves against the lying (“Not one inch eastward”) NATO cronies and their neo-Nazi terrorist cohorts who for many years terrorized Russian populations in the Donbass. It is tools of the globalist elites like yourselves that are “unbelievable” – and unbelieved, which is why you are losing.
I&I’s last sentence says it all: “Will these good tidings last? Who knows? But there’s a chance they will. And that’s much more than we’ve had in the past four years.”
Another way to express this feeling is to call it “hope,” which I think is what Pres.elect Trump inspires in all of us.
We saw what Biden did to this country in the economy, immigration, foreign affairs, crime, energy production, wokeness, virtue-signalling and finally spending, spending, spending.
It’s like Biden thought all the spending he did would solve all the nations problems. However, it didn’t solve our problems. It just created one more: a higher debt and an interest rate on the debt that is now greater than the money we spend on the defense department.
Thank God a successful business man (with a great and successful 1st term) has been re-elected and a cackling proselytizing fool has been rejected.
This is why there now is “hope”!
Nice Reagan reference there. It is indeed “morning in America”, again. The grownups are back in charge.