Whew…
What a year this week has been.
What a year this month has been.
We feel like we have many more gray hairs than we did in September.
How about you? How are you feeling this week?
We realize that we’ve become addicted to constantly checking for updates, headlines, and reactions.
It’s time to put down the phone, unplug for a bit, and take a break from the doomscrolling.
Now that the election’s been called, everything will get back to normal, right?
RIGHT?
We think that’s optimistic. We’re still in a pandemic after all.
It seems that our next president will be Joe Biden. But votes are still being tallied, court challenges are being issued, and recounts have been triggered.
And control over the Senate hasn’t been decided. But, at this point, it’s looking like the Republicans will retain control.
While nothing’s completely settled yet, investors seem upbeat, likely hoping that:
1) Stimulus talks will begin again.
2) The government will get back to fighting the pandemic now that the election’s over.
3) That a vaccine may be coming soon.–did you see today’s news????
So, is it true that markets perform better when the government’s divided?
It’s not so cut and dried as that. Check it out:
In some cases, a split government correlated with stronger market performance on average.1 In others, a sweep of both branches turned out better. But let’s remember three important things:
1) Correlation is not causation; there’s a lot more at play than who controls the federal government.
2) Past performance doesn’t predict the future.
3) Since our sample sizes are small, we can’t draw strong conclusions.
Can we take a moment to pause and be thankful?
Thankful that we can determine the next leaders of our country through democratic means.
Thankful that even with all the divisive politicking we can expect a peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another.
Thankful that we can disagree safely.
We don’t know what your politics are, but we hope we can each do our part to contribute to RESPECTFUL discourse and approach those who don’t share our beliefs with HUMILITY and open HEARTS.
