Week in Review:
Promises made, promises kept. That's the story right there. Taken in a vacuum, isolated to fulfilling the covenants of the unwritten contract a Presidential candidate makes with his constituency, it would be tough to recall any elected official who has abided by the terms of the agreement as dogmatically as Trump. Nor would you find a President who has proactively engaged business leaders from each sector, regardless of their political affiliation, as quickly or as personally as this President. So from purely a markets perspective, the markets have reviewed his agenda and signed on. So equity indices, despite an arguably muted performance where expectations have collectively fallen short of what indicators, away from the lagging GDP, tell us is a burgeoning economy, made new highs this week. The catalyst for the break to the upside was the President's promise to deliver a "tremendous" tax bill in two to three weeks, a task that would, in all other circumstances be responded to with snickers accompanied by sell orders on a market pop, if not short selling, but instead was greeted with a chorus of buy, buy buy. Put in perspective, the man has only been in office for less than a month and the authors of those trade tickets (old school alert) are the same cynical crowd that watched the prior administration fall down on their pledge to immediately shut down Guantanamo more than 8 years ago.
So what gives? Am I losing my moral compass? Not at all; it's just that politics are not in my job description as an investor or fiduciary. In fact, I doubt I am aligned with any aspect of the President's policies or statements (or omissions) regarding non-fiscal matters.
