What to Expect Come January 20, 2017

Written by Rebecca Feeley

Merrill Lynch recently did another one of their educational webcasts called “Beyond the Elections: What Washington’s new leadership could mean for you” where they had a panel of economic and political experts discuss the aftermath of the Presidential election…and what we can expect going forward. I want to be clear here that I’m simply regurgitating what the professionals have said, and so, this is meant to be completely politically unbiased on my part! Here’s what I took away from the webcast:

1. We witnessed a harsh market decline at the opening on November 9 because most investors were predicting a Hillary win on Tuesday evening, but the rebound was much more swift than anticipated.
2. We’ll see far less gridlock in Washington now that the President and congress will be on the same “side”, so to speak.
3. Having said the above (#2), conservatives in congress like Paul Ryan, are extremely concerned with the deficit and will be sure to push back on some of the items on President-elect Trump’s agenda. Think tax cuts, increased infrastructure spending, increased military spending, and maintenance of Social Security and Medicare…all of which are sure to effect borrowing at the Federal level.
4. Since President Obama issued several executive orders in recent years, President-elect Trump will have the ability to unwind quite a bit of policy without having to involve congress at all.
5. The economic “wild card” will be President-elect Trump’s ability to push trade reform and bring jobs back to U.S. soil which was the cornerstone of his campaign.