As I see it, there are two apparent threats we face nationally at this time.
The first one is China. The communist party there has a goal of world domination by 2030. What “domination” means is anybody’s guess. I suspect it will change as things roll along.
The previous presidents here basically gave away much of our economy while enabling them to build up theirs. They did a very good job at our expense. Those who, older than 50 at the time, took from our capability and capacity and gave to them just simply sold us out.
It continues to be a very bad idea with terrible eventual consequences. Some businesses were able to work deals that made sense to them for their parochial advantage. So we are now in a precarious position regarding how we will engage with them.
We have businesses here involved in business deals there. We also have a strange election going on that could either protect American interests or let the Chinese have what we ought not give away.
We cannot expect that business folks will just stop doing business with the Chinese or even know the national consequences of doing business there. That takes strong and intelligent governmental leadership.
Business folks will move toward profit unless regulated in some way. Whatever we have done during the past 30 years has not been effective for our country, although independent businesses have done all right. Once in a while government does have a serious job to do, and surely getting the policies right with China must be at the top of the list.
The second threat facing us is the prospect of the stock market collapsing because of the election results.
It likely will not do so. If one looks at the statistics regarding how the market reacted to elections since 1929, it is amazing how little volatility has ruled the day.
Once after an election the market dropped about 6% but recovered in due time. What it will do now is anybody’s guess but the historical data would suggest not doing much of anything if you have a good arrangement of stocks and bonds to match your normal risk/comfort level.
Prior to looking at the statistics, I was contemplating doing something (anything) that would insulate against the kind of loss/recovery we all saw in February and March. I hung on through that but honestly it took a lot to keep the faith.
Now, of course, I am very glad I did. We are almost back to where we were in December. I always preach about businesses incorporating statistics into decision making and in this case following my advice has helped greatly.
Of course past performance does not guarantee future results so if the market goes into a long freefall and does not recover as it always has, then I will have been wrong.
These two threats are serious but manageable. The China threat requires extreme governmental skill. This is worrisome. The stock market threat requires each investor to manage his or her portfolio with equal parts of faith and strategy. This also is a bit tense.
Finally, whoever wins this election will have a gargantuan job to do. Our freedom will be at stake for the sake of decisions and direction our country takes over the next four years.
May God hold us in the palm of His hand.