Like many waking up this morning, I am stunned and sickened, both by the man who is headed towards the White House and the amount of hate and bigotry that exists in the country. I worry about what this nightmare will mean for my children and grandchildren. It will certainly impact my husband's and my plains on how and where to our retirement years. Our marriage may now be at risk and there is a significant risk, assuming Trump sticks to his promise to Christofascists, that a federal license to discriminate law will soon be enacted. The hopes for federal employment protections has certainly turned to ash. The one positive, if one can call it that, is that we certainly know who our friends are and how many fewer they number than we had believed was the case. As the Washington Post reports, the financial markets are plunging, wiping out the savings of many and ushering in likely long term global instability. Here are excerpts:
Global financial markets convulsed Tuesday night as Donald Trump was projected to claim victory in the race for the White House after a polarizing campaign that investors had largely bet against.
On Wall Street, all three major stock indices were down 4 percent or more late Tuesday evening in pre-market trading, with futures for the Dow Jones industrial average sliding more than 700 points at one point before paring those losses in the minutes before the results were clear. Futures trading was temporarily halted for the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index amid a 5 percent loss.
The Mexican peso -- which has fallen as the Republican nominee rose in the polls during his campaign -- nosedived to an eight-year low, according to Bloomberg. The panic stretched all the way to Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei index plunged more than 900 points, or 5.4 percent, early Wednesday morning. In a flight to safety, gold charged higher. U.S. Treasuries and the yen also surged.
The sell-off recalled the volatility following Britain's decision this summer to leave the European Union. Investors had largely dismissed the possibility of a so-called "Brexit" but then quickly reversed course as the votes were counted. That dynamic appeared to be playing out again, with Craig Erlam, senior market analyst for foreign exchange firm Oanda, calling Tuesday's rout simply "a bloodbath."
Among Trump's chief campaign promises has been to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement and slap double-digit tariffs on goods from Mexico and China, moves that experts fear could spark a trade war. He also has proposed massive tax cuts for both individuals and corporations that could cost as much as $6 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Though Trump’s message of isolationism has resonated with voters who feel left behind by globalization, many experts have warned his proposals could wreck havoc on the U.S. recovery.
Moody’s Analytics forecast Trump’s policies could lower employment by 3.5 million jobs and raise the unemployment rate to 7 percent by the end of his term. The firm also predicted the nation would enter a recession in 2018.
Meanwhile, the board of South Korea’s stock exchange called an emergency meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the sharp fall in the financial markets.
The exception to the anti-Trump sentiment in Europe came from far-right leaders and other anti-immigration populists.Neo-Nazis and white supremacist are the only ones celebrating. That is very telling.
No comments:
Post a Comment