You Shouldn ’t Care How Stocks React to Donald Trump

Many reasons have been offered up for Donald Trump’s shocking ascent to the Oval Office. A list of the leading causes would likely include globalization, white resentment, working-class revolt, anti-immigrant nativism, reality TV and social media. Yet ironically, the most obvious aspect of Trump’s personal biography and pubic image has been mostly disregarded when explaining his victory: To most of the 62 million men and women who voted for him, Donald Trump has always been, first and foremost, a billionaire businessman. Since the early twentieth century, Americans have come to value social progress and personal well-being in units of money. Progress became priced. As this happened, making money became the standard measure for valuing not only our assets and investments but our environment, our nation and even ourselves. American prosperity is now often gauged in dollars and cents; net worth has become almost synonymous with self-worth. This pricing of progress played an important role in Trump’s election. Behind all the bluster and bravado, Trump often ran on a platform that presented America as a business investment. Unlike all those incompetent politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, the pitch went, Trump was a deal-making billionaire capitalist that would run the government like he ran his real-estate portfolio. As Americans have been bombarded for decades by economic indicators that taught them that their society’s top priority was its bottom ...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Business Donald Trump Economics politics Source Type: news