Good morning and welcome to White House Watch. Let’s talk about the split screen
in America and Wall Street’s giddiness over coming deregulation.
America’s
deep fissures were palpable
yesterday as the nation processed the election results.
Reporting from Arizona and Nevada, the two states yet to call the presidential
race, the FT’s Myles McCormick and Chris Grimes found both ecstasy and
desolation. As Republicans teemed with excitement over Donald Trump’s win,
Democrats appeared completely gutted.
Trump’s supporters were fired up about the president-elect’s agenda, and eager
for him to enact his policies ASAP. With Republicans set to take control of the
Senate — and a solid chance they’ll keep the House of Representatives — the
party will have significant legislative power.
Bruce Parks, chair of the Washoe county Republicans in Nevada, told Myles that
he looked forward to Trump making good on his promises to increase oil
production, shut the border, deport undocumented workers.
Republican supporters cheer as they watch a broadcast of Donald Trump speaking
at his Florida election party ? AFP
Meanwhile, Democrats were conducting a
postmortem
[free to read].
Matt Bennett, co-founder of centrist Democratic think-tank Third Way, told the
FT’s Lauren Fedor:
“The Democratic brand is pretty bad. The country has shifted pretty far to the
right, and we were not aware of how deep the problem ran.
The voters that we lost . . . looked at Democrats
and said: they don’t understand my life. I don’t want them representing me.”
Now they need to figure out how to get it together in the years to come.
Democrats must craft an agenda that proves the party understands voters’ biggest
concerns, said Obama White House alumnus Ken Baer: “We need a generational
change. We have had a gerontocracy of 80-year-olds running the Democratic party
since Obama left. We need new blood and new leaders.”
When it came down to it, Democrats lost on the economy.
Charles Franklin, a non-partisan pollster and director of the Marquette Law
School Poll, told me that the “most pervasive” issue in Wisconsin and nationwide
was the cost of living:
“People saw their financial situation now is considerably worse than it was four
years ago.
You can argue about the macro economic indicators, but you can’t argue with
people’s subjective feelings of how they’re doing, and that’s clearly worse.”
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Transitional times: the latest headlines
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Scott Bessent told CNBC he would recommend that tariffs be ‘layered in
gradually ? Jonathan Drake/Reuters
With Trump’s White House return in sight, US bankers, private equity titans and
other financial services executives are
drooling over the prospect of deregulation
and the chance to boot Biden’s aggressive watchdogs.
While Trump hasn’t said yet who will take the top financial roles in his
administration, financial services companies are anticipating industry-friendly
picks.
Republicans are expected to usher a more permissive approach to everything from
bank capital requirements to takeovers and consumer protection rules in the
financial services sector. They’re also likely to allow a new wave of financial
products.
After leading the regulatory charge, Securities and Exchange Commission chair
Gary Gensler has become the bane of the industry’s existence. With a new leader
atop the SEC, money managers think Republicans will change rules that Gensler
and other regulators have pushed through, and drop other contentious proposals.
Jack Inglis, chief executive of the Alternative Investment Management
Association, told my colleagues:
“We anticipate that the administration’s approach to financial regulation will
be much more restrained and
targeted . . . particularly when it comes to the
SEC agenda.”
Many are also hoping Trump’s picks will adopt a more relaxed attitude to M&A
than current antitrust officials Lina Khan and Jonathan Kanter. This could spur
a dealmaking spree, and in turn boost investment bank earnings and invigorate
private equity firms.
But it’s not an entirely rosy picture. Vice president-elect JD Vance has praised
some parts of Khan’s agenda. Trump was also all over the place on antitrust,
blocking AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner because of his hatred for CNN,
and he’s recently pledged to prevent Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel.
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Anger has become the defining feature
of western politics, writes Robert Shrimsley. Quelling it must be a
democratic imperative.
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Under Trump, investors will thrive on unstifled market forces, volatility
and low taxes. But they risk
ending up weaker later, warns John Foley in his latest Lex column. [Available for Premium subscribers]
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America’s Democrats are part of a global trend as they join
a graveyard of incumbents
this year, John Burn-Murdoch points out.
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Trump’s victory poses huge risks —
and, possibly, a calamity
— for the global economy and the post-1945 world order, writes the FT
editorial board.
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Democrats
threw away a winnable election, writes Janan Ganesh. The reason why stems back to a decision made on
August 12 2020.
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FT readers reflect on the election result, sharing
how they feel about Trump’s victory
and how they view the outlook for the US.
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