Market Euphoria Overshadowed By Concern

The stock market has responded quite well to Trump’s removal of environmental regulations.  But it appears that the initial glee may be replaced with grave concern, and many economists warn of a serious correction. What’s the issue?  

At least in part, it’s that business leaders see that pulling out of the Paris Accord on climate change, symbolic though it may be,  is representative of Trump’s opposition to U.S. participation in the low-carbon world economy of the 21st Century.  As obvious as it is to all that today’s business environment is becoming increasingly based on sustainable technology and modes of living, the current administration supports the dirty energy of the 20th Century, and that, understandably, scares the living bejesus out of the captains of U.S.-based corporations of all shapes and sizes.

Perhaps the most important ingredient in successful business strategy is the ability to look, i.e., to perceive the world around us as it really exists, rather than seeing it through some lens of alternative facts and realities. If Trump has shown us anything from his first 75 days in office, it’s that facts don’t matter, and that such delusional states, while may get one elected by the ignorant and desperate masses, simply won’t fly as a foundation for business.

As a client used to tell me when I’d suggest something he deemed unworkable,  “That dog don’t hunt.”