Some Good, Some Bad

Well … it’s been a week.

And if there is one thing the past week has shown us, it is that there is often two sides to a story. For everyone thrilled that Joe Biden is now president-elect, there are almost as many people upset about the outcome. No one is necessarily wrong, there are just two possible answers. That is what voting essentially is, after all.

The same thing can often happen in the financial realm. On Monday, Pfizer released news that it had a vaccine against COVID-19 that was more than 90% effective. Great news, right? Of course, and if you look at the stock market’s overall numbers in the wake of the news, it agreed.

Well, unless you looked at some individual stocks, ones for companies like Zoom and Peloton. Heck, even giants like Amazon and Netflix saw a downtick because we may be seeing the light where we are not all at home all the time anymore.

This is something to remember as now move forward. What will Biden’s election mean for the country’s economy? What will it mean for tax policy?

Well, it is all guesswork now, but suffice to say there will be some change. And when that change happens, it is going to mean good things to some people, and it is going to mean bad things to other people. And heck, just what is going to happen may depend more on the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia than it has to do with Biden anyway.

The calendar timing means this all comes at the end of the year just as many people start to look toward their tax picture and finding what the numbers will say when it comes time to file next year. So, like I often counsel, we can only work under the rules that we currently have to the best of our ability. Even when those rules change, we will do what we can to help everyone work under the current rules and make them work in the possible way for their situation. And again, of course, that will be a good thing for some and a bad thing for others.

But everyone will get another chance to say how they feel about that, and everything else that happens, in four years. First off, may those years prove to be easier to travel than 2020. And next off, let us all remain committed to respect, civility, and lawfulness over that time. We have lived under rules and leaders we enjoy, and we have lived under rules and leaders we do not enjoy. We have thrived under both and we can continue to do so.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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