It’s hot; it’s sticky; it’s August…and the stock market isn’t doing much this month. Historically, the stock market does not do much in August…as most people are on vacation.
But that’s not the reason this year. Retail sales are soft, consumer confidence is surprisingly down, and contributing to anxieties are the heated town meetings from Portsmouth to Peoria to answer the big question of the summer: do we support government-run healthcare or not? And we are far from a consensus…and, as we know, markets don’t like uncertainty.
The good news is that we got our heads out of the summer haze and got involved…so much so we turned dog days into dog fights.
But that’s OK. That’s democracy at work. Look what happened over the weekend: in statements made by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Administration has backed off its insistence on a government-run health-insurance option.
Passing major healthcare reform that will effectively remake 1/6 of the US economy…is a tall order that shouldn’t be rushed. The town meetings have made that very clear. If any plan is not understood and embraced by most Americans, the stock markets and the economy will react negatively…and what has been hot and sticky in August could become a scorcher come fall and winter.
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