Why did stock markets suddenly love Tuesday’s election results, after futures trading had forecast losses? Your humble correspondent believes that Donald Trump’s victory speech reassured investors and allowed them to consider the upside of his tax and regulatory policies. But David Primo and Trung Dang of the University of Rochester make the case that what was really reassuring was a clear election result, after media forecasts of chaos. “The election is not contested. America has a new president and is on a path toward another peaceful transition of power,” write the authors. “America’s political system is more resilient than many experts would have us believe.”
The Journal’s Adam O’Neal talked to protesters who marched up New York’s Fifth Avenue to Trump Tower on Saturday. He found that the gathering “wasn’t much more than a collection of angry people. A graying radical with an SDS button chatted up younger revolutionaries. A man wearing a Planned Parenthood button pushed children in a stroller. Teenage girls stopped to take selfies, while members of the Revolutionary Communist Party handed out fliers.” Mr. O’Neal adds, “The election for Democratic National Committee chairman will tell you much more about the future of Mr. Trump’s opposition than any protest.”
The President-elect has tapped Reince Priebus to be his chief of staff and Stephen Bannon to serve as chief strategist and senior counselor. A Journal editorial observes: “It’s hard to know whether this will be a sublime union of yin and yang or ‘Survivor: Trump White House.’ Typically the chief of staff runs the White House and is the President’s most trusted adviser. But it’s notable that the announcement from the Trump transition established no clear hierarchy between the two men.”
A separate editorial notes that Sen. Harry Reid “will be gone with the current Congress but Republicans may miss him considering all he has done to help them. By killing the filibuster for nominees, he has made it easier for Mr. Trump to get his nominees confirmed and fill Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court. By stretching the rules for budget reconciliation, he has set a precedent for Republicans to repeal much of ObamaCare by ducking a filibuster.”
Speaking of the President’s signature achievement, Tevi Troy and Lanhee Chen survey the Republican plans for replacing ObamaCare and note that most of them “focus first on driving down the cost of health care, expanding access to consumer-directed health arrangements like health-savings accounts, and replacing ObamaCare’s exchange subsidies with a refundable tax credit or some other tax benefit to help lower-income Americans afford health insurance.”
“Donald Trump’s trade agenda is extremely worrying to Latin America. But on issues of regional security the Republican president-elect’s approach is likely to be a welcome change for democratic forces in the hemisphere,” notes our columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady.
The Dodd-Frank financial law aimed to deny funds to Congolese warlords by requiring U.S. companies to ensure they aren’t buying any “conflict minerals.” Tate Watkins writes that “while the law may have cut off one source of revenue to armed groups, it led them to intensify their plundering of civilians in the region-exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.”
“In his eulogy recently for Israeli statesman Shimon Peres, President Obama spoke of the ‘unfinished business’ of Israeli-Palestinian peace,” writes the editorial board. “Now he or Donald Trump have an opportunity to advance the cause-by backing legislation to stop the flow of U.S. tax dollars to Palestinian terrorists.” U.S. traffic fatalities are surging, partly due to drivers texting and emailing behind the wheel. Former Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith shares some ideas to prevent accidents.