The September jobs report released last week served as an important milestone for the U.S. economy. We have now had 72 consecutive months where the U.S. economy has added jobs. In this time, more than 14 million jobs have been added – the equivalent of 200,000 jobs a month for six years. By all accounts, this suggests that the U.S. economy should be firing on all cylinders.
Usually politics grabs the news headlines but does not have much effect on investments. Profit margin cycles and the direction of interest rates evolve gradually over decades and are the real long term drivers of investment returns, unless you experience a dramatic and sustained political interference. So while US politics dominates our news cycle and we would argue that the current US election would have some negative consequences from either candidate, it is important to look beyond this noise and fully grasp how intrusive and stifling domestic politics has become.