What strikes me most today - before the big Inauguration - is the wall of expectation. There was once a notion, and maybe there still is, that if everybody was gloomy about the prospects for investment markets, a "wall of money" would build up that had been withdrawn from such markets by nervous investors. If the news turned good all of a sudden, that wall would turn into a tsunami - the metaphor doesn't hold up - that would drive back into markets and turn any tiny upward blip into a significant upswing. Self-fulfilling.
So many commentators have said so much about the gloomy prospects for the Trump presidency that if the man manages to get through his inaugural address without stumbling over the long words - without perhaps letting slip the occasional wicked cackle - we'll be pleasantly surprised. There was even an item on the radio a few days back about the impeachment process - how it would happen if it was needed. Given the virtues that we would claim for ourselves - open-minded, liberal, rational, et cetera - perhaps we would do well to remind ourselves that the Trump presidency hasn't actually begun yet.
So many commentators have said so much about the gloomy prospects for the Trump presidency that if the man manages to get through his inaugural address without stumbling over the long words - without perhaps letting slip the occasional wicked cackle - we'll be pleasantly surprised. There was even an item on the radio a few days back about the impeachment process - how it would happen if it was needed. Given the virtues that we would claim for ourselves - open-minded, liberal, rational, et cetera - perhaps we would do well to remind ourselves that the Trump presidency hasn't actually begun yet.