BY RUSSELL TURNER
OLD-TIMERS AND BUSINESS
Ever since I was a child I heard some of the old-timers make the comment that on presidential election years the economic climate would be better during that year. I often thought that assessment was just a figment of their imagination, but as I have grown older I can see that there is some truth in that idea.
Each year our government passes a host of new laws and regulations that, in the long run, costs us more money and hampers the economic freedom that drives this country. Business people who want to start a new business need to have a stable environment. For anyone to be successful and stay in business there requires a timetable for current laws and regulations to be constant for a period of time. It is equivalent to signing a contract to purchase an auto. When you set up your payment schedule you budget to make the payment for a certain amount of time, if someone has the authority to change the agreement without your approval midway through the allotted time you could find yourself in a serious financial bind. Too many of our elected officials fail to understand that many businesses are only one regulation away from being put out of business.
During years that are not presidential election years there seems to be more deal cutting by our elected representatives. While many people talk about bi-partisan cooperation, the effect is more laws and regulations that all of us have to deal with. It is a fact that on presidential election years the voters are watching what their candidates are doing and how they are voting on important pieces of legislation. The candidates know that they are being watched and are more likely to hold firmly to principles that they promised to uphold; this leads to one thing - Gridlock.
Many people hold the view that gridlock and the inability to "get things done" in Washington are the biggest problems facing our country. We need to remember that the founders of this nation designed our system of government to prevent any group from passing bills without debate from the opposing side; gridlock is not always a bad thing. When it comes to the fate of the financial markets and our money, one of the best things that can happen to us in this election year is for Congress and the president to not enact any new laws, rules or regulations. The more new laws, new rules and new regulations designed to govern our behavior the more uncertainty gets injected into our investing decisions. So, gridlock means we don't have to grapple with lawmakers deciding to intervene even further into our lives.
We Americans have got into a bad habit of looking to the government to solve every aspect of our lives. Thomas Jefferson once made the comment that the government that governs best governs least. Maybe the old-timers were a lot more observant than we gave them credit for.
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