Chronic. In the wake of the publication of the poor unemployment figures for November, Joe Biden’s teams had made remarks that turned, Thursday, December 3, into a short statement and a few questions, testimony to the powerlessness of the president-elect. Joe Biden urged Congress to adopt a plan to support the economy, but he is not yet in motion. Certainly, the task is never easy for elected presidents, between the day of their victory and that of their inauguration, January 20.
The trouble is, this could go on: Without a majority in Congress, Joe Biden could remain a president without power. Indeed, Republicans already have 50 of the 100 Senate seats. And to hold the final majority, everything is suspended in the second round of the senatorial elections in Georgia, on January 5, since no candidate obtained more than 50% of the votes, in the first round. But it is difficult to see the two seats falling to the Democrats in this southern state. As a result, Mr. Biden has every chance of being the first president to enter the White House without a Senate majority since George Bush Sr. in 1989.
Strong rebound in the Dow Jones index
Is that bad ? Not to believe the Dow Jones index which experienced, in November, its strongest rebound since 1987, up 12%, and broke the 30,000 points mark for the first time in its history. Admittedly, this surge is largely explained by the announcement of successful clinical trials for several vaccines against Covid-19. But also by the arrival of a historically ideal configuration for the Stock Exchange: a Democratic president and a Republican Senate. Spending, but no tax hikes, this is a pattern that may seem ideal in a world where everyone doesn’t care about deficits, in times of free money.
This reading seems fairly naive: the adoption of a stimulus plan deemed essential by the President of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has been impossible for months, due to bickering between Democrats and Republicans. Joe Biden puts forward his wish to forge cross-party alliances with the Republicans. It’s betting on their goodwill, which seems unlikely: the Trump clan is on the line of a stolen election and the Grand Old Party, which halved the Democrats’ lead in the House, has already in line target the mid-term elections of 2022. To reconcile, it takes two. Joe Biden has a talent, that of being a binding man, and a goal, to reconcile America with herself.
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