After the US election: What can we learn from past campaigns?

US

Richard Dunbar, investment director at SWIP, examines what investors can learn from past US campaign promises and the impact on markets.

As Mitt Romney settles back to life at his beach house in La Jolla, it may be interesting to reflect on the promises made in what was a rather bitter election campaign. Each man proposed radically different ways of governing, and the electorate has made its decision. But do these differences really matter? The issues that dominate a presidential election campaign rarely define the subsequent presidency. As ever in a US election, the handling or mishandling of the economy was centre stage – with particular urgency last year as we hurtled towards the fiscal cliff. President Obama was ...