Reasons to be thankful this year
Growth, stability and a birthday are blessings
A strong economy tops the list. Ken Fisher,
With Thanksgiving here, it’s a good time to reflect on all that we (and markets) should be thankful for.
❚ Quiet Congress: Like political gridlock, renewed by midterms. I’m thankful a divided Congress can’t pass anything too radical. Stocks love legislative quiet. This is one big reason stocks consistently are positive in any president’s third year – every time since 1939 – indicating a bullish 2019. Plus, so many senators, as potential presidential candidates, already are self-obsessed and launching campaigns. So they will spend precious little time on legislation – which soon becomes church-mouse quiet. Stocks should shine.
❚ Growth: I’m thankful for our strong economy, with so many more folks having jobs. Many are surely grateful for wages inching higher. Investors no doubt love corporate profits jumping despite higher wage costs. And for strong, rising corporate revenues – a sign profit growth isn’t just some temporary sugar high from 2017 tax cuts.
❚ Hope for Europe: Thankfully the European Central Bank will soon stop its stupid, so-called quantitative easing, or QE bond purchase, letting interest rates return to normality. Things have always accelerated after QE programs die. Always. When Europeans get over the fear of it ending they will get more ebullient. What’s great for European stocks is great for U.S. and global markets, too.
❚ Cancer treatment: Be very grateful for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s progress on immunology. Their new research shows combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy can boost survival rates for various cancers. Medical breakthroughs such as these do wonders for public health and lengthening life spans. I’m ever-thankful stocks can deliver the higher long-term returns people need so their retirement assets can provide for them as they live better and longer.
❚ Putting it out: On health, I’m thankful American cigarette consumption fell again this year. It’s 40 percent of what it was when I was young. China smokes 10 times as much. Let’s hope for their sake that lung cancer is cured soon.
❚ Stability: Thanks, too, for America’s stable political institutions. Despite all our squabbling and off-the-charts ideological polarization, we have a hugely stable system compared with elsewhere. Consider Europe, where most country cultures are much older than ours but their governments much younger and continuously less stable. Political stability is the backbone of free markets and innovation.
❚ Rescuers: Thanks always for the firefighters helping save lives as wild- fires ravage California – and for all first responders and volunteers who helped sufferers during hurricanes Florence and Michael.
❚ Another birthday: Next week I’m thankful for my birthday, to be alive, to have made it to 68. And on my birthday, as a sort of present, to be interviewing Financial Times CEO John Ridding on the value of print media – such as USA TODAY – at the FT’s Future of NewsEurope conference in Brussels.
❚ Know-how: Thanks, too, despite all folks’ fears about China, that no one beats America on high-end sophisticated products. Or innovation. China copycats endlessly – like Japan did 50 years ago. Yet China’s government envies American creative thinking and knowhow. They covet our dominance in tech and everything new. I’m grateful for the free markets that incentivize and reward America’s creative whizzes who keep keeping us on top.
❚ Followers: I’m grateful for my quarter-million-plus Twitter followers. The number grew hugely this year. I love their quips and free-flowing commentary.
❚ Readers: Thank you, USA TODAY, for letting me write here weekly. Last but not least, for you, for reading this column. And for you USA TODAY online commenters – even when you dislike my columns. I always appreciate anyone taking the time to read and write here, regardless of your viewpoints.
Ken Fisher is founder and executive chairman of Fisher Investments, author of 11 books, four of which were New York Times bestsellers, and is No. 200 on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans. Follow him on Twitter: @KennethLFisher. The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.