Yesterday saw $2.4 trillion in wealth lost in America with another beating forecast for today according to the future’s trading. Apple Corp lost billions as did other companies. But so did individual investors and their public or private pension funds likely were hit hard as well. In war, there are casualties and trade wars are no different. One person in his pride, arrogance and increasing thirst for power launched this war and there are consequences. But there is a worse button that POTUS can push, isn’t there?
The chips are flying and who knows there they will ultimately land? In fact, even penguins as well as people must pay according Trump’s rules. But President Trump is no stranger to Wall Street fiascos, as eight of the ten highest one-day daily point losses on the Stock Exchange have come while DJT has been President (i.e., 2017-2020 or 2025.)
At this moment, fear and panic is gripping the markets because China answered the President’s opening volley with a salvo of their own. Monday, it may be the EU that fires back. Then Canada, which was once (i.e., until last January that is), perhaps our closest friend, neighbor and ally in the world. No more. President Trump’s approach to finance makes no sense to most economic experts, and may explain his numerous bankruptcies in the private sector. Recently, Wall Street insiders who have enough juice to talk to the President when they see fit asked him to take Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick off of television because Lutnick is talking gibberish on the cable network news shows. And it’s not just the economy. This week we heard that the people at Health and Human Services that run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health fired the wrong physicians and administrators earlier this week. Yesterday, there were still trying to rehire them. According to Secretary Robert Kennedy, this was “always the plan.” Huh? Who is running this circus?
Those who are involved in stocks and securities, those governors who sit on the regional Federal Reserve boards, those professors who teach graduate or undergraduate economics understand that you cannot provide adequate answers to market behavior in three-minute sound-bytes while appearing on CNN or Fox. There are unintended consequences, nuances and not every country cares to play this game of “chicken” with an ex-New Yorker and one-time real estate developer pushing eighty.
As a result of this economic anarchy, many investors are currently seeking shelter. Where can they move their remaining portfolio so that it will be safe from the present arbitrary, capricious and absolutely nonsensical fiscal policy of America? Where can they shelter what they still have left? T-bonds? Mutual funds?
I’ve seen people in my life (and I’m pushing eighty myself) seeking shelter from some emergency or another. I’ve seen people flee from golf ball-sized hail and tornados in Texas. I’ve seen my brothers-in-arms during combat seeking shelter from enemy mortars and rocket fire in Vietnam. When I was eleven, I was chased across a pasture by an angry bull. Don’t think you have to fly 3,600 miles to Pamplona, Spain to experience a thrill like this! In my experience, a shelter would have been more than welcome. But I don’t think Wall Street will see any bulls anytime soon.
The Rolling Stones once wrote about needing shelter, a hiding place to catch their breath and escape the madness of this world. Maybe a panic room? As the lyrics to the Rolling Stones song Gimmer Shelter go (in part):
“Ooh, a storm is threatening
My very life today
If I don’t get some shelter
Ooh yeah I’m gonna fade away.1”
The psalmist, however sings (57:1) “Have mercy on me, O God! Have mercy on me! For in you I have taken shelter. In the shadow of your wings, I take shelter until trouble passes.”
Remember when you were small and faced something stressful, like maybe the first day of Kindergarten, or your aunt was coming for an unexpected two-week vacation (the aunt who would always plant these yucky wet kisses on you?) Remember your family driving at night in a storm while you slept snugly in the back seat of your car, or being able to sneak into your parent’s bed when you had a bad dream, and how safe that made you feel? Well, regardless of your first day in kindergarten, or your aunt’s repugnant predilections or stormy nights, you are likely having a bad dream right now. In fact, we all are!
One more verse to encourage you comes from Psalm 61:3-4: “For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.” God is offering us the shelter of His wings. Umm. Does God have wings? Not personally as far as we know, but His angels do and they are waiting to wrap their wings around you as you might have wished when you were a child.
I don’t care what your politics are, and I doubt God does either. He cares for you whether you are a MAGA conservative or a progressive socialist. In either case, there is perhaps some amount of truth and likely an equal amount of error in what you believe. We’re being told by the White House to pay no mind to the markets. Just trust Trump! However, God reminds us “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8). We should place our trust in God and not in man. And God is inviting us to take a time out. To catch our breath. Ask Him to come into your life and clean up the mess. Because even though the planet is a mess. Even though the country is a mess. Even though our family or neighborhood might be a mess . . . The first mess that needs attention is the mess we find ourselves to be personally caught up in. God can fix that. He can shelter you from the storm. From the scorching heat of July, from the bitter cold of January. From floods and wildfires. From stock market crashes. From the madness that swirls around us. And the fear. He can shelter you. Just ask Him.
[1] Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Mick Jagger / Keith Richards Gimme Shelter lyrics © Mirage Music Int. Ltd. C/o Essex Music Int. L
