While 2016 is a year that lots of people would like to forget, it is also a year that no one is going to have any trouble remembering. Here are five stories about business and the global economy that made a big impression.
The Trump Election. Donald Trump’s Presidential election was obviously the biggest story of the year in politics, but it was also the biggest story of the year in business. In the weeks leading up to the election, the expectation on Wall Street was that a Trump victory would lead to a market crash. Trump’s lack of experience and his erratic temperament, coupled with his promises to clamp down on immigration and scrap free-trade deals, seemed like a recipe for the kind of uncertainty that investors are supposed to hate. In fact, as Trump’s victory began to seem more likely on Election Night, stock-market futures did tumble. But the Trump crash turned out to be among the most short-lived in history: by the time the stock market opened on November 9th, nearly all of the losses had been recouped, and by market close on that Wednesday, the Dow was actually up two hundred and fifty-seven points. In the weeks since, the Trump rally has only continued, with both the S. & P. and the Dow now near all-time highs.
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