As George W Bush and Al Gore wait for the recount in Florida and possibly other states, to find out who is the winner in the US presidential election, personneltoday.com asked the CIPD’s chief economist what he thought each candidate would mean for business.
“If Bush gets elected we will see a reversal towards 1980’s supply style economics,” said Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s chief economist John Pilpott. ” Bush’s tax cuts will lead to more individual business opportunities, compared to Al Gore’s whose tough love, state centred government would provide a stronger governmental role.”
On the Internet this morning, financial news web sites were speculating that business is expected to boom under George W Bush, if he survives the vote recount.
News of a victory for the Republican led to a drop for the euro against the dollar during early trading in London. But when reports of the recount reached London the euro recovered $0.0037, from $0.8548 to £0.8585.
Foreign exchange traders believe that a Bush government is less likely to support the euro through joint bank intervention.
The technology, oil, drugs and defence industries expect to prosper under Bush. Technology stocks might rise at it is believed that Bush will go easy on Microsoft in its court battle with the American government.
Al Gore stated he would restrict prescription prices, but Bush believes that low drugs prices are not enough incentive for drug companies to develop new drugs.
Former oil industry worker, Bush, is also believed to be interested in exploration and drilling in Alaska, offshore California and the Gulf of Mexico.
by Paul Nelson
]