Kindly Hold
Submitted by Atlas Indicators Investment Advisors on October 31st, 2025
Political turbulence has become the new normal, yet economic markets are learning to live with the chaos. In Washington D.C., fiscal budget brinkmanship has shut the government down. Americans watch the partisan tussles one nightly news episode at a time. As one side blames the other, you can nearly hear the opposition mutter, “Hold my beer” as they prepare their own blame game. So far, markets have taken the events in stride. Meanwhile, our nation’s tumult is no longer an isolated event.
Across the Atlantic, Paris has looked at Washington and, metaphorically speaking, said “Hold my Champagne.” France’s political stage has been dogged by fiscal challenges as well. There they also see a budget crisis and growing debt level. And their economy is not as strong as America’s, so there are major chasms in opinion about how their government should intervene to buttress growth. This lack of consensus has pushed their Prime Minister and his cabinet to resign. France’s President Macron asked the Prime Minister to hold one last round of talks to find a path forward.
Meanwhile in Tokyo, Japan eyes a membership into the politically flummoxed fraternity, offering a polite “Hold my Sake.” The same party has run the country for nearly 30 years, but the nation has been through four prime ministers in the past five. Like both the U.S. and France, they have a tremendous level of debt, currently over 200% of their gross domestic product. Just this weekend, Sane Takaichi became the newest Prime Minister in Japan, just in time for a visit from President Trump later this month.
The globe features more simultaneous political upheaval than one can recall before. Each nation showcases its own challenges. Yet amid the noise, markets remain relatively sanguine. And this might be the best news. Markets continue behaving orderly, indicating an underlying strength belied by the headlines. While these large and influential nations manage through their political challenges, the rest of the world holds their breath and markets hold up.
