Stocks Drop After Obama Wins: Investors Worry Economy Will Not Change

Republicans aren't talking about it because, well frankly, they probably don't feel like talking about anything related to the election today. Democrats aren't talking about it because they are understandably basking in the glow of victory for what victory here may or may not be worth.

Nonetheless, here's a little rain to either make you feel worse or less thrilled about how things went down last night. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and virtually every single market indicator dropped immediately upon the opening bell on Wednesday, the morning after Americans re-elected Barack Obama to the presidency.

Hardly the end of the world as we know it. I'm not saying that it is. I'm not even saying that today's market performance is a strong indicator of extended economic malaise. But, I don't think it's merely a symbolic sell-off by disappointed Republicans and Tea Party die-hards, either. For one thing, people with big investments don't sell them off simply because they are personally upset over an election result.

Stocks fell this morning and stayed well below recent averages all day Wednesday. Oddly, even gold was down most of the day, although it went up later in the afternoon as you might expect. Gold is the go-to investment for people who think the world is about to end. I find this to be nearly as irrational as the price of diamonds—you can't eat them or burn them, but human attach intrinsic value to both.

According to the AP, today was the worst day for the stock market in a year, but not the worst post-election day for stocks historically. Ironically, despite what some PolicyMic pundits would have you believe, that day was in 2008 when Obama was first elected. Stocks dropped 486 points the next morning, according to the AP.

What this sell-off is likely an expression of is some serious concerns about where our economy is going. Or, more accurately, concerns about whether it's going anywhere at all. According to this AP story, our continued divided government worries investors who now have every reason to believe that nothing will change for four more years. This is a reasonable assumption given that Republicans control the House and still occupy enough seats in the Senate to affect voting. And, now they're not likely in a very compromising mood.

I'm not proposing any solutions or pointing any fingers. I have no political axe to grind today since I voted for neither of the occupying parties. In fact, I'm kind of stoked that Colorado voted to say, "In your face," to the federal government and legalized marijuana. But, market reaction to the election is something that PolicyMic has rather blatantly ignored today. Somebody had to bring it to your attention.