The new U.S. Administration may have hastened some economic and market trends, but the underlying factors were already underway. Inflation has been picking up since last July; the U.S. consumer has been pulling on the reins for months now amid tapped-out credit; the Federal government has been careening towards a debt crisis. The stock market was ripe for a correction, bonds have been weak, while gold had been on a tear for a couple of years. The new administration’s actions and policies, and the uncertainty created by them sparked some of these developments, but the trends were already underway.

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