Investors won’t care about impeachment — but they do care about policies | Opinion

Let’s be clear: The second impeachment of now-former President Donald Trump will not directly impact the investment markets as the Senate trial gets underway in the week ahead.

However, the trial will lay bare the political lines that have hardened since the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill. And that will color important legislative debates and decisions that will influence investor portfolios.

Already, Democrats are pushing ahead on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus plan without Republican support. The GOP plan calls for $1,000 stimulus checks to fewer Americans. Democrats want $1,400 payments to more people. Republicans include a lot less for schools than the Democratic plan. Democrats also include money for state and local governments; the Republican plan leaves out that spending.

Any bill that comes out of this process will be held up by the impeachment trial. That’s just the short-term risk for investors. A drawn-out trial will test investor confidence that another timely round of fiscal stimulus is on the way.

The air will not be cleared after the Senate impeachment verdict, though. Investor portfolios don’t care about the outcome per se, but politics will influence spending and regulatory decisions to come. Climate change, immigration, healthcare and other economically important issues are on the agenda for the spring and summer. How the impeachment trial is handled will help set the legislative tone with a tight balance of power in the Senate.

Markets were unfazed by the first impeachment of President Trump. The political calculus and economic policy proposals have changed.

Tom Hudson hosts “The Sunshine Economy” on WLRN-FM, where he is the vice president of news. Twitter: @HudsonsView.