According to the research firm Sentieo, which spent hours and hours of time scouring the "Risk Factor" sections of 10-Ks and 10-Qs, Trump has been about 3x more likely to be cited by a publicly traded company in the U.S. as a "Risk Factor" in his first 100 days in office than was Obama. Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, here are a couple of histograms that highlight the comparison:
Of course, there are multiple factors, some of which are unrelated to worries about a specific candidate's policies, that go into the crafting of such risk factors. For example, Trump was way more likely to be cited as a risk factor by healthcare companies in his first 100 days...though we suspect that is only because he's entering office during a time in which it's becoming increasingly obvious that Obamacare is an epic failure and needs to be saved from the brink of collapse.
Although the mainstream media is certainly trying, it's pretty difficult for any serious person to blame Obamacare's failure on the Trump administration.
And, in other instances, we suspect Trump actually welcomed the notion of being a "risk factor"...here are just a few examples:
Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016
General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A.or pay big border tax!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2017
Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers. This is happening all over our country. No more!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016
Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
Meanwhile, both candidates were deemed of relatively equal risk by financial companies...Trump for, among other things, going after special tax treatment of carried interests at private equity firms and Obama for regulatory risk coming out of the great recession.
President Trump expressed support for legislation ending treatment of carried interest as capital gain ... we and possibly our unitholders would be required to pay a materially higher amount of taxes, thereby adversely affecting our ability to recruit, retain and motivate our current and future professionals. — Blackstone Group LP filings
Due to the current economic environment and issues facing the financial services industry, as well as the effect of the change from the Bush to the Obama administration, we anticipate new legislative and regulatory initiatives over the next several years, including many focused specifically on banking and other financial services in which we are engaged. These initiatives will be in addition to the actions already taken by Congress and the regulators... — PNC Financial Services Group Inc. filings
And while it's probably not a fair comparison, given that Obama took office right in the midst of the great recession which was more attributable to Bush/Clinton, we would be remiss if we failed to point out that manipulated equity prices of today are far more enamored with Trump than similarly manipulated equity markets of 2008 were with Obama.