#policy-uncertainty

#policy-uncertainty

Speaking on the Goldman Sachs Exchanges podcast on Jan. 20, ahead of his trip to Davos, Solomon described a business landscape defined by a sharp dichotomy. On one side, the macroeconomic setup for 2026 is "pretty good for risk assets and for markets," fueled by a "confluence of very stimulative actions," including monetary easing and a massive capital investment boom in AI infrastructure. On the other, executives are grappling with anxiety about inconsistent policymaking and geopolitical "noise."

Real estate investment trusts (REITs), private equity firms and other large institutional investors have expanded their single-family rental portfolios in recent years, drawing criticism from housing advocates and lawmakers who argue that investor activity has constrained supply and pushed home prices higher. Markets reacted swiftly to Trump's comments. Shares of Invitation Homes the nation's largest owner of single-family rental homes fell more than 7% Wednesday afternoon. Blackstone, a major player in the space that acquired Home Partners of America for $6 billion in 2021 and Tricon Residential for $3.5 billion in 2024, was down about 5%.

The IoD's Directors' Economic Confidence Index, which tracks business leader optimism about the wider UK economy, rose to -66 in December, up from -73 in November, which had been measured immediately before the Budget.

Policy uncertainty in Westminster is weighing heavily on Britain's small business sector, according to one of the City's most influential bankers. Kunal Shah, co-head of Goldman Sachs International, warned that a lack of clarity over taxation and employment laws is creating an "overhang" that is discouraging entrepreneurs from investing and hiring. Speaking to The Times ahead of a House of Commons reception marking 15 years of Goldman's 10,000 Small Businesses programme, Shah said founders were increasingly nervous about the government's shifting regulatory agenda.

Soon after Donald Trump returned to the White House, his administration gutted the federal government's central education data collection and research funding agency, the Institute of Education Sciences. Researchers say the move jeopardized the nation's ability to figure out how to improve K-12 and higher education and its capacity to hold publicly funded schools, colleges and universities accountable. But the president didn't fully erase IES-which Congress created, and continues to require to exist, through the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002.