In November 1987, R.E.M. released "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" as the second single from Document. It peaked at No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100. (Wikipedia
The song is built in two parts. The verses are a breathless pile-up: an earthquake, a hurricane, the six o'clock TV hour, "a tournament of lies." Then the chorus comes in, steady and almost cheerful: and I feel fine.
That is a pretty good description of the morning after an election. Today, the verses are everywhere: alerts, hot takes, forecasts of doom or glory depending on the channel. Your job as a founder or business leader is to be the chorus. Tell the whole team…and I feel fine!
What Changed Overnight
For most businesses, very little changed on day one. Laws aren't passed in a night, and rules take time to write. Tax changes, tariff decisions and spending bills come through a process with months of warning. Your customers woke up today needing the same things they needed yesterday. Your payroll is still due Friday. Your covenant test is still on the same date.
Markets tend to agree. A CNBC analysis of elections from 1980 to 2024 found that the S&P 500 moved an average of 0.2% the day after an election. The index was higher a year later after every midterm from 1982 through 2022, by an average of 13.7%. The ride isn't always smooth. After the 1986 midterms, the index fell 33% from peak to trough during the October 1987 crash before ending the year about 1% higher. But the crash wasn't caused by the election, and that is the lesson: what moves your business is usually something other than the headline.
This isn't investment advice, and history doesn't guarantee anything. It's a reminder that the noise is loud and short-lived.
What Didn't Change
The things that actually drive your cash flow didn't change last night:
Your cost of money. The Federal Reserve held rates on October 28, and its next meeting is December 8–9. That date matters more to a floating-rate borrower than any election night. (I will publish next week "The Fed Paused. December May Not.")
Your customers' buying cycle. Q4 budgets, renewals and year-end orders follow their own calendar.
Your 2027 plan. If it was sound on Monday, it's still sound today. If it wasn't, the election isn't the reason.
The One List to Write Today
Instead of reacting, spend 30 minutes with your finance lead and write a short list: which assumptions in our 2027 model depend on policy?
Tag them. Examples include tariff-exposed input costs, tax-rate assumptions, government or grant revenue, and labor rules affecting your headcount plan. Mark each cell or line in the model so anyone can find it.
Size them. For each one, ask what a reasonable bad case would do to EBITDA and cash. If the answer is "not much," cross it off the worry list.
Assign a trigger. Write down the specific event that would make you change the assumption, such as a bill passing, a rule being published or a tariff schedule being announced. Don't use "the news sounded bad."
Revisit at the reforecast, not the next morning. Bring the list to your next quarterly reforecast. Act on triggers, not moods.
That list turns a vague worry into three or four line items with owners and dates. Boards, lenders and employees all want to see that their leaders can tell the verse from the chorus.
Feel Fine on Purpose
"I feel fine" isn't denial. It's what you can say when you know which numbers matter, when they get tested and what you'll do if they move. Companies that panic the day after an election tend to make the same expensive mistakes: hiring freezes they later reverse, frozen capital projects that go back on the plan in the spring, and pricing changes customers notice.
The world as we know it ends a little every news cycle. The business keeps running. Make the list, keep the plan and get back to work.
John Mortenson is a fractional CFO and founder of Straiteis Consulting. He helps founders and mid-market leaders build plans that hold up when the headlines don't.
