What happens if we smash the system? Oh. I see. It’s smashed

OPINION: There was a little part of me that wanted Trump to win. As if the election was a TV show, and I wanted a dramatic plot twist. Well that was stupid.

OPINION

IN 2011, I was sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s surgery. My hand hurt. A lot. And I was waiting for the results of an x-ray.

While I waited, I couldn’t help but want to get a dramatic result. I wanted the x-ray to come back broken. Given how much my hand hurt, and given how much fuss it had been to go to the doctor, I wanted something to show for it.

When the doctor came out she was waving the black and white film. “Wow!” she said. “You really did yourself a mischief!”

I felt the sudden sense I’d been an idiot to want this. I was in for a lot of trouble.

I’m reminded of this today, because even though I really, really wanted Hillary Clinton to win, a little part of me also wanted to see what would happen if she didn’t. As if part of me was interpreting this election as a TV show, and I wanted some big drama to take the story forward.

The drama of a Donald Trump victory is already revealing that part of me was stupid. Right now, it’s like the world economy is getting ready for a hurricane.

Hillary Clinton’s supporters react as voting results come in in favour of Donald Trump. This is how so many of us are feeling right now. Picture: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP

EVERYBODY GET DOWN!

The US market is going to crash when it opens on Wednesday. Futures are down by a shocking 4.5 per cent. Markets have cratered across Asia, in Australia and New Zealand.

Why are stock prices falling? Investors expect businesses around the world to struggle under Trump’s wild new world order. That probably means people losing their jobs and reversing some of the world’s recovery since the global financial crisis.

As Donald Trump looks set to win Australian markets and others around the world begin to plummet. https://t.co/1HPVtMZW4x pic.twitter.com/ETjnckcb9W

— The Daily Telegraph (@dailytelegraph) November 9, 2016

Falling stocks makes thousands of super funds who invest in the stock market a lot poorer. More old people will struggle to get by.

Some assets have gone up though — the ones people seek out in bad times. Gold is up 4 per cent and the digital currency Bitcoin is up the same amount.

US Government bonds have also gone up sharply. They normally rise if the global economy is weak, because they don’t depend on the success or failure of business for their value. But most of us make our living in the economy, so that’s not much consolation.

THE WALL FLOWERS

The Mexicans have the most to lose. A man who has called them rapists and wants to wall them off (at their expense) now runs their biggest and most powerful neighbour. Their currency has fallen a whopping 9 per cent.

The Republican party looks set to control the US Senate and the US House of Representatives.

That will give Mr Trump a lot of leeway to do whatever he wants. Which means the wall may go up, all the Muslims in the US might be expelled and a lot of other very unexpected new policies could happen as well.

Imagine if Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey had controlled the senate, and you get only the palest, faintest sense of the storm of weird change that is about to arrive in America.

FAREWELL DEAR WORLD

Closer to home, overseas holidays are going to get a lot more expensive. Our dollar is down heavily against the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the New Zealand dollar, the British pound and even the Indonesian Rupiah. Unless all the values bounce back, things we buy from overseas could get more expensive.

All that has happened before they have even finished counting the votes. We’re not even at day one of his presidency. Barring some dramatic event, Trump will take office in January.

It could be a very long, grim and regretful four years.

Jason Murphy is an economist. He publishes the blog Thomas The Thinkengine. Follow Jason on Twitter @Jasemurphy