What this means for markets isn't obvious, though. Pre-election predictions amounted to little more than trawling through historical data (which, as we know, is no guide to what will happen in the future). And even knowing the result doesn't tell us much that's especially useful.
Of course, Mitt Romney's campaign pledge to remove Fed chief Ben Bernanke and rein in QE is now moot - and that means loose monetary policy is set to continue. How effective it will be is another matter; some asset prices may find further support, but it doesn't follow that share prices will respond in the same way, especially since US markets are hardly cheap on a cyclically adjusted PE basis.
What's more, the election result does not alter the fact that there is the small matter of a $660bn 'fiscal cliff' to resolve by the year end - a compromise by a divided Congress is probable, but whatever any deal brings, it will still mean tax increases and government spending cuts that could knock a point or two from US GDP growth. Some suggest that should still be good enough to unlock a wave of investment by companies that, in the face of this fiscal uncertainty, have been happy to hoard cash. But would companies really have curtailed investment to such an extent if they thought there was growth out there to be had?
The fact is that the US economy is not out of the woods, even though the excitable nature of a US election has partially obscured this. Much of the economic good news we've been hearing – stabilising house prices, rising home construction and falling unemployment - is not because its economy is strong, but because in the wake of the financial crisis it had been so weak. Capital Economics says the US will struggle to grow at anything above 2 per cent for a while yet.
Meanwhile, another leadership transition is taking place on the other side of the world that could have a far more profound effect on the shape of the global economy. China's 18th Communist Party Congress will confirm the country's new leaders this week and, as Mark Robinson discusses, the reforms they're likely to pursue could see a very different China emerge from the one that drove a decade long global boom. Now, more than ever, it is time to look east, not west.
