Global Uncertainty Gauge Enters 2019 at Record High Level

Chatter surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the government shutdown and tax policies are making Americans nervous. And the rest of the world feels uneasy too.

The Global Uncertainty Index, a measure of unpredictability in 20 countries, reached a record level in December. The index, developed in 2016 by the Economic Policy Uncertainty researchers Scott Baker, Nick Bloom and Steven Davis, is based on the frequency that newspapers cite "uncertain" or "uncertainty" in relation to economic policy.