Here you see nancy Pelosi, who will become Speaker of the House when the Dems take over Washington in January. Sure there's still that pesky George W. Bush at the top of the heap, but Rumsfeld's out and it's clear that a new day has dawned in American politics. Whether that makes you happy or sad I don't know, but it's probably going to affect your finances one way or the other.

Philly Inquirer columnist Jeff Brown takes a swing at a few possibilities. Here's the jist:

Bush's tax cuts will expire in 2011 and it's unlikely that a Democratic Congress is going to move to make all of them more permanent as Bush wants. Most in peril: capital gains taxes, which are generally thought of us as taxes on stock sales or similar investments. Rich people have more capital gains, Bush likes rich people, Dems prefer to share the wealth a bit more, so you can see where that's going.

Also, tax rates will probably go back up to previous levels. Although it's possible that in 2008 things could swing back the other way, it would be very unlikely that the GOP gets the prez, the House and the Senate all doing its bidding again for a while.

It's always very difficult to gauge how the political climate and economic policy affects the good times or the bad times because there tends to be a lag between when something is instituted and when the results are seen.

For example, if you tend Democrat, you probably think Bill Clinton's policies created the '90s boom. If you're Republican, you probably think Clinton rode on the coattails of the smart GOP policies which didn't bear fruit until later on. Similarly, our economy seems to be OK at the moment, not great, but OK. If you're Republican, you think it's because of Bush's tax cuts. If you're Democrat, you think it's despite Bush tax cuts, and that we'd all be a lot richer if he hadn't pushed for them in the first place. And of course you probably have a few thoughts as to how our spending in Iraq plays into all of this.

If you don't identify strongly with either party, you think they're all full of beans. Which, unfortunately, they are.