It's not good but not earth shattering as well. Fires in California and hurricanes and flooding in Texas and the gulf. The good news is that people will need new cars.

Worse than China's blocking Bitcoin is the slew of new cryptos coming online. The technology has gotten big enough to cause major growing pains.

Any updates on trade wars on solar panels? There is growth but pricing is still an issue for profitability and trade wars may inhibit First Solar in particular with growth.

Actually currencies do tend to trade in concert with each other and is why stimulus in once currency tends to help the global economy as money migrates to other currencies. Cryptos are much smaller and not directly linked to economies so they trade more like a commodity like gold. Only so much is flowing to cryptos and the more there are the more the cash stream gets fragmented hurting each currency as well as the movement. If you thought the beta max wars were bad, just wait until the crypto currency wars start. There will be mass confusion and then some will die losing money for those in them causing more anger.

It remains a dangerous gambit. Unregulated currency production tends to lead to this.

China's stimulus was not so much to spur the economy as much as it was to prevent a rapid meltdown. That said, how many times they can do this is a good question as is the same question poised to the US now that they are holding up the economy by devaluing their currency. The Eurozone seems calmer recently. Maybe its from sourcing cheaper goods from Asia.

Does anyone know how many more currencies are coming on the market. I've heard a lot of speculation other banks will start making their versions of them by next year. Crazy silliness.

Don't expect much with tax reform helping the economy. 1 it tends to be segmented towards the wealthy where it provided the least economic boost. 2 it has already been priced into the market. 3 if it is not offset by spending cuts it will further weaken the dollar which will negate a lot of the effect. 4 is is not clear anything will even pass. Consequently, there is more downside than upside. And 5th, if it creates a bigger budget gap the Federal Reserve will tighten which will negate the stimulus.

Bull markets are supported by things. This bull market has been supported by abnormally low interest rates, continued deficit spending and not this administration is adding in the weakening of the dollar which props up big global US corporations at the cost of everyone else. If gone too far it will cause commodities inflation and an interest rate rise. This will end the cycle even if there is no credit tightening. Sadly, the US has been running on added debt, especially in the corporate space.

Mainly the recent move has been because Asia is building stronger links with Europe at the cost of the US who is arguing trade wars with the world. Once things calm down, hopefully the US will regain some of its lost stature in global economics. Innovation still remains key for advanced economies such as the US.

Bitcoin is only dropping because of the multiplication effect of other crypto currencies. What people will find out is that the multiplication of crypto currencies deflates the value of each one as the assets going to the field get divided. Thus the crypto limitation of currency is meaningless. If 100 crypto currencies appear value will drop for each no matter how few shares the currency allows miners to create. Crypto currencies are their own biggest enemies and the limitation of one dominating due to the slow creation of currencies actually prevents one from rapidly garnering enough market share to shut the rest of them down by becoming the preeminent currency.

As big players enter even Bitcoin may feel the pressure.