#1 I think that right now tariffs are seen by the administration as a way to help the budget deficit, however, a poor one as many have pointed out. In reality, to plug the gap from the tax cuts they need to look at real cuts in government spending. #2 There is some concern about making China as the bad player in this trade war, however, it is already too apparent that the US is the one calling the shots. Also China is expanding, not contracting its global footprint which is a concern to US competitiveness. Also, as many have pointed out, China's manufacturing is under long term decline anyways as SE Asia is more cost competitive and will be more able to deal with manufacturing as time goes on like Japan was vs. the US in the past, then Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea was to Japan in the past, and China was to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea. Now Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia are the treats to China and is why China is getting so aggressive in the Pacific Ocean. The US is a symptom of a wider problem for China and the US fighting vs. China over manufacturing is like fighting the last manufacturing war instead of looking at the future global battleground. It is diverting attention to the wrong issue. The issue is the constant manufacturing movement to the lowest cost labor with the lowest environmental laws. To counter this, automation will help, as well as global regulations on environmental manufacturing. #3 The last scary issue is China is quickly realizing its need to move to a higher end economy and is producing more and more patents and innovation. China does need to protect patents better for its own future sake. This will happen naturally. Also China needs to open up its freedom of information to enable creativity and a more global landscape, however, Facebook incidents and Russian hacking have shown even the US the potential for misuse. There needs to be discussion on this topic, however, government information control ends up hurting China's economy in the long run by it stymieing global competitiveness and creativity. #4 The lack of China allowing for the free trade of its currency also hurts its potential to be a global financial leader. It is making small advances on this. Right now China is trying to keep its currency up, not push it down. This is at contradiction to claims its playing currency manipulation games and most people realize this. Once again, helping China be open to free currency helps China more than it hurts it. #5 Last, demonizing China isn't that good if you plan on running a continuing deficit and depend on it for so much trade that obviously America wants even with trade tariffs. To move forward on this is a bit silly given Americans will realize quite rapidly how much they depend on China to keep their standard of living. The US essentially has been exporting not only its deficits but also its inflation. If the US stops imports it will quickly realize how much inflation its deficit spending really causes and it will become frightening rapidly. Republicans by and large realize our trading partners are partners and not enemies. Let us hope clearer minds will prevail for our sake.

Pretty positive all around as expected. Budgetary stimulus works better than monetary.

If you aren't ready for it by now you never will be. This is another story that just goes on and on and on.

As always, a downturn will come and most likely most will not be expecting it. However, it will have to be caused by an event that fundamentally changes the overall mood. I don't see that occurring this year and next year is looking better too. The issue is what happens the year after when the economy is used to fiscal easing and monetary policy is brought closer to normal.

Then the issue is not so much what will cause a decline more than what will stimulate the economy further. The mumbling will be calls for the Federal Reserve to start easing again which they shouldn't until a decline happens. If the Federal Reserve eases to preserve this cycle they will be jeopardizing all they worked for to help in the next downturn. Then what happens? A Greek type fiscal policy and/or a Venezuelan type monetary mess? Let us hope not.

The mild decline in housing prices and rents is good for the economy as housing costs drop yielding free cash to invest in productivity, savings, or spend as needed. A collapse is bad, however, with the Federal Reserve guiding a slow rise in yields, it probably won't come to that this year or next. The issue is if inflation forces rates higher, but even that can be controlled with stopping tariff wars, cutting the deficit, or easing Iran sanctions. The good news is we have control if those in power are willing to put the economy first.

Weak or declining home values are good for the economy right now and even more so weak or declining rents. On the other hand, a collapse in home prices may cause turmoil, so it's a dangerous position until it is stable.

Jeff Weginer is right that what is more worrisome is Asia's stronger links with the EU. This not only offsets declines in the US due to the trade wars but creates stronger competitors in both hemispheres. Lopsided trade wars hardly ever go well for the ones causing them.

Can you blame the Chinese companies? Borrow while you can makes a lot of sense if you live in a socialist country where you can't get all the information you need to make rational global decisions due to information firewalls. He who borrows and has the most cash when the economy crashes is the most likely to win there. This is the race they are fighting.

Hmm instead Washington is busy trying to destroy Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon with regulations and hearings as they decry the fact that foreigners don't buy enough US goods. Does this make any sense?

Processing will get a lot easier once quantum computing kicks in. Of course, unless it relegates all these out of existence. If so, I'm sure there will be a slew of new coins that will waste even more electricity. This industry is still in the early ages and will probably be developed for things like protecting your Facebook from hacks hopefully. Once again, quantum computing will have to be taken into consideration requiring long delays before more than 2 or 3 attempts or some new encryption method.