Unfortunately, and historically very true. It is hard to help those who do not want the help. I don't see this going anywhere fast. Makes for a good soundbite, but that's about it. Regarding tariffs, I actually think he did exactly what he intended to do in Canada and Mexico case. We will more likely than not hear about them again for those 2 countries as I will predict new accords there over the next 30 days.
China - different story, do I think this is geared toward getting them to the table, yes. It may cause some short-term pain, but something has to give even a little with China. We are too dependent on their manufacturing well beyond toy soldiers. We created this mess ourselves by pricing ourselves out of manufacturing our own goods. I could go on for pages on why this happened, it is not just increased labor rates, it is what's behind that. All of this said, IMO tempest in a teapot. Market makers like a little chaos once in a while as major money makes moves on the sell offs. That is why our stock market is a rigged game. Again, could talk about that for pages. Long story short, I would expect to see movement on the China front also and a shift. One thing about Trump, he is not going to be idle, some moves will be good, some will be bad, but I am not one to judge on a short game basis, I take a long-term point of view on all of these actions.
TD