A week ago, when last we "spoke," I talked at length about what I called "the tragicomedy of great expectations."
The gist of the discussion was that for all the talk of the US economy "decelerating," things were actually going along fairly well until ISM manufacturing dipped into contraction in August following President Trump's decision to go "all-in" on China (where that meant announcing his intention to slap tariffs on another ~$270 billion in Chinese goods, which, in conjunction with existing levies, would amount to the US taxing all imports from the country).
And yet,