The trade war has transitioned from a battle over economic interests to a fight for nationalistic pride – which never bodes well when it comes to the potential for a win-win resolution.

What do we know? 100% – American consumers will pay more for goods (as discussed, the importers pay the tariff and pass it on through increased prices short term). This should lower demand and therefore slow growth and negatively impact the stock market in the short to medium term. The long term question – and the one that makes me ask “is Trump a mad genius or … not” is how quickly do American companies move manufacturing out of China into more “friendly” (aka- less powerful) countries and has that become the real objective of this quest?

Bottom line though is that the US has become a service based economy and manufacturing jobs will never come back here – especially with our immigration laws restricting those coming into the country who might do the jobs Americans don’t want.

So – American consumers will pay more for goods and maybe Vietnam will be better off – but it is the unintended consequences of this that scare me the most.