The market has seen some loss this December, which is pretty weird considering that December is usually a good month for businesses, what do you think

@abe182 Yeah, that's it.

@QuixoticSoul I'm not joking. The stock market always gets shakey when politics isn't buttoned up and secure.

@abe182 It's not Mueller, it's the fundamentals. I work for a major financial institution, and we've been preparing for a downturn for quite some time - the economy has been showing late-cycle behavior for a while now.

Trump's squabbles with China generated some of the volatility lately, but the Mueller stuff isn't even on the radar.

@QuixoticSoul well that's good to know.

@abe182 I guess. Our porfolio managers and senior leadership are bulletproof in any economy - but I still work for a living. All this talk of building defensive portfolios, etc, is not especially comforting.

None of this is a secret and has little to do with politics - our CEO had a long conversation about what's coming with the shareholders way back before the midterms.

@QuixoticSoul what do you see for the near future

@abe182 I am hoping not to see a global financial collapse. A downturn is inevitable, but that's normal - this is already a historic economic expansion, and they can't last forever. But there are some very unpleasant indicators out there.

I'm an engineer, so I just get some stuff by osmosis. Nobody is panicking, but people are girding themselves.

@QuixoticSoul ughhhhh