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Uncertainty about the economy is fomented partly from conflicting signs. Jobs growth remains strong in the US and consumer spending is robust, according to the latest data.

But the slowest growth in China in three decades, imminent recession fears in big European economies and bearish signals sent last week by the bond markets could be early warning signs of a 2020 economic headache for Trump.

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"We don't know yet, are we headed for a recession? That's not my base case scenario," Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari told CNN's Brianna Keilar on Friday. "But the risks have increased quite a bit."

Kraft earned 37 cents per share generating $6.4 billion in revenue during the fiscal second quarter, but analysts were expecting earnings to be around 75 cents and $6.58 billion revenue, according to Refinitiv.

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Its 325 million shares represent 26.7% of Kraft Heinz, and the value of those stocks has dropped from just over $14 billion to around $8.7 billion in 2019 alone. That's roughly 37% in losses on one investment.

It doesn't help, either, that Kraft Heinz has such a prominent place in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio where it is currently the sixth-largest holding, according to CNBC. Buffett admits that he made a mistake when Berkshire teamed up with 3G to purchase Heinz for $23 billion back in 2013.

"I made a mistake in the Kraft purchase in terms of paying too much," Buffett said.

Warren, we coulda' told you in 2013 that Kraft/Heinz/et al were turkeys for being past their prime, food-culture-wise...

This argument is logical in the sense that, with financial economies so unstable, people might actually be able to pay a premium to "transfer purchasing power into the future". After all, that's pretty much the same as paying the carrying costs to hold cash (i.e., a bank account fee on a zero-yield checking account, or vault fees for cash), or storage fees for gold that, on average "goes nowhere". But what about inflation? This all assumes there's no inflation -- but at a minimum, the premium people are willing to pay implicitly must have an inflation rate subtracted from it. So if one is willing to take a 2% negative interest rate, one is likely assuming 0% inflation (or perhaps one would really be willing to pay a 4% negative interest rate, if it were not for 2% assumed inflation). The point being: if inflation really starts heating up in a general sense, these consumer-accepted negative interest rates will disappear real fast.

The iconic clothier founded almost a century ago will keep the doors open at its 10-story Madison Avenue store, but it has secured $75 million in financing to pay employees and vendors as it seeks a buyer.

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Barneys, controlled by New York hedge fund Perry Capital, listed more than $100 million in debt and more than $100 million in assets in its bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York.

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A strong economy has traditionally boosted luxury sales but like retailers across the spectrum, Barneys and other high-end stores have struggled to entice people through the door. They're seeing younger shoppers migrate online to sites like Net-a-Porter, which offers same-day delivery for luxury goods, or resale sites like The RealReal.com. Moreover, wealthy shoppers are going directly to luxury brands' online sites or shops.

Nordstrom has reported slowing sales. And Neiman Marcus Group, which also operates Bergdorf Goodman, posted a loss and a sales decline in its most recent quarter.

Sometimes, Robinson added, software was able to find patterns that would be difficult to describe yet still matched with known entities, based on pre-existing data from darknet markets, ransomware attacks and other criminal investigations.

That's five years earlier than they projected back in 2009. And it's only 15 years away....

Every worker who is legally employed in the United States currently pays roughly 15% of his/her wages each month to help fund Social Security and pay benefits to retirees.

But there are now so many people receiving Social Security benefits that all the payroll tax revenue is no longer enough.''

To be fair, the economy remains pretty strong, which isn't really a surprise given the G.O.P.'s willingness to run huge budget deficits as long as Democrats don't hold the White House. As I wrote three days after the 2016 election -- after the shock had worn off -- "It's at least possible that bigger budget deficits will, if anything, strengthen the economy briefly." And that's pretty much what happened: There was a bit of a bump in 2018, but at this point we've basically returned to pre-Trump rates of growth.

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And there's a good case to be made that Trump's tariffs have actually hurt U.S. manufacturing. For one thing, many of them have hit "intermediate goods," that is, stuff American companies use in their production processes, so the tariffs have raised costs.

Beyond that, the uncertainty created by Trump's policy by whim -- nobody knows what he'll hit next -- has surely deterred investment. Why build a manufacturing plant when, for all you know, next week a tweet will destroy your market, your supply chain, or both?

... think of the missed opportunities. Imagine how much better shape we'd be in if the hundreds of billions squandered on tax cuts for corporations had been used to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. Imagine what we could have done with policies promoting jobs of the future in things like renewable energy, instead of trade wars that vainly attempt to recreate the manufacturing economy of the past.

... pundits who think that Trump will be able to win by touting a strong economy are almost surely wrong. He most likely won't face a recession (although who knows?), but he definitely hasn't made the economy great again. So he's probably going to have to do what he's already doing, and clearly wants to do: run on racism instead.