Germany and France are barely holding up their economies. Amidst these weaknesses, they are looking to further sanction/decouple from China. Given the Israeli escalation in Iran, and OPEC mulling a production cut, oil prices are being pushed higher which will further impact the manufacturing and transportation industries. The Longshoreman strike is slated to affect just about every aspect of the US economy from food to appliances to chips to toys, etc… The West is being steered by an Alzheimer patient and a cackling infant and if the earth were flat, we would fall into the abyss of space.