It appears that things are slowing down a bit but the economy is strong with low unemployment and strong stock market; however, it really needed to slow down a bit to allow earnings to increase and catch up. If earnings increase then that will truly show how strong our economy is and could hold off a full-fledge recession for the time being. 

I think its important to believe a recession is inevitable if it provides the wisdom and commitment to take advantage of the season and do what is necessary to:

Live on less than you make

Pay down your debt

Develop multiple streams of income

I am pleased with the President, and he is doing everything he can to help the businesses grow. If there were cooperation, he would do much more.
Unfortunately, many fight him every step of the way for no good reason other than they hate him.
We need to stand up for the economy and say thank you, Mr. President, and we are behind you!

In my opinion, no one knows the answer. Most specialists are wrong in their predictions. The best thing we can do as business people is not worry about it, trying to predict it, and go about your business being the best we can be. We can set ourselves up for disappointment by reading negative news or the gloom and doom predictions of others... or we could go to work on making ourselves more valuable in the marketplace. It's funny how people in the same types of businesses can have totally different outcomes. The success of an economy starts with us and that we really do attract what we put our attention on.
As a challenge, lets try taking a six month sabbatical from all news sometime. If there's a nuclear war someone witll tell us.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.  

This is a rather interesting survey, a little troubling, but interesting non-the-less.  I am not concerned particularly about recessions or depressions in our economy.  Our economy has always been somewhat cyclical.  And though I admit that we need to plan and have contingencies for the future, and learn from the past, we also need to live in the here and now.

When we talk about recessions, it is like bringing on the thought of doom and gloom, and that can get pretty unnerving if we allow it.  I prefer to think more positively, and whatever the economy, continue to do the right thing and be the best that I can be.  Though we may be in business to earn a living, it isn't about the money.  If it is, I am afraid our focus isn't in the right place and we will find ourselves very disappointed in the long run.  It reminds me of a sign I had seen on the back of a dump truck: "If money is your goal, you will never have enough".

There are a lot of things and events that may impact Wall Street, and ultimately my business, but none of these things will I allow to move me away from my passion of helping others and keeping them safe.  Yes; make plans/contingencies for the future, don't stop learning from the past, but live for today and make it the best you possibly can for yourself and others.

This has been a terrible festival year for artists and craftspeople at national shows. In my view the current political climate is resulting in folks being very cautious with both their money and their time. So many public shooting sprees make people think twice about going to a festival and the continued rising cost of health care has the growing number of retirees extremely cautious with their ever-shrinking expendable income. The expenses involved in traveling to out-of-State to shows have increased as well. in general, for artists, this is a tough time. Hope to see a positive shift after what will no doubt prove to be a painful election season. 

Not being an economist, I have to go on gut-feel. On macro level, reaching a trade agreement with China will ensure longer term growth domestically. The EU will be forced to negotiate a favorable trade agreement as a result. A strong coalition to retain Iran and the seaway they are trying to control, will ensure some stability in that region. On micro level, there is a hard push to alienate Americans against each other. If normal folks can't move through all the smoke and noise, the polarity will increase, resulting in chaos. That distraction will prevent perfectly good programs to be placed on the back burner and the economy will suffer. 

Of course the middle class will be in denial until it directly affects their household. Us bottom dwellers, the temporary office worker and those in the service industries always feel the rumblings. Supermarkets are cutting hours and hiring more part time workers. I have gone from 5-6day work weeks to just 1 day a week. Employer won't lay me off so I can at least collect unemployment. Seeing so many stores close and empty store fronts doesn't seem like an encouraging economy either. Honestly, my gut is saying the beginning of the downturn is now. I am seeing lots of GenXers moving out of the northeast to parts west or south because we haven't had it good for over the last decade and many of us are nowhere prepared for retirement because many of us have been living paycheck to paycheck. Some will dig in their heels in NYC but they are having to resort to taking on gig economy jobs or in the case of one friend of mine, pimp out her tiny apartment in Washington Heights as an AirBnB and still she couldn't really have money to pay for medical expenses that she needed. I also think if one needs three jobs to makes ends meet you know the economy is crap and will continue to grow worse as time goes on. As long as wage earners don't have a liveable wage in order to spend money to put back in the economy, it is like a car with no petrol, eventually it will stall and possibly "die". Honestly, if I could get a sponsor, I would emigrate to Canada. The American Dream is dead to those of modest means who were born and raised here. 

I think if you are planning a project that will take over 2 years to get completed, then you may be too late to enter the boom stage.  The welcoming of our next President whether it be Trump or someone else will also be the welcoming of the entering of our economic slow down.  Hopefully it won't hit hard, but things will slow down. Position yourself to ride the turbulence out, and be ready to pounce on opportunities that present itself during these downturns.