//my ladies new cars have cost well over $50,000 in depreciation, & tens of thousands in dealer servicing. Her cars have spent more time off the road waiting for warranty replacement parts, than have my old things.//

//Learning a little about cars can be valuable. Oh & who is the "silly old fool" you, your daughter or me?//

Hassy are you putting your lady in that category? Don't look like she took your advice, or is she also enrolled five times a week in the Hassy Car Mechanics Class.

p/s Modern cars leave a lot to be desired, often the "home mechanic" can do little with them. Hassy not all are living in your fantasy world of 1950.

BTW, as a young bloke I spent many hours working on old cars. It was not so difficult then.

yuyutsu I actually think the recession may be both deep and long
Any disruption to world trade may build its own momentum
In fact n my view such a recession may bring about an overhaul of future trade and financial matters
We can only hope we are both wrong, that no recession comes but it is swimming against the tide of true expert opinion
China seems to want true power and influence, at any cost, America slumbers while Trump is in office

Dear Belly,

Both China and America are bad influences - we better learn to live without both.

A disruption in world trade can be a good thing, so long as it happens gradually. We should be producing all we need locally in Australia, including food, fuel, clothes, cars and farm-machinery. The only thing we cannot produce on this small scale is hi-tech gadgets, which we better do without anyway. I just hope we have sufficient time to adjust before hunger sets in.

As for the next recession, we can only wait and see.

yuyutsu agree both are not setting examples for any country to follow
But world trade? dare we dump it? interesting report from America this morning
American big business commenting about Trump's trade war, and its implications
Seems Pinocchio [Trump] thinks America should build its own factories to compete/remove the need, with imported Chinese products
Business man pointed out just on prices American made may cost three hundred percent of Chinese one

Dear Belly,

«Business man pointed out just on prices American made may cost three hundred percent of Chinese one»

Yes, but the quality... I had so many Chinese-made things break down or malfunction - what do they care? Chinese culture has no sense of ethics.

Anyway, we don't want American goods either, we should produce our own.
However, it is best if we start now so as to make the transition as gradual as possible.

had so many Chinese-made things break down or malfunction
Yuyutsu,
I had the same experiences with Australian made, customer Service is the #1 let-down in Australia.