Trade talks extended; Animal spirits back in the stock market; Modernizing education

DC is in the midst of a wind storm and after this weekend I am worried the East Wind may be prevailing over the West Wind 东风压倒西风 (See Mao’s 1957 speech).

President Trump announced on Twitter that the US-China trade talks will be extended with no increase in existing or addition of new tariffs on the original March 1 deadline. It is not clear why the President didn’t wait to announce this until closer to March 1. We are left waiting for more talks and an expected Trump-Xi meeting at Mar a Lago, likely in the third or fourth week of March.

Earlier this morning Trump said a deal is close and would be struck at a “signing summit” with Xi, though he hedged by saying it may not happen.

Everything I am hearing supports that idea that Chinese have offered little in the way of the core structural concessions the US wants but Trump is eager for a deal regardless of what some of his advisors are telling him.

Liu He has returned to Beijing but sources tell me Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen ha…