Or are they just one of the many possible sparks that triggered the unstable situation?
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People have been saying for a long time that the market was overvalued and ripe for a fall.
In fact, I think that our own board's esteemed Monaco guru said he most cashed out of the market because of this, well before the recent tariff uproar.


Yes and no. I hear you in that, when the market is way overvalued, as it was, anything can start the slide. Could have been a really bad inflation report or something similarly benign.
But what really happened was it was the news of tariffs that not only caused the slide, but also brought down future valuations as well.
The panic is not confined to the overvalued US stock market. It is everywhere, especially in US treasuries, which should go up, not down, during a "normal" panic.

In any case, nothing that we say here will make any difference on the tariff front.
I think the idea is to listen to the people on this board and possibly change our own investments based on their inputs. Filtered through our own filters of course, not blindly.
If tariffs are the long-term reality, that definitely has implications on the mix of investments. Unfortunately, the president's policies resemble his signature, so it is impossible to tell at this point.