News headlines today on an alleged U.S. - China trade agreement sent the Stock Market soaring today. I found it rather curious that even though the trade agreement was reportedly finalized early yesterday (Sunday, May 11th), that both the U.S. and China stated that they would not release a joint statement until the next day, Monday (today). Was it because they wanted their announcement to specifically have a positive impact on world stock markets? Was that part of the agreement? The English language China news outlets did not even comment on the agreement until almost midnight in China today, coinciding with the opening of the U.S. stock markets. But just taking China and the U.S.'s statements today at face value, there are still 30% tariffs on goods imported from China! And yet investors are acting as if the trade war is over. "Talk" is cheap, and anyone can say anything. But the proof of what is actually happening in the real world, lies in the traffic to U.S. ports, the availability of goods from China, and the price of those goods. It is hard to trust anything Trump says on this issue, because he continually lies about the true nature of tariffs. Just last week, Trump, once again from the White House while announcing the UK trade deal, repeated the LIE that consumers don't pay for tariffs, "Countries and businesses do." Hear it from his own mouth, when a reporter asked him about Mattel and Ford raising their prices due to the tariffs.