Trump's Looney Tunes chaos leaves the US's trajectory not just uncertain but unknowable

Ten days reporting from the US - in Pittsburgh, Washington DC, and just across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia - gave me a fascinating snapshot of what feels like the slow-motion unravelling of the world's largest economy.

- Heather Stewart

So many conversations featured uncertainty and wariness, and weariness, too, as businesses and consumers weigh up every decision against the backdrop of the chaos emanating from the White House.

Even the president conceded last week that the economy was in a "transition period". The problem for Trump and his supporters is that the transition period in question is starting to resemble that felt by the Looney Tunes character Wile E Coyote between charging off a cliff into midair and plunging to the ground.

So far, the hard data from the US economy is holding up well. Read the forward-looking surveys, though, and there are clear signs of anxiety. The long-running Michigan consumer sentiment index just had its steepest quarterly decline since the 1990 recession.

Spend any amount of time talking to US consumers and businesses, and it is abundantly clear why: there are so many sources of policy ambiguity as to make the future not just uncertain but completely unknowable.