Sorry, I’ve had a busy few days, so I didn’t have as much time to create formal posts about some topics that are hot right now.  So, I thought I’d just post a couple of my thoughts and help update you on some things.

• The advance GDP report for the 2nd quarter came out on Friday, and it was absolutely terrible.  For each quarter, we get three readings – each one supposedly closer to the true number.  This was the first of those readings.  But the catch was that it also came with “updates” to GDP’s that were reported several years ago!  And they were all adjusted … you guessed it, down.  This means that things were even worse in the “Great Recession” of 2007-09 than we thought.  Now, the actual reading for the 2nd quarter GDP was a gain of 1.3% over the previous quarter.  So, if the economy were to continue expanding at the same pace it did in Q2, in one year, it would be 1.3% higher than it started – adjusting for inflation.  Some of the details in the report were just awful, like how little consumers are spending (but then, you already know this if you’ve read my Easy Pod: The Consumer).
• The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill today that raises the debt ceiling (the maximum amount of debt allowed) and would prevent the U.S. Government from defaulting on its debts.  The Senate now has to pass the bill and send it to President Obama to sign tomorrow to meet the deadline of Aug 2.  This was supposed to be a HUGE relief for investors.  It looked like it would be, as overseas stock markets that open well in advance of the U.S. were all rallying higher, but by the time U.S. markets opened, the negative economic news of the day (indicating a much slower growth of manufacturing) and the fact that an actual bill hadn’t yet been signed to avert a U.S. default both helped derail hopes of a rally.  Most major indexes (like S&P 500, Nasdaq) were down well over 1% at one point, but they mostly rallied back to respectable levels, down about a half a percent.  A promising day turned into a disappointing one.  And don’t forget, there is still a chance that the U.S. Government’s “credit rating” could be downgraded, which would mean it’d have to pay higher interest rates on its debt, something which will make the problem even worse.