So far, the economic news in recent weeks has been pretty disappointing, led by the unexpected increase in unemployment claims, when most were predicting a decrease.
That is an economy going nowhere fast.
The Federal Reserve is hinting that near-term growth may not be quite what they expected because of the European debt crisis, because continuing problems in Europe could negatively affect American exports, and exports are one sector that is being looked at as a strong contributor to an economic recovery.
Housing starts were also down substantially in May, and there is more.
What I keep waiting for is for someone to start speculating or guessing what the next five years, or ten, or maybe longer, might look like.
For example, we know that a lot of jobs that are gone now will never be back.
What are some of the people who have done nothing else for their working lives going to do? Improvements in technologies that make companies more productive without adding people are outrunning the ability of the economy to keep up with them by creating new jobs.
Newspapers are one classic example where technology - in the form of the internet - has changed the game dramatically.
People used to set type to put out a newspaper.
No longer in many cases, so what are those people going to do because they don't know anything else? Full employment used to be considered about five-plus percent.
What if that is no longer achievable? What if it is seven? What is going to happen to fill that hole? What is going to cost the government (us)? There are so many questions about what might be different and what the effects will be (such as having to make a substantial down payment on a house to get a mortgage), that I would like to see someone start to publish some educated guesses.