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As expected, the U.S. economy has bounced back nicely in the second quarter after an especially dismal first quarter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that gross domestic product (GDP) fell [-2.9%] in the first quarter after revising its second estimate of a [-1.0%] contraction.

Last week, I wrote a fairly comprehensive piece laying out some of the macro issues around the Fed and other central banks' ultra-easy monetary policy. The gist of that piece was that, due to the political economy, monetary policy is now seen by policy makers as a good way to 'steer' the cyclical economy through peaks and troughs. Fiscal policy, while used effectively during the depths of crisis in 2008 and 2009, is largely off the table.

UPDATED: 0900 EST 2014-07-12

The talk this week is about an overdue correction that could happen at anytime - only it hasn't - YET! According to some we haven't had a 'meaningful correction in several years and we are really due for one now. Is this correction talk different this time? Yes and here is why.

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary "reading list" which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for "reading list" items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

When it comes to employment statistics, it is pretty easy to prove any opinion. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) obliges our need for data by using two very different methodologies for compiling the monthly employment situation - the household survey vs. the establishment survey.

Horatio: He waxes desperate with imagination.
Marcellus: Let's follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him.
Horatio: Have after. To what issue will this come?
Marcellus: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Horatio: Heaven will direct it.
Marcellus: Nay, let's follow him.
Hamlet Act 1, scene 4

The amazing fiscal data of 40 years of Japanese history has been put on one very readable graph. The peak of the Japanese bubble in 1991 is starkly evident and the growing build of deficit financing since then looks quite orderly, except for a sharp break during the Great Financial Crisis. This is a flight pattern for the John Mauldin "bug".

After a month of fighting in Iraq, the ISIS insurgency has made considerable progress, even if there is now something of a stalemate as Shi'a militias organise themselves and the weak Iraqi Army gets a measure of support from Russia, the United States and especially Iran. Even so, the change in the country since the beginning of June has been startling, with ISIS now able to extend its territorial control right across much of north-eastern Syria and north-western Iraq.

Health care professionals are extremely well paid in the United States and dominate the country's best-paid jobs. 

U.S. stocks rose on Friday on upbeat earnings from Wells Fargo, while hopes Portugal's financial system remains sound also boosted stock prices.

At the close of U.S. trading, the Dow 30 rose 0.17%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.15%, while the NASDAQ Composite index rose 0.44%.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation today announced charges against five individuals whose attempt to manipulate shares of Boston-based Amogear Inc. was caught by an FBI undercover operation.

According to the infographic, students who attend private schools are more likely than their public school peers to earn a bachelor's or advanced degree by the time they are in their mid-twenties.