LyrArc Article Gist
The gradual slowdown in the growth accounted for by a buildup in inventories means more depends on consumer spending, if the economy is not to lose momentum for the rest of 2010. Business cut inventory levels during the 2008 crisis, and restocking of inventories was a growth pattern seen in 2009, now this is fading. Change in private inventories accounted only for 1% of the 2.4% growth rate in the second quarter, as reported by the Commerce Department.

LyrArc Article Gist
According to the Commerce Department growth in the second quarter for the USA was at 2.4% annual rate. Consumer spending remains weak, growing 1.6%. Business spending is holding up but without consumer spending which accounts for a large part of the economy, the prospects of overall growth are not good.

LyrArc Article Gist
Mohamed Hanif of the BBC's Urdu Service points to the manner in which the CIA and the ISI collaborated in the two time destruction of Kabul. And he points to a Pakistani view outside of the military which is not obsessed with India and would like to get down to the basics- electricity and infrastructure, better lives, and a safer neighborhood. In this perspective the Pakistani military and the Americans both do not understand the basic needs of the large majority of Pakistanis yearning for a better life. Contrast this with the Thomas Friedman piece which complains on the other side, with a note of innocence, of becoming a sucker in this game of a two-faced Pakistani military and intelligence services using the Americans for their own game, supporting the Americans and the insurgents at the same time. Hanif almost has the last word in this, pointing to the ordinary Pakistanis who are just poor and looking in.