I hope readers don't mind, but I'm diverging a bit from my usual today because a) I spent way too much time on this article and b) I'm actually running out of ways to say the same thing over and over regarding the intermediate outlook. The market outlook remains essentially unchanged on an intermediate basis; it's still watch and wait at the pivotal 1600 +/- zone. So today, I'm going to embark on a more overarching economic commentary.