Corporate America continues to churn out record profits in the face of a weak economy, as the ongoing second-quarter earnings season demonstrates.

Despite solid earnings, stock exchange traded funds have been stuck in a range as investors look for clarity on the U.S. debt ceiling and the Eurozone crisis.

Earnings from U.S. blue chips such as McDonald’s , General Electric and Caterpillar are booming. Yet broad market ETFs such as SPDR S&P 500 have been lackluster although they remain in positive territory for 2011.

Companies are posting record profits after slimming down and cutting costs in response to the financial meltdown, but analysts want to see more from the top line: revenue.

Although Wall Street has shown signs of improvement, it’s a different story on Main Street.

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Inflation ‘falls to 4.2 percent’ Inflation rates have fallen to 4.2% as a result of reduced prices on the high street, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have suggested. Full Article…

The political to and fro about a U.S. deficit reduction plan continued with the August 2nd deadline looming larger.

While concerns about Europe’s debt problems are far from over, the stalemate over the debt crisis in the U.S. is taking front and centre stage now.

“What’s really weighing on the market is the problem of the U.S. debt ceiling,” Jerome Forneris, who helps manage US$11 billion at Banque Martin Maurel in Marseille, told Bloomberg News.

“We only have 4 1/2 days left. If the U.S. defaults, it’s bad for the whole world. They have to resolve this problem. Investors are pulling money out of stocks and buying gold. People are worried about the uncertainty and are looking for safe havens.”

In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.08% higher, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.30% and the Nasdaq rose 0.67%.

Stocks and Treasuries are moving in tandem twice as often as they normally do, a sign investors are growing convinced the U.S.

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Greg Dannis is a lawyer whos spent a career working with school districts in California. Hes a founding partner at Dannis, Wolver & Kelly, in San Francisco. I just finished reading his article Labors Lessons in the California Public Employees Relations Journal.

Greg writes about labor contracts in schools, specifically; hes been involved in that area for decades. But it occurred to me that what he says about that applies just as well to business negotiations Ive been in.

For example, how time in negotiations is different from time everywhere else:

I always believed in the immutability of time — until I experienced negotiations. Bargaining is unreal in so many ways, but I did not anticipate the altered measurement of time itself! This time warp can be calculated between ratios of about 2:1 to 6:1 depending on the activity at hand.

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