Double Dip

They don't seem too worried about a "double dip" global recession in Germany, the world's second-largest exporter. The country's stock market has rallied back to within 3% of its spring high. In Indonesia, the fourth-largest nation by population, the economy is so good that the stock market already has recouped all its 2008 decline and this week hit a new all-time high. On Wall Street, even as fears about the domestic economy have deepened over the last two months, the interest rates that investors have been demanding to lend money via "junk" corporate bonds have fallen — which isn't what you'd expect if the bond buyers figured another economic downturn was just around the corner.

Even as Congress moves to extend jobless benefits for millions of workers, a growing body of evidence suggests the United States is heading toward an economic netherworld — avoiding a slide back into recession but growing so slowly that unemployment will remain high, home prices low and incomes essentially stagnant. Many Americans may continue to feel much as they did during the worst recession in half a century: filled with insecurity, financial pressures and fading hopes for a quick return to better times.

California's labor market stagnated in June as temporary federal census workers lost their jobs and about 400,000 out-of-work people exhausted their unemployment benefits. Although the monthly, seasonably adjusted unemployment rate crept down a tenth of a percentage point to 12.3%, the economy lost 27,600 jobs, according to the California Employment Development Department. The state's unemployment rate was 11.6% in June 2009. Nationally, it hit 9.5% last month. Analysts were not encouraged by the decline in the unemployment rate.

A fresh batch of weak economic news Thursday heightened concerns about the staying power of the fledgling recovery, with more uninspiring news expected Friday when the government reports on the May job market. FOR THE RECORD: This article incorrectly says the government will report on the May job market Friday. It will report on the June job market. The number of pending home sales plunged 30% in May from April, to the lowest level since at least 2001, an industry group reported Thursday, reflecting a larger-than-expected fallout from the expiration of the federal tax credit for home buyers.

Salvador Lopez, a waiter at Langer's, has the routine down pat. After a hectic lunch shift serving sandwiches on rye at the pastrami mecca next to MacArthur Park, he negotiates a series of surface streets -- up Normandie, across Beverly -- to make his way into the Fairfax district. He beelines into the locker room of another renowned Jewish deli, shedding the signature Langer's bow tie for a tight-fitting black T-shirt that reads: I ♥ Canter's. Lopez is not a delicatessen double agent, funneling trade secrets on Russian dressing and blintzes.

As an original cast member of "Dirty Dancing -- The Classic Story on Stage," Josef Brown is no stranger to receiving what he calls an "ecstatic reaction" from theatergoers. Even if that reaction is, in effect, a borderline hysterical outpouring of audience adulation more in line with a Jonas Brothers gig than a musical theater production that has been running on London's West End since 2006.

Surging oil prices and worrisome inflation data are raising doubts about the durability of the stock market's 10-week-old recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled nearly 200 points Tuesday as crude oil shot above $129 a barrel to another record and April wholesale inflation clocked in at twice the level expected by economists, renewing fears about the ability of consumers to lift the economy out of the doldrums.

JUST REMEMBER who pays your salary. When all else fails, that's the standard barb a voter can throw at a state employee who appears to be ignoring the public and instead favoring some entrenched, big-money interest. It is usually a bit of a cheap shot, especially when thrown at an underpaid government worker or even a big-bucks aide to an elected official, but in essence it's true. The official works for the public, not the corporate executive or union leader who donated to the boss' campaign.

Basketball and football have never been so cozy at the University of Florida; the venues could practically chest bump. The Stephen C. O'Connell Center and the gates of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium are separated by about only 90 steps. What once was a two-sport chasm at Florida -- and other big-time college programs -- is being bridged by a burgeoning mutual admiration society.

Without so much as a chest bump by the Bryan twins, the U.S. took a 2-1 lead in its first-round Davis Cup match Saturday after Romania's Victor Hanescu became the latest victim of injury or illness at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. With Bob and Mike Bryan, the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the world, already in control of the first set, Hanescu suffered a rib injury as he served in the seventh game of the match.