jg – Absolutely no offense taken. I was trying to figure out whether you were referring to my factual statements citing the numbers and explanations published by the ISM (I wouldn’t consider that an example of puffery) or my previous tongue-in-cheek jest of quoting everyone so that we could feel superior (now that should be considered a puff piece).

I didn’t think I was overaccentuating the positive. Things are obviously slowing down. I like to interject facts now and then to provide some balance. I like to read the reports rather than regurgitate someone else’s take on them. The ISM report was consistent with the 2.2% revised GDP of last quarter. It was not a sign of further slowing beyond that … yet. Some people took the ISM number as indicating we are already over the cliff. I’m simply claiming that we are at the same edge of the cliff we thought we were when the GDP was revised to be ~2.2%.