The first thing we did on our return to the world of markets and money this morning was to read “bond king” Bill Gross’s investment outlook for July. We consider this compulsory reading. Gross, the managing director of PIMCO, is one of the smartest underground investors out there. And his no BS approach to the financial markets is always refreshing.

Notes faithful will recall that last month Gross predicted that the economy is heading for what he calls the “new normal” – “higher savings, lower consumption, and an economic growth rate that staggers forward at a new normal closer to 2% as opposed to 3½%.” And we touched again on Gross’s advice for investors in our Friday issue.

The bottom line for Gross is that there can be no recovery to the “old normal” when one in ten Americans is officially unemployed and consumer spending is in the bin. (Gross points out

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