Last week was packed with economic updates that covered a wide portion of the economy. For the most part, the news came in better than expected, with increases in consumer confidence and spending highlighting the data. This will be a quieter week, with a focus on housing and the first report of second-quarter GDP growth.

The term recession is having a moment. There is talk of a manufacturing recession, an earnings recession, and, the big one, an economic recession here in the U.S. Worry has been rising with the headlines of slower growth, especially with the recent inversion of the yield curve. Recession is a bad, bad word.

In retrospect, a good candidate for demonstrating the peak of the boom may be yesterday’s announcement by Netflix that subscriber growth came in well below expectations during the second quarter: the number of subscribers was up by 2.7 million against expectations of 5.3 million. Worse, in its most developed market (i.e., the U.S.), subscriber numbers were actually down by 126,000, against an expected gain of 310,000. This marks the first time the company has ever seen a decline in U.S. subscribers.

An issue I have been mentioning for the past couple of months is finally starting to get some attention: the U.S. is facing a potential crisis as the government runs out of money. Sometime this fall, likely in September, the government won't have the funds to pay its bills.

This morning, I spent some time speaking with a client who wanted to know why markets had slowed down recently. But I am not sure I agree with her. We hit all-time highs just the other day, although in recent days, the market has been taking a bit of a breather. Will that down time continue, or could we get another leg up?

Are fears keeping interest rates low? I discussed this and more Friday on Fox Business Network's Countdown to the Closing Bell with Liz Claman.

Last week was relatively light on the economic update front, with most attention being paid to a couple of inflation figures and communications from the Fed. This will be a much busier week of updates, with multiple major areas of the economy represented.

What can we expect this earnings season? Friday, I discussed this and more on Yahoo Finance’s The Ticker.

One of my colleagues sent around the most recent issue of The Economist, noting that the cover story, “Riding High: What Could Bring Down America’s Economy?”, may well be a contrarian indicator. I haven’t read the article yet, but I suspect the publication may be in on the irony here. Nonetheless, the fact that The Economist can put this story up could be a sign that the economy really is getting close to a turning point.

Do worries keep the economy moving? Yesterday, I appeared on Cheddar TV  to discuss this and more.