For all the media coverage of China lately, Western knowledge of these markets—and the ability of U.S. citizens to invest in them—is actually quite limited. As the recent crash has shown, we need to learn more about the Chinese stock market, particularly given that Western firms are increasingly looking to include Chinese companies in their indices.

Based on the retail sales data that came out yesterday, it’s time to take a serious look at the prospect that U.S. economic growth is slowing down.

I’m not suggesting that we’re moving back into a recession—just that growth is quite possibly slowing below expectations, and an acceleration may not be coming any time soon. We need to consider why that might be.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, to say the least.

In the words of Lenin, someone I don’t normally quote, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” These past few weeks have seen a great deal of change around the world.

The headlines this morning are all about the Greek debt deal that European leaders hammered out over the weekend. Good news, I suppose, but as usual, the devil is in the details.

Last week was relatively quiet in U.S. economic news, but the news we did get was generally encouraging. Once again, the top stories came from abroad, as China’s market stabilized and Greece moved closer to exiting the eurozone before reaching a deal over the weekend.

Every year or so, I do a postmortem of my analyses and predictions in order to figure out where I was wrong, and how to avoid making those mistakes in the future—a useful, albeit uncomfortable, exercise. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the past decade has been to underestimate the power of governments to influence markets.

Yesterday was a rough one for financial markets across the board. China’s markets dropped again, U.S. markets fell in sympathy, and the New York Stock Exchange shut down with technology problems. It’s the end of the world as we know it!

Or maybe not. Although there are reasons for concern, U.S. investors shouldn’t be too worried—as long as they’ve planned ahead for an eventual downturn.

Once again, it’s time for our monthly update on risk factors that have proven to be good indicators of economic trouble ahead. As expected, the data hasn’t changed much from last month—it remains positive in all areas and has continued to improve in many cases—but it’s still important to keep an eye on things.

Heading into July, though, the economic forecast remains sunny.

As I mentioned yesterday and in my monthly Market Thoughts video, I’m worried about Greece, but in many ways, I’m more concerned about China. We know about China’s slowing economy and the need to transition from infrastructure- and export-led growth to consumer-driven growth, but these are long-term trends and were basically going well.

What’s new—and worrying—is the boom and subsequent plunge in the Chinese stock market.

Starting today, I’m introducing a new format for my Monday posts, briefly highlighting key stories from the past week plus items to watch in the week ahead. Of course, I’ll continue to provide more detailed analyses of major topics throughout the week, as situations develop.