 With the first half of the year behind us, what's next? I'm Mark Hamrick with a Bankrate.com personal finance minute. Predicting the future is tough, but what we know about the recent past, like the first half of the year, is the backdrop for the U.S. economy has been generally supportive of Americans' financial goals. As the saying goes, your results may vary. We're talking about broad themes of the economy. Prices do remain elevated.