You’ve probably heard of the “August doldrums.” That’s when there’s supposed to be no news, so people in the news biz can skip town.

Imagine my annoyance, then, as all this great column fodder passed by while my family and I tootled around Pennsylvania and New York for most of the month, our pickup packed with bicycles, tennis racquets and windsurfing gear.

What’s the point of having news if I’m not here to preach and pontificate?

Here, then, is some catch up — miniversions of columns that might have been since I left for vacation on Aug. 6:

• The stock market rebound. How nice. The three major indexes rose about 4 percent each. These little runs happen from time to time, and this one doesn’t seem to signify anything great to come. The indexes are still down for the year and are well below the highs set in 2000. Not many pros expect much from stocks for the rest of the year.
• The rate hike. Poobahs at the Federal Reserve raised short-term interest rates another quarter-point to 1.5 percent. Big deal. It would have been real news only if they hadn’t.

Other rates, such as mortgages, actually have gone down recently because the market already has anticipated a string of rate hikes and now thinks the sluggish economy will keep the pace comfortably slow.

• Google’s IPO. The online search company finally went public, mercifully ending its interminable drumroll. Though analysts had warned that Google’s innovative auction system might result in opening-day losses, the first shareholders enjoyed an 18 percent gain on day one.

But a big factor was the company’s last-minute decision to slash the number of shares sold and cut the initial price. So over the long term, Google investors should still be wary. The company’s founders have too much control and competitors such as Microsoft could knock Google for a loop.

• Airlines are a mess. Aren’t they always? The big-name carriers are loaded with labor costs and other expenses the discounters don’t have, and the Internet and cheap phone service make business travel optional.

Air travel has become a commodity, and there’s no going back to the days it was a luxury. Passengers hate the lousy meals and cramped leg room, but will suffer them for the cheap seats.

• The economy’s sputtering. Turns out the nation’s gross domestic product grew at just 2.8 percent in the second quarter, not the 3 percent reported earlier. That’s pretty pathetic next to the 4.5 percent of the first quarter and the 7.4 percent that had everyone so excited in the third quarter last year.

Also, after-tax corporate profits fell by 1.2 percent in the second quarter.

• The biggest problem is oil. Prices have soared during the past six months because world demand is rising and the oil companies have skimped on exploration. And now the war in Iraq makes Middle Eastern supplies undependable.

Though prices have fallen recently, high oil costs hit business and consumer alike. Both are coming to realize that prices aren’t coming down anytime soon, and that puts a crimp on other spending, hurting economic growth and corporate profits.

So much for the August news. What’s next?

My bet is more of the same, pretty much.

The economy and financial markets will probably just muddle along until the presidential election. Even then, problems of war and energy aren’t likely to be quickly resolved, no matter who’s in charge.

Gee, what a gloomy picture. Wish I were still at the lake.