Investors have been navigating an increasingly hazy outlook for the U.S. economy, as surveys of consumer sentiment have appeared to clash with so-called hard data regarding the state of the labor market. Creeping doubts about the quality of U.S. economic reports certainly won't make this task any easier. Fresh questions about the reliability of official data surfaced this week, after the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that it had to cut back on some regional collection efforts that were part of the tabulation of the consumer-price index in April, and again in June, because "current resources can no longer ... (full story)