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"August 1st will be another day that will destroy investor confidence just like the May 6th [2010] flash crash."

That rather ominous sounding pronouncement comes from Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC in Chatham, N.J., in a Bloomberg News report about what happened early this morning on Wall Street.

For the first time ever, the United States Postal Service has defaulted on a payment to the Treasury.

The USPS warned of a default in a statement on Monday. It it would not make the $5.5 billion payment due today and that it would also default on a $5.6 billion payment due Sept. 30. Both of those payments are federally mandated and go toward prefunding retiree health benefits.

Canadian rower Michael Braithwaite is pumped and probably a little nervous. It's the day before the double sculls (two person team) competition at the London Olympics and the British Columbia native is hoping his strong arms and shoulders will bring him gold.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Olympics, in London last night, featured the best and worst of athletic behavior. American swimmer, Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian ever, winning his 18th and 19th career medals. But over at the badminton arena, eight women competing in doubles events seemed to do their best to lose, which has led to an uproar, not to mention an endless number of puns on the word: badminton.

NPR's Howard Berkes joins us from London to talk about both developments. Hi, Howard.

HOWARD BERKES, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.

British cyclist Bradley Wiggins has won the gold medal in the men's individual time trial event, beating Germany's Tony Martin by 42 seconds. He took 50 minutes and 39 seconds to cover the course of 49 kilometers (just under 30.5 miles).

Martin took silver, and the bronze went to Britain's Chris Froome, who played a vital support role as Wiggins' teammate in his Tour de France victory last month.

Good morning. Things are hopping at the London Games, with 20 medal events today. And conversations are still buzzing about the scandal in Olympic badminton, over players intentionally throwing matches. Here are some highlights from this morning's news:

- The U.S. women's quadruple sculls team has won a bronze medal, ending a 28-year American medal drought in the sport. It's also only the second U.S. medal.

Eight Olympic badminton athletes have been thrown out of the London Games after being charged by the Badminton World Federation with "not using one's best efforts to win a match" — which is against the rules of the sport. Because even some journalists may have forgotten badminton's rules, it seemed time to take a fresh look.