Doing direct comparisons of price levels in any country is really an exercise of little value. Consumer goods in Cuba are expensive to Cubans, but the same items in Japan (at a higher price in any currency) are cheap to the Japanese. How can this be? What we can afford to pay for [...]
The Commerce Department reported that business orders for machinery, computer equipment, and the like increased 3.4 percent in March, which was better than the 2.4% increase in February and much better than the 8.8 percent decrease in January. Wall Street celebrated because businesses were spending more, which meant more confidence in the economy.
When compared to [...]