The folks at Appfrica have put together some interesting infographs on infrastructure investment and Internet connectivity in Africa. The graphs provide information on Internet penetration and network readiness by country, and the various infrastructure development projects that are rapidly transfor ... Read more

From the Fed: Industrial production and Capacity Utilization Industrial production increased 0.1 percent in October ... Manufacturing production moved down 0.1 percent and the output of mines decreased 0.2 percent, but the index for utilities rose 1.6 percent. At 98.6 percent of its 2002 average ... Read more

Japan is off and running or so they say (for the nth time in 20 years). Yet inquiring minds will be quick to note Japan Deflation Concern Rises Even as Growth Quickens . The acceleration of Japan’s economy to the fastest growth pace in more than two years masked a slide in prices of goods and s ... Read more

Breaking out of their short-term trading ranges that began last week, the major indices leapt to an impressive round of gains yesterday. This time, higher volume even accompanied the move. Stocks opened with substantial gains, trended sideways to higher throughout most of the day, then retraced a ... Read more

I was talking with some folks at LSU who were working on a proposal to exempt textbooks from sales taxes in Baton Rouge, currently a whopping 9 percent. I’m all in favor of cutting sales taxes, which are generally not progressive; but textbooks are a luxury good because college education is dispro ... Read more

G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USD GBP 0.63 JPY 0.22 EUR 0.15 CHF 0.14 Currency markets have been stuck in relatively tight ranges for most of the day as strong equity market performances across Europe and the US negated slightly disappointing economic data releases. ... Read the full po ... Read more

Earlier today, At the Economic Club of New York, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave his Outlook for the Economy and Policy . His speech contains much self-serving claptrap about how Federal Reserve policy save the day. Nowhere has the Fed admitted its role in creating the mess. Bernanke thinks pr ... Read more