My colleague Ray Blanco and I recently attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The big story this year was the convergence in consumer electronics. Specifically, it was the arrival of extraordinary high-definition 3-D as well as “smart” TVs. In fact, Ray and I had backstage passes for the biggest 3-D events. We were…Read more…

A serious question, Fellow Reckoner: Would you, if given the choice, be alive at any other time? We’ll get back to that in a second. First, our regular beat… Markets went precisely nowhere yesterday. It was as if everyone agreed to stay home…or go fishing…or to become reacquainted with that strange person living in their…Read more…

Get out your chopsticks! Brush up on your sushi! Learn to read backwards and upside down! Yes…we’re going to Japan! The gist of the Japanese situation is this: The bubble burst in 1990. But rather than let their big businesses go belly up, the Japanese used every trick in the book. Counter-cyclical deficits up the…Read more…