Beyond “Fair Trade” ** What is beyond “Fair Trade?” Fair Trade products delivered by bicycle. Which Minneapolis-based “Peace Coffee” claims it does. Demo’ing its (very tasty) product at the local Whole Foods over lunch hour, I pressed the company’s sales rep whether that policy applied equally in January as in June. He insisted it did. The...Read More
If you wanted a good picture of the economy at any given moment, you could track such statistics as monthly unemployment, housing starts, the University of Michigan confidence index, the Consumer and Producer Price indices, etc. Or . . . you could just watch Wal-Mart’s stock price. When the economy slows or contracts — or people fear...Read More
S&P Case-Shiller: ‘Home Prices Rose 1.3% in April’ It’s well-known that various housing market cheerleaders (the National Association of Realtors; your friendly local Realtor?) have a tendency to put a positive spin on housing sales statistics. But, prominent housing bears tend to do the opposite (would that qualify as “backspin??”). Exhibit A: Barry Ritholtz’s take...Read More
