The American dollar is the major currency for commerce around the globe. By some estimates, the dollar is used in nearly half of all world trade, and has long played a vital role in domestic economies from Africa to the former USSR.

Final revised state figures for 2009 have just become available for two key indicators: nonfarm employment (from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) and personal income (from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis).

In the aftermath of recession, experts and international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) often advise this strategy: countries are told to hold tight on currency flows as part of a painful set of austerity measures, let exchange rates drop, then boost exports and productivi

In 2009, inflation-adjusted output (Gross Domestic Product) fell by -2.4 percent. This was the largest one-year decrease in GDP since the Great Depression, causing economists to dub this contraction as the Great Recession.

Is the Chinese currency undervalued? If so, by how much, and how does this impact global trade? "That's a profound question," said one expert at "The Currency of Trade," a forum convened recently in Beijing, hosted by Arizona State University, the Kearny Alliance and Tsinghua University.

One-third of U.S. adults are obese, and another third are overweight, according to data recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Marketing scholars Naomi Mandel, Andrea Morales and Steve Nowlis have been investigating what influences our decisions about diet.

The 2007-2009 recession brought about shifting consumer demand that left wholesalers and manufacturers grappling with how best to change inventory and production strategies.

Western analysts scanning the economic horizon for signs of a housing rebound in the region, finding little evidence of recovery in 2009, are now setting their sights on 2010. Since last year was so bad, the consensus is that 2010 can only be better.

Behavior Research Center, a marketing and public opinion research firm based in Phoenix, has been measuring consumer confidence in Arizona via its Rocky Mountain Poll for 30 years.

Analysts were pleased with the February 26 revision showing that inflation-adjusted Gross Domestic Product had increased at an annualized rate of 5.9 percent in fourth quarter of 2009.