Scared investors rushed into the safest dollar assets, lured by the liquidity of the vast market for us Treasuries, as the euro area was revealed as a mess of fragmented bond markets.

In dollar terms, the increase in emerging Asia's consumer-spending this year will more than offset the drop in spending in America and the euro area.

A loose definition of "rural area", for example, let an Internet provider get federal funding to wire up a Houston suburb where million-dollar homes were under construction.