Stacey Vanek Smith

Rents in America are leveling off. At last!

The Japanese are eating less rice. But prices are now so high that they are buying imported rice, rather than the home-grown version. It's also a story of tariffs, subsidies and incentives.

Why boom and bust is part and parcel of the emerging economic experience.

The availability of work — the availability of jobs for people who want a job and even for people who didn't know they want a job — continues expanding.

Clowns and clowning have been suffering from a chronic branding crisis for decades. Can they fix it?

In the midst of a deepening economic crisis, a reporter's dilemma.

Demand for Japanese-grown rice is falling. But prices are still going up.

Why free tuition may make for better politics than economics.

People lie when they're looking for a mate online. Today on the Indicator: the lies we tell online, and how often we tell them.

For more than three decades, it was illegal in Alabama to have your baby delivered by a midwife. But last year the state finally legalized midwifery and now it could lead to serious cost savings.

A new fad in cryptocurrencies involves cartoon-like cat images that sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Understanding this craze is a way to understand the potential — and risks — of cryptocurrency's latest evolution.

Computing and the internet should make us more productive. Or should they?! It's an Indicator mystery.

Subaru's sales had been slumping for years. Then they went straight to their biggest fans: Lesbians.

The next round of trade barriers with China could include a 25 percent levy on Chinese antiquities. One dealer went to Washington to tell Congress why that tariff could hurt our allies and ourselves.

In 1907, America's financial system ran into trouble. Trust in financial institutions evaporated, and contagion swept through the economy. Then John Pierpont Morgan stepped in.

Most people think the best time to start a business is when you're young, but is it?

Why do men still make 20 percent more than women in the U.S.?

Creative destruction is a fact of economic life that few products can resist. Graphing calculators are a notable exception.

The Venezuelan economy has collapsed. Years of economic mismanagement and a deepening political crisis have led to a recession. Yet there's one indicator that can capture this economic catastrophe.

"The Art of War" by Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, is one of corporate America's favorite books. But John McWhorter, a linguistics professor at Columbia, isn't convinced about its utility.