Bloomberg The dollar continued to fall on Thursday after minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting showed officials were confident they could raise rates gradually without triggering short-term inflation. Oil rose to a seven-week high and stocks were up slightly at the open. The S&P 500 Index rose .10 and Dow Jones Industrial Average was up .12 percent …

  Some American disasters come as bolts from the blue — the stock market crash of October 1929, Pearl Harbor, the designated hitter, 9/11. Others are predictable because they arise from arithmetic that is neither hidden nor arcane. Now comes the tsunami of pension problems that will wash over many cities and states. Dallas has the fastest-growing economy of America’s …

  A payment system is to an economy what plumbing is to houses: The only time people talk about it is when it’s not working. That’s been the case in India since the government’s demonetization decision on Nov. 8. While that shock gutted commerce, it also upended the payment method of choice: cash. A simmering tension between two systems is …