Justin Fox Amazon.com and Facebook had great earnings reports this week. They also reported spending a lot of money on the future. Capital spending was up 35 percent at Amazon and 125 percent at Facebook in the first quarter compared with the same quarter last year. Research and development spending was up 28 percent at Amazon and 26 percent …

People tend to fear spiders and snakes more than they do electrical sockets or fireworks, even though the latter present a far greater danger. This might help explain why humans have such a hard time seeing the threat of climate change. Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior can be understood only by studying our ancient ancestors. Through 99 …

  The bugbear of deflation is threatening to claim new victims Down Under, after having already wreaked havoc across some of Asia’s biggest economies. The latest inflation data from Australia showed the world’s 12th-largest economy has slipped into deflation for the first time in seven years. Falling clothing, food and gasoline prices pushed the consumer price index down 0.2 percent …