While Americans are still reeling from the housing bust, people from around the globe are scooping up cheap American homes. Over the 12 months that ended in March, nearly 9% of all real estate spending in the U.S. was done by buyers from abroad. Is it "Rising Sun" all over again?
With more and more financial transactions being conducted electronically, it's easy to forget the physicality of money. What a dollar weighs, or a pile of them. So just for fun, let's start piling up the Benjamins and see what a pound -- or 10, or 100, or a ton -- of C-notes will buy.
The gap between America's super-wealthy and the rest of us has grown so vast it's hard to even comprehend the sums they spend on their luxuries. But if you measure, say, a $200 million luxury yacht in terms of the average U.S. family's household income, the picture comes back into focus.