Cream of the crop of hot Boston market

Home prices are still surging, but the pace of the gains has steadied as interest rates continue to rise, according to the most recent S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.

Still, there are some eye-popping properties up for sale in Boston — if you're in the market to impress.

Back Bay:

776 Boylston St. 
Unit W12B 
The Mandarin 
$13.5 million

This 5,000-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 21⁄2-bath, front-facing residence on the 12th floor of the Mandarin Oriental has Charles River views from all entertaining rooms in addition to having multiple terraces. The home is exquisitely finished with limestone and walnut hardwood floors, custom wall coverings and professionally designed lighting and is equipped with a state-of-the-art Crestron home automation system as well as a Bang & Olufsen home theater and audio system.

This home is perfect for entertaining with abundant built-in wine storage, a commercial-grade kitchen and a separate butler's pantry. The home comes with two full garage parking spaces and has plenty of storage built into the unit as well as two additional storage spaces within the building.

This home is being marketed by Megan Kopman and Jillian Adler of Campion & Campion Fine Homes Real Estate.

Beacon Hill:

56 Beacon St. 
Single-family

$12.5 million

This 8,682-square-foot, 5-bedroom, 61⁄2-bath, grand Beacon Hill townhouse beams with natural light and overlooks the Boston Common. The open, spacious parlor level includes a kitchen, family room and mudroom that opens to a large, private patio.

The spectacular dining room allows for 14-person dining. The second-floor living room boasts floor-to-ceiling windows as well as a library and office rich in detailed woodwork.

The master bedroom suite encompasses the entire third floor and has an enormous walk-in closet. Four additional guest bedrooms comprise the fourth and fifth levels.

There are two decks on these upper floors, abundant storage and eight fireplaces. Four-garage parking is also included

This home is being marketed by JeanneMarie Conley and John Corcoran of Otis and Ahearn Real Estate.

Midtown:

2 Avery St. 
Unit PH1D
The Ritz 
$2,995,000

The dramatic views from this home look directly toward the Charles River from the 38th floor of the Ritz Tower located at 2 Avery St. This 2-bedroom, 21⁄2-bathroom condominium has a bit less in square footage at 1,597, yet the landscape of the Boston Common, the Public Garden, the Back Bay neighborhood and Charles River bring this home to life through the 14-foot floor-to-ceiling windows.

This much coveted "D" unit floor plan includes an expansive living room with separate dining area as well as a chef's kitchen equipped with granite countertops, Viking double wall oven and separate gas cook top.

The private space includes a sumptuous master bedroom with en suite marble bath, as well as a guest bedroom with its own bathroom.

This home includes two valet garage parking spaces and is being marketed by Kathleen Cook and Kaitlyn Attfield of Atlantic Associates Real Estate.

Charlie Abrahams is a licensed real estate agent in Boston who works with buyers and sellers and can be reached for any 
additional information at: Bostonrealestate@
charlieabrahams.com.

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Palmer casino proposal unveiled

Local officials in Palmer will vote Tuesday on a deal with Mohegan Sun that would pay the town nearly $3 million upfront, followed by at least $15.2 million annually, in exchange for allowing the company to build a $1 billion casino there.

If the Town Council and the management board of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority ratify the pact, the council will schedule a referendum on the deal, which also includes an estimated $23 million for sewer, water and road improvements that would expand the Exit 8 interchange on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

"It's still up in the air as to whether it's something I would want," council President Philip Hebert said. "I intend to ask the council to set aside a certain amount to be applied to the tax base."

Mitchell Etess, CEO of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, said the yearly revenue Palmer would receive would exceed its annual tax revenues and represent the largest per-capita and per-household mitigation of any western Massachusetts gaming proposal.

Iris Cardin of Palmer, co-president of Quaboag Valley Against Casinos, called the agreement a "travesty" that will bring traffic, crime and compulsive gambling.

Mohegan Sun is competing with two other companies for the only resort-casino license in western Massachusetts. Hard Rock International has proposed a West Springfield resort that residents will vote on Sept. 10, and MGM Resorts International has proposed a casino that Springfield residents approved July 16.

In eastern Massachusetts, Everett voters approved a Wynn casino on June 22. East Boston and Revere signed a host community agreement with Suffolk Downs but have yet to schedule a referendum. Milford residents have neither signed an agreement with Crossroads nor scheduled a vote.

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The Ticker

U.S. economy grew at 
2.5 percent rate in spring

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate from April through June, much faster than previously estimated. The steep revision was largely because U.S. companies exported more goods and imports declined.

The Commerce Department said second-quarter growth was sharply higher than the initial 1.7 percent rate it reported last month. And the growth this spring was more than double the 1.1 percent rate from January through March.

Nasdaq takes some blame for 
last week's 3-hour breakdown

A three-hour trading outage on the Nasdaq last week was partly the result of issues within the company's control, the Nasdaq OMX Group said yesterday.

In a statement, the company detailed some of its early findings from an internal review. Nasdaq blamed "a confluence of unprecedented events" that overwhelmed the exchange's system for handling price information. It said the catalyst was a torrent of messages from a trading platform run by the New York Stock Exchange, Arca.

J&J launches new bottle cap to help curb Tylenol overdoses

Bottles of Tylenol sold in the U.S. will soon bear red warnings alerting users to the potentially fatal risks of taking too much of the popular pain reliever. The unusual step, disclosed by Johnson & Johnson, the company that makes Tylenol, comes amid a growing number of lawsuits and pressure from the federal government that could have widespread ramifications for a medicine taken by millions of people every day.

TODAY

• Commerce Department releases personal income and spending for July.
• Japan releases economic data for July.

THE SHUFFLE

• BankFive announced the election of Alicia O. Ambrose, left, as vice president, commercial lender. Ambrose has more than 25 years of banking experience in commercial lending and credit administration, holding positions in commercial lending and credit administration with banking institutions including Bank of America, First Trade Union Bank and Freedom National Bank.
• Shawmut Design and Construction announced Thomas Munson has been hired as assistant project manager in its West Springfield office. Munson was previously employed at Whiting Turner Contracting Co. as project engineer, where he worked with clients including United Illuminating Co. and King Low Heywood Thomas School.

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Boston fast-food workers join drive to maximize minimum-wage rate

The Hub portion of a national fast-food workforce strike fell far below expectations — but organizers said it was a success nonetheless.

About 60 workers from local Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, KFC, Popeyes and Burger King either walked off their jobs, didn't show for work or picketed off-shift on Boston Common in support of raising their pay to $15 an hour and forming unions without retaliation. Up to 200 were expected.

"It's a huge success," said Reginald Zimmerman, spokesman for 
MassUniting, a coalition of labor, faith and community groups that helped organize the strike. "A good amount of workers turned out. There's a lot of great support from political and community leaders. This is just the beginning."

MassUniting and Service Employees International Union, which backed worker actions in more than 50 cities yesterday, organized rolling picket lines at fast-food restaurants and a rally on Boston Common.

"I hope to accomplish that they raise the minimum wage," said Jennifer Jimenez, 25, a striker who makes $8.50 an hour for working at a Dunkin' in Roslindale. "I wouldn't expect it to go to $15 if they raise it — $10.50 at least."

Workers participating in job actions are protected under the National Labor Relations Act, said Gregory King, spokesman for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington.

"Basically the law says that employees, whether they're in a union or not in a union, are empowered to work together to improve their pay and working conditions," he said. "If someone gets fired and raises a complaint, we would investigate it."

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino backs the workers' efforts, as does U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who addressed the rally.

"The mayor has always been a strong believer in people being able to voice their opinion and organize," spokeswoman Dot Joyce said.

Markey "absolutely supports their efforts to earn a better wage and to be able to support their families," spokesman Eben Burnham-Snyder said.

Massachusetts Restaurant Association CEO Bob Luz said the strike was "a fight that the unions are trying to bring that no one is really asking for."

"They've launched a pretty well-funded campaign," he said.

Luz said restaurants are "unparalleled" in offering workers a path up, saying nine of 10 managers start as hourly workers, and that less than 5 percent of industry jobs pay minimum wage.

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Weighing Yellen vs. Summers for Federal Reserve

WASHINGTON — Lawrence Summers is the White House insider with a direct line to President Barack Obama. Janet Yellen is the Federal Reserve veteran with a long list of congressional patrons.

The two Ivy League-trained economists have emerged as leading contenders to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Fed, the nation's central bank. Obama could announce his nominee in the coming weeks.

As presidential nominations go, the top Fed post ranks higher than Cabinet secretaries without the longevity of Supreme Court justices. Fed chairmen serve four-year terms but their stints don't coincide with presidential terms and the Fed's independence is jealously guarded.

The central bank wields extraordinary influence over the lives of millions of Americans. Its two main missions are fostering maximum employment and stabilizing prices. With its power to regulate the supply of money and set interest rates, it influences economic activity, hiring and inflation. It also is the leading regulator of banks and plays a crucial role as the country's lender of last resort when banks can't get their money elsewhere.

So in the aftermath of a calamitous financial crisis in 2008 and with national unemployment still high at 7.4 percent, the selection of a successor to Bernanke has assumed all the drama of a high-stakes Washington moment.

A look at Summers and Yellen and their experience and stand on some issues:

EXPERIENCE

Summers has held numerous public policy posts, beginning as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan in 1982. But he has not worked inside the Fed. He was chief economist at the World Bank from 1991 to 1993. Under President Bill Clinton, Summers served as deputy secretary and then secretary of the Treasury. He was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Obama appointed him to serve as the director of the National Economic Council in 2009, a post he held until November 2010. He is a professor of economics at Harvard. He also has ties to Wall Street, having consulted for Citigroup and the exchange company Nasdaq OMX.

Early in her career, Yellen worked as an economist at the Fed and was a business and economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, when she became a member of the Fed's board of governors in 1994. Clinton selected her to chair his Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999. She was president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, one of 12 Federal Reserve districts. In 2010, Obama selected her as vice chair of the Fed's board of governors, a position she has held since.

REGULATION

Summers helped the Obama administration devise the proposals that eventually would shape the financial regulation bill that Congress passed and Obama signed into law in 2010, much of it over the objections of big banks. That aggressive stance is in contrast to Summers' support for legislation during the Clinton administration that allowed commercial banks to engage in investment banking, a deregulatory step that permitted banks to buy and sell of mortgage backed securities and other financial instruments that increased their exposure to risk. Summers' critics say his Wall Street work and his stance in the 1990s suggest he would be a less than enthusiastic regulator. But his backers say his support for a regulatory overhaul after the financial crisis belies those concerns.

Yellen has advocated tough regulations since her time at the San Francisco Fed. She is credited for issuing early warnings that the housing bubble and unregulated financial practices threatened the economy. As the Fed's vice chair she has called for additional financial system safeguards. In a speech in June she said it might be necessary to require banks to set aside more capital than the increases that have been proposed to reduce the threat they might pose to the broader financial system. Some lawmakers have called for a return to pre-Great Depression restrictions separating commercial banks from investment banks. "I am not persuaded that such blunt approaches would be the most efficient ways to address the too-big-to-fail problem," she told an international monetary conference in Shanghai, China.

MONETARY POLICY

Summers has been a strong advocate of a direct infusion of government spending to respond to the recession through taxpayer financed stimulus programs. But even if he believes that the Fed's massive bond purchases that have had the effect of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy aren't as effective in kick starting a recovery, his backers insist there will be continuity with the current policy no matter whom Obama chooses for the post. What's more, massive fiscal stimulus is highly unlikely given opposition from congressional Republicans to increased spending.

Yellen's approach to monetary policy is described as "dovish," meaning she is more inclined to focus on meeting the Fed's maximum employment goal. In a speech in March she acknowledged the inflation risks and costs associated with expanding the money supply, but she argued that "insufficiently forceful action to achieve our dual mandate also entails costs and risks." She added: "At present, I view the balance of risks as still calling for a highly accommodative monetary policy to support a stronger recovery and more-rapid growth in employment."

X-FACTOR

Inside the White House, Summers is the favorite. As director of Obama's National Economic Council, Summers led the president's crisis brain trust that forged both a response to the economic collapse and the financial meltdown with a combination of stimulus spending and regulatory proposals. At Treasury under Clinton, Summers helped manage the Mexican peso crisis in 1995 and then the Asian currency crisis of 1997-98. That experience, no doubt, is a factor in Obama's consideration. Obama admires his intellect, and advisers see him as the candidate with the best experience to deal with international economic crises that still could erupt and threaten the United States' modest recovery.

His supporters rave about his intellect while conceding he can be prickly and supercilious and is better known for winning arguments than building consensus. Still, they say he managed to successfully lead a White House economic team, many of whose members remain loyal admirers. And while he would be new to the Fed, Summers has allies such as Federal Reserve Board member Jeremy Stein who could smooth his way in the consensus-oriented Federal Open Market Committee that sets monetary policy for the central bank.

Yellen would be the first woman to chair the Fed, a historical achievement that is not lost on the White House and that has prompted leaders of some women's groups to rally to her side. The gender issue is all the more prominent because Summers was forced to resign as president of Harvard in 2006, in part because of comments he made raising questions about whether women were skilled in math and science. Moreover, Obama did select her to be the Fed board's vice chair in 2010.

She also has won powerful backing from Senate Democrats, particularly more liberal senators. In a letter urging Obama to nominate Yellen, about 20 Democratic senators said her experience setting monetary policy would lend continuity to the board. "The substantial size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, combined with the delicate state of the recovery," they wrote, "makes Governor Yellen's familiarity with the Fed process and communications skills that much more important."

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US consumer spending up weak 0.1 percent in July

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumers barely increased their spending in July as their income grew more slowly, held back in part by steep government spending cuts that reduced federal workers' salaries. The tepid gains suggest economic growth is off to a weak start in the July-September quarter.

The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending rose just 0.1 percent in July from the previous month. That's slower than June's 0.6 percent increase. Consumers cut their spending on long-lasting manufactured goods, such as cars and appliances. Spending on services was unchanged.

Income rose 0.1 percent in July following a 0.3 percent June gain. Overall wages and salaries tumbled $21.8 billion from June — a third of the decline came from forced furloughs of federal workers.

Consumers' spending drives roughly 70 percent of economic activity. The weak spending report led some economists to sound a more pessimistic note about economic growth in the current July-September quarter. It follows July data showing steep drops in orders for long-lasting manufactured goods and new-home sales.

"This is a disappointing report on a number of levels," said James Marple, senior economist at TD Economics. "Prospects for a pickup in economic growth in the third quarter hinge on a broad-based acceleration in spending by households and business to offset the ongoing drag from government. The data for the first month of the quarter are not following this script."

Several analysts said that economic growth is unlikely to match the 2.5 percent annual rate reported Thursday for the April-June quarter. That was more than twice the growth rate in the first quarter and far above an initial estimate of a 1.7 percent rate for April through June.

Marple predicts third-quarter growth will fall around 2 percent, perhaps even lower.

The Federal Reserve will consider the consumer spending and income data at its September meeting, when it decides whether to begin slowing its $85 billion a month in bond purchases. The bond purchases have helped keep long-term borrowing rates low.

But the most critical factor that the Fed will weigh is the August employment report, which will be released next Friday. It's the final jobs report before the Fed meets.

Another concern is that rising interest rates could dampen consumer spending, particularly on homes and cars. Mortgage rates have already risen more than a full percentage point since May.

In July, the savings rate was unchanged at 4.4 percent of after-tax income. That was the smallest since the rate had been 4.3 percent in March.

The small rise in spending was driven by a 0.8 percent gain in purchases of nondurable goods, such as clothing. Purchases of durable goods such as autos fell 0.2 percent and purchases of services such as utilities and doctor's visits were unchanged in July.

A price gauge tied to consumer spending was up a small 0.1 percent in July compared to June. Prices excluding volatile food and energy are up just 1.4 percent compared to a year ago, significantly below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target for inflation.

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Dunkin' Donuts criticized for 'racist' ad campaign

BANGKOK — A leading human rights group has called on Dunkin' Donuts to withdraw a "bizarre and racist" advertisement for chocolate doughnuts in Thailand that shows a smiling woman with bright pink lips in blackface makeup.

The Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand launched a campaign earlier this month for its new "Charcoal Donut" featuring the image, which is reminiscent of 19th and early 20th century American stereotypes for black people that are now considered offensive symbols of a racist era.

In posters and TV commercials, the campaign shows the woman with a shiny jet black, 1950s-style beehive hairdo holding a bitten black doughnut alongside the slogan: "Break every rule of deliciousness."

Human Rights Watch said it was shocked to see an American brand name running an advertising campaign that would draw "howls of outrage" if released in the United States.

"It's both bizarre and racist that Dunkin' Donuts thinks that it must color a woman's skin black and accentuate her lips with bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut," said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "Dunkin' Donuts should immediately withdraw this ad, publicly apologize to those it's offended and ensure this never happens again."

The campaign hasn't ruffled many in Thailand, where it's common for advertisements to inexplicably use racial stereotypes. A Thai brand of household mops and dustpans called "Black Man" uses a logo with a smiling black man in a tuxedo and bow tie. One Thai skin whitening cream runs TV commercials that say white-skinned people have better job prospects than those with dark skin. An herbal Thai toothpaste says its dark-colored product "is black, but it's good."

The CEO for Dunkin' Donuts in Thailand dismissed the criticism as "paranoid American thinking."

"It's absolutely ridiculous," said CEO Nadim Salhani. "We're not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don't get it. What's the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?"

Salhani said that the Thai franchise of Dunkin' Donuts operates independently of the American operation and that doughnut sales have increased about 50 percent since the campaign was launched around two weeks ago, which he attributed to curiosity about the new advertisements.

"Not everybody in the world is paranoid about racism," said Salhani, a Lebanese expatriate in Thailand who said his teenage daughter was the model featured in the campaign. "I'm sorry, but this is a marketing campaign, and it's working very well for us."

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Report: GE to spin off consumer finance business

General Electric Co. plans to spin off the U.S. consumer lending business of its finance arm with an initial public offering of stock that could come early next year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper also said Friday that the Fairfield, Conn., conglomerate is considering smaller spinoffs or asset sales, but it has started preliminary work on the IPO. The paper cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The consumer finance business provides store credit cards to about 55 million people for retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It accounts for $50 billion of GE Capital's $274 billion in outstanding loans, according to the report.

Aside from its finance business, GE sells a wide variety of industrial equipment and appliances around the world. This includes jet engines, medical diagnostic equipment, oil and gas drilling equipment and washing machines.

GE spokesman Seth Martin declined to comment on the report.

CEO Jeff Immelt told analysts and investors at a conference in May that his company wanted a smaller GE Capital. He said they wanted to reduce the finance arm's assets from $402 billion in this year's first quarter to between $300 billion and $350 billion by the end of next year.

"That is going to create excess cash in GE Capital, and we are going to use that excess cash to buy back stock," Immelt said.

That asset total had dropped to $391 billion by the second quarter, according to Martin.

Immelt said in May that the company still planned to expand GE Capital's core business, which is commercial lending. He also told his audience that capital markets were receptive to IPOs.

Shares of GE climbed 11 cents to $23.23 in late-morning trading while the Dow Jones industrial average, of which GE is a component, fell less 1 percent. GE's stock has climbed nearly 11 percent so far this year.

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Judge: Airline-merger trial to start in November

WASHINGTON — A federal judge said Friday that the government's lawsuit to block the proposed merger of American Airlines and US Airways will start Nov. 25, a timetable favored by the airlines.

The U.S. Justice Department had wanted the trial to start in March, saying it needed more time to prepare for the complex case. The airlines said that such a long delay would threaten their merger.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in court Friday that March was "too far off."

The companies were close to completing a merger to create the world's biggest airline, but the Justice Department and six states sued this month to block the deal. They said it would reduce competition and lead to higher prices for travelers. They said that the combined American-US Airways would be too dominant at Reagan National Airport outside Washington and on many routes around the country.

Justice Department lawyers have also pointed to recent record profits at both airlines — July's profit was a one-month high at American parent AMR Corp., which has been cutting costs under bankruptcy protection — to argue that the companies don't need to merge to survive.

The airlines argue that their merger would increase competition by creating another big competitor to United Airlines and Delta Air Lines, which grew through recent mergers. They also point to the presence of other competitors including Southwest, which carries more passengers within the United States than any airline.

Both sides said in a court filing this week that they were open to a settlement that would avoid a trial, although each made comments suggesting that they were not close to agreement.

If the merger is blocked, AMR will have to rewrite its plan for emerging from bankruptcy protection. The merger is a key part of that plan.

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Tooth Fairy inflation: Price of a tooth nears $4

NEW YORK — Days of finding a quarter under your pillow are long gone. The Tooth Fairy no longer leaves loose change.

Kids this year are getting an average of $3.70 per lost tooth, a 23 percent jump over last year's rate of $3. And that's a 42 percent spike from the $2.60 per tooth that the Tooth Fairy gave in 2011, according to a new survey by payment processor Visa Inc., released Friday with an update of the company's Tooth Fairy personal finance app.

Part of the reason for the sharp rise: Parents don't want their kids to be the ones at the playground who received the lowest amount.

"A kid who got a quarter would wonder why their tooth was worth less than the kid who got $5," says Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University.

To avoid that, Brian and Brittany Klems asked friends and co-workers what they were giving their kids. The Klems, who have three daughters and live in Cincinnati, settled on giving their six-year-old daughter Ella $5 for the first tooth that fell out, and $1 for any others. They say that $5 was enough without going overboard. They didn't want other families to think they were giving too much.

Then Ella found out that one of her friends received $20 for a tooth.

"I told her that the Tooth Fairy has only so much money for every night, and that's how she decides to split up the money," says Brian Klems, 34, a parenting blogger and author of "Oh Boy, You're Having a Girl: A Dad's Survival Guide to Raising Daughters."

Confused about what to give?

Ask other parents what they're giving, says Jason Alderman, a senior director of financial education at Visa. That can at least get you in the ballpark of what your kids' friends are getting, he says. Alderman gave his two kids $1 a tooth.

"I think we were on the cheap side," he says. Other families gave about $5 a tooth. One family gave their kid an antique typewriter. "I have no idea how they got that to fit under the pillow," he laughs.

As part of the company's personal finance education program, Visa offers a downloadable Tooth Fairy Calculator app that will give you an idea of how much parents in your age group, income bracket and education level are giving their kids, says Alderman. The newly updated app is available for iPhones and iPads on iTunes, and the calculator is available on the Facebook apps page.

"While more money is exciting news for children, parents should take this opportunity to talk saving and smart money habits with their kids and have the same talk with a perhaps overgenerous Tooth Fairy," says Nat Sillin, who runs Visa's financial education program in the U.S.

How much kids are getting from the Tooth Fairy depends on where they live. Kids in the Northeast are getting the most, according to the Visa study, at $4.10 per tooth. In the West and South, kids received $3.70 and $3.60 per tooth, respectively. Midwestern kids received the least, at $3.30 a tooth. About a third of all parents surveyed say the Tooth Fairy left a dollar or less.

Then there are the heavy hitters.

After losing her first tooth, 5-year-old Caroline Ries found a $100 bill under her pillow, along with a brand new My Little Pony toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste.

But there was a catch.

Her mother, Nina Ries, also left a note saying that the $100 had to go straight to Caroline's college fund. The Tooth Fairy would give her another $20 to spend anyway she likes if she brushes her teeth every day after lunch for a month. She did, and 30 days later Caroline found $20 under her pillow.

Ries, a 39-year-old lawyer and owner of Ries Law Group in Santa Monica, Calif., says that $120 is a lot to give, but she believes that she is teaching her daughter that education and taking care of your teeth is important. Ries says her friends give their kids about $20 a tooth.

That's way more than the $1 Ries used to get for losing her teeth as a child.

"It's incredible inflation," she says.

Visa randomly sampled 3,000 households by phone in July. The survey results are based on the 1,000 of those households that included a child under 13.

_______

Tooth Fairy Calculator: https://apps.facebook.com/449594221747991/

Follow Joseph Pisani at http://twitter.com/josephpisani.

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