Here’s why we have to be careful with headlines: There’s news that orders for expensive, long-lasting merchandise fell more than 18 percent in August, the most precipitous drop on record. But all is not as it seems. And in health care news, there’s data showing the percentage of Latinos who don’t have health insurance in America has fallen by more than a third since the health care reform law kicked in. More on that. And we think we live in the future — Apple’s new Dick Tracy watch might be evidence of that — but there is an argument that, in at least one regard, the United States currently is like Europe in the 19th century.