Donald Trump’s Worst Deal

Davidson does some deep reporting on a sketchy deal the Trump Organization oversaw in Azerbaijan. The building of the Trump Tower Baku is linked to notoriously corrupt oligarchs and financiers of terrorism.

Source: The New Yorker
Published: Mar 6, 2017
Length: 32 minutes (8,095 words)

The Purpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy

Edward Conard is Mitt Romney’s former partner at Bain, and he’s not afraid to have an honest conversation about wealth:

“A central problem with the U.S. economy, he told me, is finding a way to get more people to look for solutions despite these terrible odds of success. Conard’s solution is simple. Society benefits if the successful risk takers get a lot of money. For proof, he looks to the market. At a nearby table we saw three young people with plaid shirts and floppy hair. For all we know, they may have been plotting the next generation’s Twitter, but Conard felt sure they were merely lounging on the sidelines. ‘What are they doing, sitting here, having a coffee at 2:30?’ he asked. ‘I’m sure those guys are college-educated.'”

Published: May 5, 2012
Length: 17 minutes (4,315 words)

Making It in America

On modern manufacturing in the U.S. and the unskilled-skilled labor gap—with 92-year-old Standard Motor Products serving as a case study:

“Across America, many factory floors look radically different than they did 20 years ago: far fewer people, far more high-tech machines, and entirely different demands on the workers who remain. The still-unfolding story of manufacturing’s transformation is, in many respects, that of our economic age. It’s a story with much good news for the nation as a whole. But it’s also one that is decidedly less inclusive than the story of the 20th century, with a less certain role for people like Maddie Parlier, who struggle or are unlucky early in life.”

Source: The Atlantic
Published: Jan 10, 2012
Length: 32 minutes (8,102 words)

Out of Iraq: The rise and fall of one man’s occupation

Published: Feb 1, 2005
Length: 29 minutes (7,437 words)