Obama’s War Over Terror

Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first president to take office in the Age of Terrorism. He inherited two struggles — one with Al Qaeda and its ideological allies, and another that divides his own country over issues like torture, prosecutions, security and what it means to be an American. The first has proved to be complicated and daunting. The second makes the first look easy.

Published: Jan 4, 2010
Length: 6 minutes (1,626 words)

Real Estate in Cape Coral Is Far From a Recovery

As we navigate this speculator’s paradise turned financial wasteland, Mr. Joseph stands at the front of the bus in a green polo shirt, highlighting specimens like this one: a white stucco house fronted by palm trees and topped by a Spanish tile roof on a canal emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It last sold in 2005 for $850,000. Yours today for $273,000.

Published: Jan 2, 2010
Length: 15 minutes (3,924 words)

What’s a Bailed-Out Banker Really Worth?

How people are paid at the top in a free-market system has always been a contentious issue, especially in bad times. Babe Ruth’s most famous quip was not about baseball but about salaries. When asked in 1930 if it was right that he should be making more money than President Hoover, he replied, “I had a better year than he did.”

Published: Dec 29, 2009
Length: 6 minutes (1,676 words)

Hitting Bottom

Dr. Drew is a TV doctor seemingly engineered for this moment. Unlike talk-show therapists whose go-to prescription is “get real,” he commands an unusual blend of medical credentials and pop-culture savvy — he is fluent in textese, neuroscience, nitrous hits and psychodynamics, which he combines with a cool, eloquent charisma honed over 25 years in the media.

Published: Dec 30, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,384 words)

Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won

In late October 2007, as the financial markets were starting to come unglued, a Goldman Sachs trader, Jonathan M. Egol, received very good news. At 37, he was named a managing director at the firm. Mr. Egol, a Princeton graduate, had risen to prominence inside the bank by creating mortgage-related securities, named Abacus, that were at first intended to protect Goldman from investment losses if the housing market collapsed. As the market soured, Goldman created even more of these securities, enabling it to pocket huge profits. Goldman’s own clients who bought them, however, were less fortunate.

Published: Dec 23, 2009
Length: 6 minutes (1,558 words)

Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care

Published: Dec 22, 2009
Length: 13 minutes (3,472 words)

How Susie Bayer’s T-Shirt Ended Up on Yusuf Mama’s Back

If you’ve ever left a bag of clothes outside the Salvation Army or given to a local church drive, chances are that you’ve dressed an African. All over Africa, people are wearing what Americans once wore and no longer want.

Published: Mar 31, 2002
Length: 25 minutes (6,255 words)

Can Anybody Make a Movie for Women?

Nancy Meyers may be a singular figure in Hollywood — may, in fact, be the most powerful female writer-director-producer currently working (not that there’s much competition) — but that doesn’t appear to give the 60-year-old blonde a whole lot of social clout.

Published: Dec 15, 2009
Length: 5 minutes (1,256 words)

Married (Happily) With Issues

I have a pretty good marriage. It could be better. There are things about my husband that drive me crazy. Last spring he cut apart a frozen pig’s head with his compound miter saw in our basement. He needed the head to fit into a pot so that he could make pork stock. I’m no saint of a spouse, either.

Published: Dec 1, 2009
Length: 9 minutes (2,436 words)

After Cheney

Captain Biden holds court in a wood-paneled galley just large enough for his half-dozen or so aides to pile into. Unlike Nemo, he is a gregarious knee-squeezer who has to be ordered by his staff to stop talking so he can get some rest.

Published: Nov 24, 2009
Length: 24 minutes (6,139 words)