Tag: economics

As the current oil boom attests. West Texas’ oil deposits come with high social and environmental costs.

Like so many of our lofty ideals, the “American Work Ethic” is actually two different standards — one for the wealthy and one for the poor — with two different interpretations of what work looks like.

Don’t disrespect the fish. Or do! It’s your dinner.

Recent books by economists who hope to “save capitalism” dismiss popular ideas as “just politics.” But why assume the popular is the enemy of the good?

We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in business writing.

Is that not how the saying goes? Someone tell Amazon.

Trust busting is a great idea. But would it be enough?

Imagining an economy based in environmental reality

This is the story of how a handfull of mega-rich ended up hoarding most of the world’s wealth.

Growth is only worth something if it makes people feel good.

We wear slogan tees to signal our politics and identify ourselves to like-minded thinkers — but maybe they mask more than they reveal.

It’s a recognition that comes in the aisle of a grocery store.

Paying attention to the Poor People’s Campaign.

An important look at a dysfunctional industry, and a master class in profile writing.

Kansas is great at growing wheat, but growing wheat hasn’t been great for Kansas.

This is the most important pineapple-themed essay you’ll read today.

Supply side economics is clogging the overstuffed bowl of Oregon’s booming cannabis market, and there are not enough lighters in Oregon to smoke all the product.

Exactly what has Steve Bannon been up to since leaving the White House in August?

How the world’s worst investor fleeced clients who couldn’t complain.

Big economic anxieties, writ small.

What do you do when you’ve only got a G.E.D and your high-paying union job goes to Mexico?

The commodification of female friendship began in the suburban living room. Today, it’s booming online.

It was the thirtieth fire in less than two months. Who was trying to burn down Accomack County?

He was was a self-made, blue-collar millionaire in Reagan’s America. But when Percy Ross decided to give away his fortune, he made things simple: all you had to do was ask for it.

Have you ever thought really hard about donuts? Like, 7,000 words hard? Keaton Lamle did.

In Roads & Kingdoms, Milan Gagnon tells the stories of Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, and Konstanz, Germany — one city full of empty storefronts, and the other full of empty souls.

Ubiquitous digital payments: harbinger of a glorious future, or smokescreen for powerful interests that want to control (and undermine) choice and capitalism?

In Down East magazine, Kathryn Miles profiles marathon runner Gary Allen, founder of the Millinocket Marathon — an engine of revitalization in a downtrodden town.

Journalist and public education advocate Jennifer Berkshire traveled to the heart of DeVos-land — the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty in Grand Rapids, Michigan — to learn more about Betsy DeVos and her family’s life-long attempt to dismantle the “nanny state.”

When writer Dale Maharidge and photographer Matt Black traveled through California, Ohio, and Maine to labor alongside the working poor, t hey found lots of things they expected — long hours, low pay, financial uncertainty — and one thing th ey didn’t: hope.