Economics

Washington’s Crackpot Realism

Framing the China threat as irredeemably antagonistic misses the reality that in order to survive, both countries must cooperate as well as compete.

March 24, 2022 issue

Paul Krugman

Covid’s Economic Mutations

The argument of Adam Tooze and Bruno Maçães’s recent books, that the pandemic was best handled by societies with top-down social control, hasn’t aged well.

March 10, 2022 issue

Lis Harris

Strangers in a Strange Land

Two recent books investigate the canny mastery of housing politics that has allowed the Hasidic Satmar sect to build thriving, isolated communities in Brooklyn and upstate New York.

February 24, 2022 issue

Michael Tomasky

Can He Build Back Better?

Many liberals worry that the Democrats are doomed. But Biden can still rebound.

February 10, 2022 issue

Jake Bernstein

Loopholes for Kleptocrats

The term “tax haven” may conjure images of Caribbean islands and palm trees, but two recent books make the case that the world’s leading tax haven is America.

December 2, 2021 issue

Robert Kuttner

Bringing the Supply Chain Back Home

Is Biden ready to insist that national economic planning is not just ideologically permissible but urgently necessary?

November 18, 2021 issue

Martin Filler

A Garden City in Queens

After nearly a century Sunnyside Gardens remains a model of how to create and sustain affordable urban housing.

November 18, 2021 issue

Jason DeParle

A Historic Decrease in Poverty

The successful expansion of the safety net during the pandemic reminds us that high levels of poverty are a political choice, not a fate.

November 18, 2021 issue

The Latest

Zephyr Teachout

The Boss Will See You Now

We are experiencing a major turning point in the surveillance of workers, driven by wearable tech, artificial intelligence, and Covid.

August 18, 2022 issue

David A. Bell

Paris Transformed

Although Esther da Costa Meyer deplores the human costs of urban renewal in Paris during the Second Empire, she cannot disguise her appreciation for what was accomplished.

August 18, 2022 issue

Robert Kuttner

Free Markets, Besieged Citizens

Why did Democratic presidents embrace an economic credo that annihilated their own public philosophy and its appeal to the electorate?

July 21, 2022 issue

Daniel Immerwahr

Wielding Wheat

A new history makes a case for the world-ordering power of wheat.

July 21, 2022 issue

Bill Spindle

On the Grid in Leisang

With every village in India electrified, the country’s challenge will be to meet growing energy demand with renewable sources. But can it afford to give up fossil fuels?

June 22, 2022