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

Michelle Nijhuis

Must We Grow?

New books argue that life in a slower economy isn’t necessarily painful, and is likely to be healthier and more secure in many ways.

June 9, 2022 issue

Helen Epstein

The Iron Grip of the CFA Franc

The colonial-era currency limits the economic freedom of the African countries that use it and subjects them to continued French authority.

May 26, 2022 issue

Adam Hochschild

Who’s to Blame?

Three new books argue that disappearing jobs and widening inequality helped make possible Trump’s politics of resentment.

May 12, 2022 issue

Jonathan Mingle

Reasons for Concern

The IPCC’s latest report, with warnings for supply chains and food security, may be the most suspense-filled document in human history.

March 9, 2022

Joshua Hammer

The Horrors of the Diamond Boom

The discovery of diamonds in German Southwest Africa in 1908 led to ruthless exploitation of the colony.

November 18, 2021 issue

Nicholas Guyatt

Partners in Brutality

New books investigate the brutality of the internal slave trade by focusing on a single firm, Franklin and Armfield, and examine the role of white women in enslaving Black people.

November 18, 2021 issue

Lynn Hunt

From the Local to the Global

Something seemingly small and insignificant—a provincial family, a signed slip of paper—can open up onto much wider worlds.

October 7, 2021 issue

Edward Chancellor

Waiting to Deflate

Two recent books try to explain the seemingly irrational behavior behind speculative bubbles, from the tulip craze of the 1600s to Bitcoin today.

August 19, 2021 issue

Peter C. Baker

Death Drives

Pedestrian fatalities are rising dramatically in the US, and Angie Schmitt’s Right of Way gives a rare look at why and what might be done about it.

July 22, 2021 issue

Anne Diebel

Cubicle Messiah

WeWork was hurtling into the future, with Adam Neumann leading the way. What led to its dramatic collapse?

July 22, 2021 issue

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