Give me something to read

Life Without Bubbles

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:00:41 -0500

It may take a lot longer than many people think before the United States economy is ready to live without bubbles. And until then, the economy is going to need a lot of government help.

The science of shopping

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:30:41 -0500

The science of shopping:

Retailers are making breakthroughs in understanding their customers’ minds. Here is what they know about you.

Before the Levees Break

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:42 -0500

Before the Levees Break:

A plan to save the Netherlands.

Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:30:42 -0500

Young Muslims Build a Subculture on an Underground Book:

A five-year-old novel about punk rock Muslims in Buffalo has inspired many who reconcile religious observance with being an “angry American youth.”

The Last Traffic Jam

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:00:41 -0500

The Last Traffic Jam:

Too many cars, too little oil. An argument for the proposition that “less is more”.

From 1972.

Reboot the FCC

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:00:42 -0500

Reboot the FCC:

We’ll stifle the Skypes and YouTubes of the future if we don’t demolish the regulators that oversee our digital pipelines.

By Lawrence Lessig.

Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:30:43 -0500

Webb Sets His Sights On Prison Reform:

This spring, Webb (D-Va.) plans to introduce legislation on a long-standing passion of his: reforming the U.S. prison system. Jails teem with young black men who later struggle to rejoin society, he says. Drug addicts and the mentally ill take up cells that would be better used for violent criminals. And politicians have failed to address this costly problem for fear of being labeled “soft on crime.”

The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:00:42 -0500

The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart:

The vice president had a bigger surprise for Wier, though. Wal-Mart not only wanted to keep selling his lawn mowers, it wanted to sell lots more of them. Wal-Mart wanted to sell mowers nose-to-nose against Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Wier took a breath and said, “Let me tell you why it doesn’t work.”

Will Work for Praise: The Web's Free-Labor Economy

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:30:42 -0500

Will Work for Praise: The Web's Free-Labor Economy:

This online business model has Americans happily toiling for attention on for-profit sites that don’t pay them money.

Win, Win, Win, Win, Win...

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:00:41 -0500

Win, Win, Win, Win, Win...:

We have got to stop “taking off the table” the gasoline tax, the tool that would add leverage to everything we want to do at home and abroad.

Growing up in the world of 'The Wire'

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:30:41 -0500

Growing up in the world of 'The Wire':

Sometimes, it’s not enough to give kids who come from a world like “The Wire” the chance to get out. They also have to be convinced that they deserve it.

The End of the Financial World as We Know It

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:00:41 -0500

The End of the Financial World as We Know It:

We have a brief chance to cure ourselves. But first we need to ask: of what?

Making Books

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:25:34 -0500

Making Books:

A veteran editor offers a year-end report on the mood in the book publishing industry.

Why we are, as we are

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:22:44 -0500

Why we are, as we are:

As the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On The Origin of Species” approaches, the moment has come to ask how Darwin’s insights can be used profitably by policymakers.

Time After Time

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:20:36 -0500

Time After Time:

The biological clocks that control the daily lives of every living thing.

Katrina's Hidden Race War

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:50:18 -0500

Katrina's Hidden Race War:

The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply “didn’t belong.”

The economic Civil War

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:00:41 -0500

The economic Civil War:

The South’s attempt to kill the North’s auto industry is the latest battle in an ongoing conflict. It’s time for a Third Reconstruction to put an end to it.

Warning: Intrusive ads.

Oil Not the Climate Change Culprit — It's All About Coal

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:30:42 -0500

Oil Not the Climate Change Culprit — It's All About Coal:

If the world replaced all of its oil usage with carbon-neutral energy sources, ecologist Kenneth Caldeira of Stanford University calculated that it would only buy us about 10 years before coal emissions warmed the planet to what many scientists consider dangerous levels.

A World Enslaved

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:00:41 -0500

A World Enslaved:

There are now more slaves on the planet than at any time in human history. True abolition will elude us until we admit the massive scope of the problem, attack it in all its forms, and empower slaves to help free themselves.

The Remedist

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:30:41 -0500

The Remedist:

I don’t suppose that Greenspan actually bought this story literally, since experience of repeated financial crises too obviously contradicted it. It was, after all, only a model. But he must have believed something sufficiently like it to have supported extensive financial deregulation and to have kept interest rates low in the period when the housing bubble was growing. This was the intellectual edifice, of both theory and policy, which has just been blown sky high.