I’m at work late. Why? I don’t know. I should go. Anyway, I’m here, so I saw that Starbucks just announced its first round of store closings. Go here to see if your favorite store is set to be axed. They’ve only posted the first 50 (out of about 600), so no one is out [...]

I’ve just churned out a quickie Fannie-Freddie analysis for Time.com. Here’s how it starts: All debt issued by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac comes with a prominent disclaimer: “Not guaranteed by the United States.” But the business model of both companies, not to mention the continued functioning of the U.S. mortgage market, depends [...]

Last night I stopped off at the launch party of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation at the Council on Foreign Relations (where Peterson was chairman of the board for 22 years). I was underdressed (no tie), plus Thursday night is date night with Mrs. Curious Capitalist so I didn’t want to stick around long, so [...]

Justin may have a column in this week’s magazine, but I have a 200-word book review. Here, I’ll give you the whole thing: When no one owns a resource, we tend to overuse it–winding up with polluted skies, fished-out oceans and battles over access to freshwater. But too much ownership leads to problems too. A [...]