In last week’s issue I wrote in the magazine and on the blog about the rapid growth in the number of long-distance marriages in this country. I’ve since had some e-mails and comments from people in these relationships. Most were plaintive, resigned notes from folks struggling hard to make it work. For most of us, living apart from our …
One bad way to fight global warming that both Democrats and Republicans love
Of the ideas batted about for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming, few have gotten traction as powerfully and suddenly as the notion of taxing carbon dioxide emissions. Unlike most other plans that have the word “tax” in the title, this is one that has found takers among both Republicans and Democrats, left and …
Britney: No. 1 again! The economics of instant gratification
Thanks, Justin. That was an extraordinarily graceful and generous introduction. I’m now going to repay it by turning your economics blog into a forum to talk about Britney Spears.
I just checked the new Billboard Hot 100 chart of top downloads: at No. 1, Britney Spears, “Gimme More”. I had a hunch she might be up there, up from No. 3 …
Welcoming a guest to the Curious Capitalist
Ever since I started at Time in late January, I’ve been neglecting a book project I should have wrapped up a long time ago. So I’m going to devote this week to book work, and my friend Mark Gimein will be stepping in to do a bit of guest blogging.
Mark and I worked at Fortune together, and he wrote some of the best stories in the …
Would you pay a fee to get a mortgage? Or would you prefer to get a really bad mortgage?
Jeff Lazerson, a mortgage broker and faithful Time reader from Laguna Niguel, Calif., has been bugging me for a while to write about something he’s devised called Mortgage Grader. It’s software that he developed with a grant from the Ford Foundation that essentially uses the credit scoring process that dominates mortgage lending these …
The evolution of Dad: he’s no Mr. Mom
Does being more of a dad make you less of a man?
That’s the question we asked in a story running (finally) in today’s TIME, Fatherhood 2.0., co-written by me and Lev Grossman. I began asking this question of dads back in May, when we first embarked on this assignment. I asked this of stay-at-home dads. I asked this of one top exec dad …
Everything a mom says in 24 hours
compressed into two minutes and change (thanks, Amy Goehner):
The Frankfurter Allgemeine discovers photography and I discover Malenkov
In the clearest sign yet that the world is about to come to an end, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung–the grayest newspaper I know of on this planet–is going to start running color photos on the front page every day starting Friday. (“Inviting, fresh, clear,” the paper claims of its new look.)
The FAZ did run front-page photos in …
Is Bloomberg LP a sexist workplace?
That’s what three women say in a lawsuit filed last week. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the financial information company on behalf of the women, all longtime top execs there.
They had suffered unfair demotions, lower pay, and were denied promotions, they say. What had they done–leaked sensitive financial data? …
Banks rediscover the uses of the kitchen sink
The W$J’s Heard on the Street column reports that people are thinking the big writedowns at the likes of Citi, UBS and Deutsche Bank may be bigger than the actual losses:
When valuing securities that have all but stopped trading, clarity is relative. Some investors say they fully expect banks and brokers to take the maximum possible
…
The front page of the Wall Street Journal: Where eras go to die
Yesterday it was the GOP’s grip on the business vote:
The Republican Party, known since the late 19th century as the party of business, is losing its lock on that title.
Today it’s Wal Mart:
The Wal-Mart Era, the retailer’s time of overwhelming business and social influence in America, is drawing to a close.
What epoch will come to a …
America has a nasty-boss epidemic
It wasn’t just Isiah. His boss, James Dolan, chairman of Madison Square Garden, had long cultivated a workplace rife with hostility and disdain for lowly employees. In this searing column in today’s New York Times, Selena Roberts writes that Dolan was handed his job by his daddy, Cablevision boss Charles Dolan, to “focus him.” Then, says …
