Boom & Bust

After a week of reporting and writing on booms and busts—everything from the rapidly expanding world of subscription services to the biggest change in gaming since the introduction of the Atari 2600—Jamie Wiebe considers eight of her favorite recent discoveries, and how they might affect all of our lives.

After a week of reporting and writing on booms and busts—everything from the economy of big oil boomtowns to the growth of the mental-health counseling field—Jamie Wiebe considers five of the biggest booms—and five of the biggest busts—of the past year.

Now that we’re finally starting to recognize mental health as a serious problem in America, we need to put in place the structures necessary to support those willing to study—and treat—it. As part of our week-long series on booms and busts, Jamie Wiebe asks: If MHC is a booming field, where’s the boomtown?

As part of our week-long series on booms and busts, Jamie Wiebe considers the contenders for the casual gaming crown. Since the early days of Nintendo, the games you play have been secondary to the systems you play them on. And now, the options seem limitless.

As part of our week-long series on booms and busts, Jamie Wiebe looks at the surprising popularity of P90X, CrossFit, and themed races. Never before in the history of the industry have so many things been designed to make your average Joe—or Jane—feel like being fit is within their grasp.

Whimseybox, Julep, Wantable, Blue Apron, Glossybox, and many, many more: After the success of Birchbox, the subscription product industry exploded, but how many different products do we need delivered straight to our door? As part of our week-long series on booms and busts, Jamie Wiebe talks to some of the pioneers behind an industry where the business models are shaky and the margins thin.

To kick off our week-long series on booms and busts, Jamie Wiebe looks to North Dakota, currently the fastest-growing state in the union, to see how local planners are preparing for what's widely considered to be an inevitable crash.