Economics Essays

Over the last year, Alana Massey has applied to more than 700 jobs. She reports on all the free words she's created in the process.

• By Alana Massey

Gen X is the most economically screwed age group. Were the slackers onto something after all?

• By Claire Dederer

In a culture that increasingly valorizes start-ups and social entrepreneurship, and an economy that keeps ordinary people always on the lookout for the next gig, it makes sense that multi-level marketing firms have found a warm reception. But how different are they from their predecessors—and how are they the same?

• By Helaine Olen

The new American economy in three tablespoons of blood, a Walmart gift card, and a former mill town's DNA.

• By Amanda Wilson

New technology is nudging Americans to be more generous at the till. For now.

• By Rachel Levin

In the tight-fisted world of fast food, it's not just the workers who get a lousy deal.

• By Timothy Noah

Financial literacy promotion may sound perfectly sensible—who wouldn’t want to teach children and adults the secrets of managing money?—but in the face of recent research it looks increasingly like a faith-based initiative.

• By Helaine Olen

Thanks to decades of stagnant wages and the Great Recession, more than half of American working-class households are at risk of being unable to sustain their standard of living past retirement. Duncan Black is trying to change that.

• By David Dayen

The good news: Economists are starting to come up with some decent theories as to why this recovery is so bad at generating employment. Now here's the bad news.

• By Timothy Noah

Washington's Initiative 502 legalized pot across the state, but provided only a few guidelines for how to produce, process, and retail the drug. What regulations will lawmakers put in place—and will they convince black market users to switch to a new, regulated industry?

• By Vince Beiser

Promoting exports as a means to rebuild America’s middle class is a lovely vision, but the U.S. needs to do more than that to improve business.

• By Jock O'Connell

The energy boom has the nation mired in chatter about a burgeoning job market, or panicked over certain environmental destruction. Instead, we should be asking: To whom will go the spoils of this bonanza, and on whose shoulders will the risks fall?

• By Lisa Margonelli