Business
How Humans Became 'Consumers': A History
Until the 19th century, hardly anyone recognized the vital role everyday buyers play in the world economy.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters Donald Trump's Conflicts of Interest: A Crib Sheet
Sudden progress on a Trump-associated property in the nation of Georgia suggests the former Soviet satellite may be trying to curry favor with the president-elect.
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Eric Thayer / Reuters The Republican Attack on the American Dream
The GOP Speaker of the House says social mobility for the poor is a core American value. His plans to cut Medicaid would almost certainly achieve the opposite.
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Library of Congress In D.C., White Families Are on Average 81 Times Richer Than Black Ones
Other major cities aren’t much better.
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Paul Sancya / AP Democrats Don’t Have an Easy Answer for the Rust Belt
Restoring prosperity to white, working-class voters isn’t going to happen by gutting past trade deals.
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Erich Schlegel / USA TODAY Sports The NFL’s Experiment in Mexico City
Pro football held a game south of the border for the first time since 2005.
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Wayne Parry / AP The Future of the FTC Looks a Lot Like Its Past
On the campaign trail, Trump hinted that he would take a more aggressive role in policing corporate mergers, but things don’t seem to be headed in that direction.
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Zoran Milich / Reuters Infrastructure Is Only Popular Without Concrete Details
Left-leaning economists, Democrats, and Republicans may agree with Donald Trump about the need to rebuild and repair, but how to pay for it is another issue.
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Reuters Red Nation, Pink Economics
Donald Trump drew support from counties where men’s jobs are going away, while women’s jobs are ascendant. There’s nothing he can do to change it.
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Patrick Semansky / AP Rethinking America’s ‘Dark Ghettos’
A Harvard professor argues that fixing America’s urban poverty will require a dramatically different approach.
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Center for Research Libraries Thanksgiving, a Celebration of Inequality
For decades, Gilded Age populists and secularist crusaders criticized the holiday’s gospel of abundance.
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Gary Hershorn / Reuters American Marriage in the Time of the Recession
Women who lived in areas that suffered the brunt of the downturn, new research suggests, were more likely to be abused by their partners.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters Black Wealth in the Age of Trump
The president-elect has pledged tax reform and job creation—policies that should theoretically help poor and minority Americans. Will they?
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Rebecca Clarke The Hidden Work of Keeping an Office Running
Debra Leonard-Porch, an administrative professional for over 35 years, reflects on her career and the pride she finds her work.
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Rebecca Clarke The Emotional Labor of Waitressing
Marie Billiel, who has worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years, talks about having to have a ”mask on” for eight hours at a time.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters Donald Trump's Ford Focus
The president-elect’s tweets about the automaker might be a preview of how he’ll deal with companies that displease him.
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Jacquelyn Martin / AP The Challenge of Selecting a New Treasury Secretary
Critics lament that the department is often headed by a Wall Street financier, but the job requires expertise that only insiders tend to possess.
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Udo Keppler How American Business Got So Big
The country is living with the consequences of 35 years of lax antitrust enforcement—including lower wages and costlier consumer products.
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John Locher / AP Why Silicon Valley May Warm to Trump
The technology industry has resisted him, but a Trump presidency is compatible with its business goals.
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Mike Reddy Can America’s Companies Survive America’s Most Aggressive Investors?
So-called activist investors are increasingly gaining control of legacy corporations, forcing them to trim payrolls and downsize research operations—and, quite possibly, damaging the entire economy.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters How the Presidency Could Hurt the Trump Brand
It's not that he's unusually controversial—it's that any president has a hard time making everyone happy.
