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Mike Blake / Reuters How Sociopathic Capitalism Came to Rule the World
Corporate executives haven't always believed that transactions must have winners and losers. But that’s not Donald J. Trump’s view.
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Mary Schwalm / AP / Ballantine Books / ... An Ethicist Reads The Art of the Deal
Donald Trump succumbs to the age-old temptation to see capitalism not as an economic system but a morality play.
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Wikimedia American Childhood, as Seen Through Early Kids' Magazines
Before periodicals became a wellspring of consumerism, they were a site of a profound disagreement over the welfare of children’s souls.
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Elvert Barnes / Flickr Between the World and Me: Empathy Is a Privilege
Barack Obama and Ta-Nehisi Coates have made race and empathy central to their writing, but their conclusions point in radically different directions.
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In Green / Shutterstock How America Lost Track of Ben Franklin’s Definition of Success
According to Franklin, what mattered in business was humility, restraint, and discipline. But today’s Type-A MBAs would find him qualified for little more than a career in middle management.
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AP/Shutterstock/Lauren Giordano/The Atlantic Meeting Ayn Rand on the Las Vegas Strip
For eight days last summer, a new generation of Randians was indoctrinated in the auditoriums of The Venetian. Where better to absorb Atlas Shrugged 's teachings than in a city of extremes?
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Library of Congress If Greed Is Good, Why Is Insider Trading Bad?
The limited logic of capitalism
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Was Shakespeare a Good Actor?
In his day, performers received little respect for grueling work. Yet the playwright strode the stage for more than 15 years—and then changed the acting profession forever.
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Library of Congress Greed Is Good: A 300-Year History of a Dangerous Idea
Not long ago, the pursuit of commercial self-interest was largely reviled. How did we come to accept it?
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Paramount An Ethicist on Wolf of Wall Street: The Most Anti-Greed Movie Ever?
Critics have accused the Best Picture contender of being a reckless celebration of excess. It's actually one of the most scathing critiques of Wall Street that Hollywood's ever produced.
