Business
2016: A Year Defined by America’s Diverging Economies
Just as income inequality has become a fixture in many Americans’ understanding of the country, so too must accelerating regional divides.
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Andrew Kelly / Reuters How to Stop Short-Term Thinking at America’s Companies
U.S. companies are hyper-focused on quarterly earnings. What can be done to push them to invest more in the years and decades ahead?
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Library of Congress Embracing an Ordinary Economy
In his new book, economist and historian Marc Levinson explains why no one should expect a return to the growth of the post-war boom years.
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Joe Raymond / AP What RVs Say About the American Economy
Sales of mobile homes are a good data point for inferring the mood of consumers.
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Marco Bello / Reuters The Three-Word Question That's Changing What Charities Do With Their Resources
Humanitarian groups are reevaluating their work in light of how easy (and efficient) it is to just give cash to those who need help.
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Kacper Pempel / Reuters Why Some Companies Are Trying to Hire More People on the Autism Spectrum
The majority of those with autism are unemployed, but new pilot programs at big companies, such as EY and Microsoft, are discovering unexpected benefits from having "neurodiverse" colleagues.
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters Donald Trump's Conflicts of Interest: A Crib Sheet
A semi-comprehensive list of the business concerns that may influence the president-elect as he prepares for the nation’s highest office
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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters When Women Run Companies
What happens to employees under female leadership?
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Ted Warren / AP Why Are Americans Less Charitable Than They Used to Be?
Researchers found that the losses of the Great Recession do not entirely explain why people aren’t giving very much money to charity.
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Bettmann / Getty The Morality of Banking in It’s a Wonderful Life
In addition to its holiday cheesiness and religious moralizing, the 1946 classic touches on financial themes that remain painfully relevant.
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Fred Greaves / Reuters About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages Everywhere
As the appetite for online shopping grows, companies that protect packages in transit are profiting.
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AP How the Great Depression Still Shapes the Way Americans Eat
From fortified foods to nutrition labels, the legacy of an early financial crisis lives on in kitchens across the United States.
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Wikimedia Commons A Brief Economic History of Time
Capitalism changed how humans perceive the passage of hours, days, and weeks. This made people more productive, but did it make them any happier?
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Michael Conroy / AP Indiana’s Medicaid Experiment May Reveal Obamacare’s Future
The state’s health-care system was expanded under the Affordable Care Act. Now, it may serve as a model nationwide.
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Matteo Colombo / Getty The Spiritual Crisis of the Modern Economy
The main source of meaning in American life is a meritocratic competition that makes those who struggle feel inferior.
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MPI10 / MediaPunch / IPX / AP Overdraft Protection Is More Dangerous Than It Sounds
Such fees are billed as a service to consumers, but they do a lot of harm to the very people they purport to help.
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Yuya Shino / Reuters How Men’s Economic Struggles Can Look Like Good News for Women
When actually everyone is having a hard time
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Toru Hanai / Reuters D.C.’s Battle for Paid Family Leave
City-council members in the nation’s capital are preparing for a final vote on what could be the most expansive parental-leave law in the United States.
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Katie Martin / The Atlantic The Sexism They Faced
One colleague’s constant refrain: “When are you going to have babies and quit?”
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Katie Martin / The Atlantic Beyond Maternity Leave
For all the focus on parental leave as a barrier to women’s professional ascent, women’s real struggle with work-parenting balance grew—alongside their children—years after their maternity leave ended.
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Katie Martin / The Atlantic How Much Ambition Can a Marriage Sustain?
Power couples are a rarity. Instead, many high-achieving women have husbands who do their own opting out.
