Skip Navigation
Megan McArdle

Megan McArdle - Megan McArdle is a senior editor for The Atlantic who writes about business and economics. She has worked at three start-ups, a consulting firm, an investment bank, a disaster recovery firm at Ground Zero, and The Economist. More

Megan was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and yes, she does enjoy her lattes, as well as the occasional extra-dry skim-milk cappuccino. Her checkered work history includes three start-ups, four years as a technology project manager for a boutique consulting firm, a summer as an associate at an investment bank, and a year spent as sort of an executive copy girl for one of the disaster-recovery firms at Ground Zero … all before the age of 30.

While working at Ground Zero, Megan started Live From the WTC, a blog focused on economics, business, and cooking. She may or may not have been the first major economics blogger, depending on whether we are allowed to throw outlying variables such as Brad Delong out of the set. From there it was but a few steps down the slippery slope to freelance journalism. She has worked in various capacities for The Economist, where she wrote about economics and oversaw the founding of Free Exchange, the magazine's economics blog. She has also maintained her own blog, Asymmetrical Information, which moved to The Atlantic, along with its owner, in August 2007.

Megan holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. After a lifetime as a New Yorker, she now resides in northwest Washington, D.C., where she is still trying to figure out what one does with an apartment larger than 400 square feet.
« Previous McArdle | Next McArdle » Email Email Print Print

More surprise good news

By Megan McArdle

Nov 2 2007, 3:23 PM ET Comment

Payroll jobs grew by 166,000 last month. I don't know what's keeping this economy going, but whatever it is, I want some.

Update Sorry, a commenter says he doesn't know what Payroll jobs are. There are two surveys used to determine employment levels: payrolls (which surveys companies about their hiring), and household, which surveys people. The payroll survey is generally regarded as a more accurate barometer.

Presented by

More at The Atlantic

A Short Animated Biography of tHOMAS Edison The Life of Thomas Edison, Animated
Politics Q&A: Senator Rand Paul Rand Paul: 'You Don't Go Into Politics Unless You Want to Win'
The fEARLESSness of Jeremy Lin The Fearlessness of Jeremy Lin
The 10 Best and 10 Worst States for High-Tech Business The 10 Best States for High-Tech Business
10 of the Greatest Kisses in Literature The Greatest Kisses in Literature

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register.
blog comments powered by Disqus
Special Report
The Next Global Economies Reuters The Next Global Economies
Lessons from the BRICs — and a look at which developing countries are on the rise. Read more ›

Correspondents

View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Valentine's Day 2012

Feb 14, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

Megan McArdle
from the Magazine

Why Companies Fail

GM’s stock price has sunk by a third since its IPO. Why is corporate turnaround so difficult…

The Graduates

Busted banking careers, crashed consultants, and shrunken incomes: the author attends her 10-year…

Romney’s Business

The Republican contender touts his business experience—but does it really matter?