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.

Talking heads

By Megan McArdle
May 6 2008, 8:18 PM ET Comment

The Clinton and Obama campaign third string spokespeople are on MSNBC babbling about how their candidates are destined to win. Both of them are insisting that a victory is inevitable; neither of them are taking any cognizance of the other person making claims that flatly contradict their own. As the tension mounts--as a nation waits breathless to find out whether Hillary Clinton is going to prolong our agony with a net loss of 13 delegates, or whether she will soar to a net loss of only 8 delegates--they are valiantly filling the air with observations of astonishing triviality. "You know, this is all about the votes," says one of the bland women I have never heard of. In a moment, one of them is going to start commenting on how there are all these cameras and lights and things in the studio. The other will undoubtedly respond by picking up a fire safety flyer and reading us the fine print. Hell, at least we might learn something.

If only one could put out political blather with a little stop, drop and roll.

Presented by

More at The Atlantic

Anne Rice, 'Secret World of Arrietty': The Week Ahead in Pop Culture The Week in Pop Culture
Politics Q&A: Senator Rand Paul Rand Paul: 'You Don't Go Into Politics Unless You Want to Win'
Government Employs 1 in 6 U.S. Workers—Where Are They? Government Employs 1 in 6 U.S. Workers—Where Are They?
'State of the WaPo' Watch: Two Articles Worth Reading The State of the Washington Post
Why Israel Might Believe Attacking Iran Is Worthwhile Why Israeli Leaders Might Believe Attacking Iran Is Worth the Effort

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 Civil War National Portrait Gallery The Civil War
A 150th-anniversary commemorative issue, with Atlantic work by Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and others. Read more ›
View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

Athens in Flames

Feb 13, 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?