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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.

I've been memed

By Megan McArdle
Jul 21 2008, 12:59 PM ET Comment

Radley Balko asks what five songs in my iTunes are my guiltiest pleasures.  I take this to mean things I actually listen to--for some reason, I have Maroon 5 and a Tears for Fears album, but I'm not sure I've ever listened to them.

So here goes, try to not to shudder:

* Will Ye Go, Lassie by the Irish Tenors.  I can't explain why I am so fond of what serious celtic musicians universally agree is the worst possible version of one of celtic music's worst songs.  But my heart still goes pitter-pat for tenors soaring into the chorus.

* Closing Time  I could defend this by saying I use it to shoo people out at parties.  But this would be a lie. I just kinda like it.

* Mambo #5 by Lou Bega.  Oh, stop snickering.  It's cute.

*  Satellite, by Dave Matthews.  So many dreamy hours staring up at the stars from a decrepit front porch . . . how could I repudiate it?

*  The Wall.  This is the album that made me feel like I was <i>really</i> deep when I was a freshman in high school.  Now it makes me feel like a freshman in high school.  And sometimes, you just want to reclaim those days.

I tag Daniel Drezner, Tyler Cowen, and Freddie.


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