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.

Why is the AARP Running This Ad?

By Megan McArdle
Nov 23 2009, 5:36 PM ET Comment

I spent a quiet day yesterday, cleaning my closet with the television on. As a result, I got to see this ad, over and over:

Now this is an odd little ad.  It's not in favor of anything in particular.  Nor does it solicit membership in its group.  Its purpose seems to be to defend the AARP's decision to endorse this health care bill, which John McCain blasted on Saturday.

Why does the AARP need to do this?  I infer that despite their happy-face public comments, they're having a lot of troubles with the membership over this endorsement, but they can't really come out and enumerate the goodies that they scored in exchange for their two-thumbs-up, because that would simply reinforce the notion that the AARP is a gigantic money-sucking cancer on the American body politic.  So instead . . . soft focus blandishments.  I'm a little skeptical that this is going to improve matters for them, but at least it probably doesn't make them any worse.


Presented by

More at The Atlantic

Video Shows Syrian Anti-Aircraft Tank Firing Randomly Into Peoples' Homes Video Shows Syrian Anti-Aircraft Tank Firing Into Random Homes
Here's What Humbert Humbert Looks Like (as a Police Composite Sketch) Is This What Humbert Humbert Really Looks Like?
What Do Republican Voters See in Rick Santorum? What Do Republican Voters See in Rick Santorum?
Using the Internet as Matchmaker: The Drawbacks to Online Dating Internet as Matchmaker: The Drawbacks to Online Dating
The Truth About income Inequality in America The Truth About Income Inequality in America

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
Election 2012 Reuters Election 2012
The destination for full politics coverage, from the primaries to the White House. Read more ›
View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

The Civil War, Part 3: The Stereographs

Feb 10, 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?