Why Wall Street Always Blows It
And why we never learn from the last bubble
Web-only
FLASHBACKS:
The Great Depression
Atlantic articles from the 1930s reveal how Americans reinvented banking, restructured the economy, and dealt with challenges unsettlingly parallel to those of today.
“Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money”
An interview with America's Chinese banker
Getting Away With Murder?
Why Rafiq al-Hariri's assassins may never be caught [Web only: Slideshow: "Fear and Loathing in Beirut"]
Future Schlock
Disney's new, furiously unimaginative House of the Future
EDITORS NOTE
American Precedent
GALLERY
Hope
GALLERY
Now On Sale!
GALLERY
Doped to Dow
GALLERY
Misfortune Cookie
POETRY
Buoyancy
POEM
Inflection
SPORT
Exile
After 17 years in the NHL, Czech hockey star Jaromir Jagr hits the ice—and the jackpot—in Siberia.
TRAVEL
The Ottoman Mystique
Why Jim Carrey makes us uncomfortable. In Turkey, there are dancers, and there are dancers. [Web only: Slideshow: "Turkish Surprise"]
TECHNOLOGY
Rook Dreams
New chess software makes it easier for younger players to reach the top of their game—and harder to stay there
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Geography Is Destiny
An epochal new book argues that the events of history we think consequential and monumental are, mostly, trivia
Web-only
Books In Brief
In time for the holidays—a comprehensive selection of books highlighted in The Atlantic in 2008
Books of the Year
The best of 2008
What Girls Want
A series of vampire novels illuminates the complexities of female adolescent desire. [Web only: Video: "Twighlight—a Review"]
Suburbs of Our Discontent
Misery and banality in a 1950s Connecticut development—rendered with anatomical precision on the page, and now coming to the screen
Cover to Cover
A guide to additional releases
COMMERCE AND CULTURE
Pop Psychology
Why asset bubbles are a part of the human condition that regulation can’t cure
MOVING PICTURES
The Existential Clown
Why Jim Carrey makes us uncomfortable. [Web only: Video: "The Fears of a Clown"]
