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December 2008

Henry Blodget explains why Wall Street always blows it; Caitlin Flanagan on the appeal of Twilight for adolescent girls; James Fallows interviews America's Chinese banker; P.J. O'Rourke on Disney's house of the future; David Samuels profiles an ultimate fighting champion; James Parker on the strange genius of actor Jim Carrey; and much more.

The Atlantic - December 2008

Also in this issue

What's Your Problem?

Tropical print is dead, and other advice

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Other articles in this issue

Quick Study

Elitist endowments; borrowing blind

Word Fugitives

Articles of agreement; dishwasher dictators

Features

Why Wall Street Always Blows It

And why we never learn from the last bubble

Flashbacks: Atlantic articles from the 1930s reveal how Americans reinvented banking, restructured the economy, and dealt with challenges unsettlingly parallel to those of today.

Iceland’s Meltdown

Map: A visual guide to economic calamity

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

Rampage

In the ring with Quinton Jackson: a profile of an ultimate fighter


Dispatches

Spooked

The spies who loved me

Caveat Donor

A street brawl in India brings down a global kidney-transplant ring.

A Cock Crows in Portland

The heartbreak of urban chicken husbandry

Exile

After 17 years in the NHL, Czech hockey star Jaromir Jagr hits the ice—and the jackpot—in Siberia.

Cheese Balls

Mozzarella’s American renaissance

The Ottoman Mystique

In Turkey, there are dancers, and there are dancers. [Web only: Slideshow: "Turkish Surprise"]

Rook Dreams

New chess software makes it easier for younger players to reach the top of their game—and harder to stay there


Books

Geography Is Destiny

An epochal new book argues that the events of history we think consequential and monumental are, mostly, trivia

Books: 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: "Twilight—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


Columns

Pop Psychology

Why asset bubbles are a part of the human condition that regulation can’t cure

The Existential Clown

Why Jim Carrey makes us uncomfortable. [Web only: Video: "The Fears of a Clown"]


The Biggest Story in Photos

The Unreal World

May 31, 2012
The Design Essentials of the Perfect Pair of Pointe Shoes
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The Atlantic Monthly

David H. Freedman on smartphone apps and the perfected self, Mark Bowden on being in the dumb kids' class, James Parker on Glenn Beck, Isaac Chotiner on P. G. Wodehouse, and more

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