Megan McArdle

Megan McArdle is a former writer and editor at The Atlantic.

Mitt Romney, One Night Stands, and the Economics of Relationships

Mitt Romney, One Night Stands, and the Economics of Relationships

The ways we exchange goods and services says lots about the how we interact with the people around us. More »

The Wacky World of Prices: Rental Cars, Hollywood, and HBO

The Wacky World of Prices: Rental Cars, Hollywood, and HBO

Guest post by Gabriel Rossman -- Sociologist at UCLA. His work applies economic sociology to media industries. He blogs at Code and Culture and is the author of Climbing the Charts. I study media markets and one of the interesting things about the entertainment industry is there's a lot of complex pricing. This includes both simple bundling (eg, basic cable) and two-part tariffs (eg, HBO). These pricing practices are forms of price discrimination, which is to say… More »

What Is Causality?

What Is Causality?

A response to Gabriel Rossman More »

What Really Happened to Income Inequality in the 20th Century?

What Really Happened to Income Inequality in the 20th Century?

The myth of the U-shaped 1900s More »

The 1% Conundrum: How Much Income Inequality Is There, Really?

The 1% Conundrum: How Much Income Inequality Is There, Really?

Do different sources give similar results on high-end inequality? More »

How Things Get Popular

How Things Get Popular

This is what the diffusion of innovation looks like More »

How to Succeed in Business by Really, Really Trying

How to Succeed in Business by Really, Really Trying

Every guy who has done a successful start-up somehow feels he's therefore become the philosopher-king of business More »

When Correlation Is Not Causation, But Something Much More Screwy

When Correlation Is Not Causation, But Something Much More Screwy

Sampling error? Omitted variable bias? Bah, that's for first-year grad students. More »

What's HBO Go's Problem?

What's HBO Go's Problem?

There is no word for "cord cutter" in Dothraki More »

We Are the 99.5%: The Real Inequality Jump Is in the Top Half-Percentile

We Are the 99.5%: The Real Inequality Jump Is in the Top Half-Percentile

If marketing were no issue, a case could be made that Occupy Wall Street's slogan should be, "We Are the 99.5%!" More »

Inequality: Is Our Hottest Economic Trend an Overrated Problem?

Inequality: Is Our Hottest Economic Trend an Overrated Problem?

And am I automatically a conservative for suggesting it might be? More »

Inequality Is a Bug, Not a Feature

Inequality Is a Bug, Not a Feature

Responding to Bain Capital executive Edward Conard, who says inequality is positive evidence that the market is rewarding good innovators More »

The Beauty of Twitter's Unfollow Bug

The Beauty of Twitter's Unfollow Bug

A glitch in Twitter sometimes deletes ties among users, accidentally giving you the chance to be more proactive about whether you will stay in touch. More »

Kidnapped by Pirates at Sea? Here's How Economics Can Save You

Kidnapped by Pirates at Sea? Here's How Economics Can Save You

The first rule of kidnapping insurance: Don't tell anybody you have kidnapping insurance. More »

Meet Your Newest Guest Bloggers

Gabriel Rossman, Jim Manzi, and Scott Winship More »

Why Economies Boom

Why Economies Boom

Technology waves are big enough to shift the whole economy More »

The Recession's Invisible Victim Is Trust

The Recession's Invisible Victim Is Trust

"People are no damn good." More »

We're Spent: Why the U.S. Is in Danger of Losing Its Responsible Rep

We're Spent: Why the U.S. Is in Danger of Losing Its Responsible Rep

We've bought our great reputation at great risk. We're about to spend right through it More »

The G.I. Joe Stimulus: Are U.S. Troops Good for Growth?

The G.I. Joe Stimulus: Are U.S. Troops Good for Growth?

More troops predict more two-way trade between the U.S. and the host country More »

Making a Living in the Wake of the Pelican Disaster

Making a Living in the Wake of the Pelican Disaster

How do regulations impact boat owners today? More »

The Biggest Story in Photos

Photos of Tornado Damage in Moore, Oklahoma

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Megan McArdle
from the Magazine

Why You Can’t Get a Taxi

And how an upstart company may change that

Europe’s Real Crisis

The Continent’s problems are as much demographic as financial. They won’t go away soon.

Why Companies Fail

GM’s stock price has sunk by a third since its IPO. Why is corporate turnaround so difficult…