Megan McArdle

SomeCallMeTim used to comment on my old site. He disagreed with almost everything I said, and occasionally was a little over the top with his attacks, but he was a sharp interlocutor who forced me to think. I miss him. Hence, I was a little surprised to find, in the comments of Jim Henley's fascinating quest for libertarian arguments against animal cruelty, SomeCallMeTim characterizing me thusly: This is going to sound like snark, but it’s genuine:… More »

Dan Drezner and I discuss the war, the financial panic, and my white jeans on BloggingheadsTV. If you've ever wondered what I look like early in the morning and with no makeup . . . well, now you know. More »

One of Matt's commenters asks, in re Rudy: Why do New Yorkers keep voting Republican? I don't care if they think it's cute-- they keep saddling us with awful ex-mayors who see it as a launching pad for national office. Enough. Vote for a greasy dem who's satisfied with a little graft and a few laughs and stop saddling us with egomaniacal, semi-authoritarian dweebs! They vote Republican because the whole city is Democratic. Let me explain. For most offices, like… More »

I think this post wins the prize for boringest title ever. Also, it seems to be roughly one squintillion words long. But stay with me. This is important. A post from my old blog on the morality of healthcare transfers has attracted an amazing amount of ire from the liberal bloggers and commenters flocking to complain about how evil I am. Most of them, in the course of criticising it, display what seems to me like an Olympic-caliber ability to miss the point. … More »

I'm writing about healthcare in a desperate, but probably ultimately futile, attempt to communicate my romantic attraction to Ezra. Meanwhile, apparently Matt is apparently linking to me in the hopes that we can someday hook up. Perhaps I'll consider it, since my hopeless pining has availed me nothing . . . but wait! Is Ezra coming around? Even though I dress like a ditsy teenager? Tune in next week, same time, same station . . . More »

Speaking of Crazy Uncle Rudy, I wanted to link to Jim Henley's take on his Foriegn Affairs essay. I know, I know, you've already read it. But it's so hilarious, I can't resist: Rudy Giuliani hired a ghostwriter to produce the requisite manifesto, “Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned,” for Foreign Affairs magazine. It’s full of lies, oversimplifications and vagueness, but makes up for all that by being very, very tedious. Because the genre requires him to… More »

Roy Edroso's commenters are accusing me of blocking the link to my piece on the morality of health care transfers. I'm not even sure that's actually possible, but assuming it is, I'm not doing it. Nor would I, since it seems cowardly, wrong, and also a complete waste of time, given that anyone who wants to read the thing can find it on my front page. What's happening is that the permissions on my individual archive pages are rather tight. This was not done by… More »

One of my commenters demands: Lets say Rudy did just make a bad choice, no ulterior motives. Isn't that bad enough? Don't we want a president that makes good choices when he has to make a decision on these types of things? Who were the other guys that recommended to him that they put the command center away from the big terrorist target? Wouldn't they make a better president. I am not defending Rudy, the presidential candidate. Almost no one who has lived in… More »

I know that the sweet, sweet, bloggy love which has greeted my arrival at The Atlantic cannot go on much longer. But it sure is fun while it lasts. I never knew so many people cared. More »

Sweatshop copies of great art. Weren't many of the originals produced in similar factory-like conditions? Professor? Mr Teachout? Mr Capps? Anyone? More »

Mark Kleiman and I have been discussing the theory that the disaster recovery bunker in WTC 7 was placed so as to make the best love nest for Rudy Giuliani and his then-extramarital-girlfriend (now wife). Mark has just responded to a post I made on my old blog: She makes two points: 1. Traffic near City Hall was tied up on 9/11, vindicating the decision to place the command center should be within walking distance. 2. Giuliani and Nathan had other places to… More »

Jim Henley notifies me that Michael Vick has just pled, taking 18-36 months. If I were religious, I would suspect that this would be the least of the sentences he could expect. As it is, I'm not sure it's enough, but I'll take a grim pleasure in knowing he didn't walk. Jim, meanwhile, is struggling with his inner vigilante: Prosecutors will recommend 18+ months, though his own attorneys will ask the judge, pretty please, for less than a year. Since cruel and… More »

Clever, witty, and devastatingly handsome international Man of Mystery Brian Beutler now has a new website called . . . Brian Beutler. Please welcome its elegant, new-millenial simplicity to the blogroll. More »

Moving is always strange, especially for me, since I have no sense of direction. In generally takes me a couple of weeks in a new office before I can reliably make it to the bathroom without getting lost. The move to this blog has been particularly disorienting, however, because along with the office, I have a shiny new Macintosh. The Atlantic is a Mac shop, and now I'm enjoying the much-vaunted usability, which of course isn't very, since I've spent fifteen… More »

Probably you should also know that I seem to have been mentioned in Tyler's book, although not by name. That could make me view the book either more or less favourably; Robin Hanson has not entirely enjoyed the experience. I'd tell you which it is in my case, but I'm not sure myself . . . More »

We live in a world of scarce resources. In such a world, unfortunately, not everyone can have the pleasure of knowing Tyler Cowen personally. That is pity, for talking to Tyler is a rare treat. That is why I was so surprised to hear a friend say he was disappointed by Tyler Cowen's new book, Discover your Inner Economist. My friend, it turns out, had been hoping for something more along the lines of Freakonomics, or The Armchair Economist. Both are very good… More »

I am trying not to read any significance into the fact that just as I leave The Economist for this shiny new blog at The Atlantic Monthly, the financial markets melt down. Sure, the timing may be correct . . . the market began tanking about a week before my last day, which is par for insider trading deals. But it would be paranoid to take this as any sort of an omen. Wouldn't it? Not that this is stopping anyone else in the market from looking for… More »

A blog on economics, business, and other moral hazards. More »