Aerial view of a mangrove forest, a natural carbon sink

Should Environmental Policy Commodify Nature?

The White House is calling for the integration of natural capital accounting frameworks into land-use decisions, putting nature on the balance sheet.
Juvenile wild rabbit sitting next to its burrow.

Coney Money

Want to make some coin raising rabbits? Get yourself an island. Or not, if you want to protect the existing ecosystem.
CNC machine drilling with coolant

Uneven Impacts: The Virtual Water Trade

The virtual water trade reveals significant disparities between water-rich states and their trade partners.
Adam Smith

Adam Smith, Revolutionary?

By 1800, Smith—once considered a friend of the poor and an enemy of the privileges of the rich—was already being refashioned into a icon of conservatism.
An image of tigers and tropical leaves

Economic Grrrowth in the East: Asian Tiger Economies

Can the conditions that produced the fast-growing economies of the Four Tigers—Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan—be replicated?
A computer screen with an old Wikipedia logo

Whatever Happened to the Open Internet?

There may be a way out of corporate control of the internet, but it probably starts with money.
Barrels of whiskey are opened and poured into a blending vat below, circa 1940.

Bourbon Country

Examining the ingredients—time, grain, government regulations—that have made bourbon an enduring national favorite.
A duel between Charles de Lameth and the Marquis de Castries,November 12, 1790

A Slap, Followed by a Duel

Dueling was a dangerous, ritualized response to a real (or perceived) slight. It may also have been a means of proving one's social and economic capital.
Kazakhstan against a backdrop of bitcoin

Even in Kazakhstan, Bitcoin Can’t Escape Geopolitics

People in Kazakhstan have been protesting energy prices, and met with violence by the government. What does Bitcoin have to do with it?
US Airmail stamp: Inverted Jenny Air Mail Issue of 1918

Stamp Collecting as Metaphor for the Free Market

The hobby was originally pursued by middle-class women and children. But its resemblance to capitalist values made it attractive to men.