fortune teller's hands

Why Economists Make Terrible Fortunetellers

Even the (presumably rational) economists of the world love to try to predict the future. They often get it wrong, suggesting that all the rational data in the world is rendered useless by the irrationality of human behavior.
Mr and Mrs William Lindow

How 17th Century Unmarried Women Helped Shape Capitalism

Under coverture, married English women had no rights to their property, even though unmarried women did, making for a unique system in Europe.
Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren

An early paper by Elizabeth Warren argues for a Financial Product Safety Commission that would regulate financial products.
1920s-era Remington Portable typewriter

The QWERTY Truth

How did the QWERTY keyboard became the gold standard? The answer is probably not what you'd think. Welcome to the economic concept of "path dependence."
Cormorants on a Guano Island

Are We Entering a New Golden Age of Guano?

A history of civilization could be written in fertilizers. And the history of guano—bird poop—tells us a lot about slavery, imperialism, and U.S. expansion.
Book cover of Thomas Pikett's Capital beside the author sitting in front of a whiteboard filled with equations

The Road to Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century hit the number one spot on the New York Times nonfiction ...