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Comic with Donald Trump at the head of a White House conference room.

The End of the Businessman President

Donald Trump’s catastrophic tenure will be the nail in the coffin of the worst idea in politics: that the government can be run like a corporation.
Thorstein Veblen

The Gadfly of American Plutocracy

Far from a marginal outsider, a new biography contends, Thorstein Veblen was the most important economic thinker of the Gilded Age.
Abandoned Howard Johnson's restaurant overgrown with vegetation.

Howard Johnson’s, Host of the Bygone Ways

For more than seven decades American roads were dotted with the familiar orange roof and blue cupola of the ubiquitous Howard Johnson’s restaurants and Motor Lodges.

Lamb to the Slaughter

The rise and fall of the Brooks Brothers name.

The History of the USPS and the Politics of Postal Reform

Reform was framed as a way of removing “politics” from postal affairs and giving more autonomy to postal management. In time, it would prove to do neither.
Side by side portraits of LL Cool J and John D. Rockefeller, both sitting with left leg crossed over right, right hand on leg.

How a Maverick Hip-Hop Legend Found Inspiration in a Titan of American Industry

When LL Cool J sat for his portrait, he found common ground with the life-long philanthropical endeavors of John D. Rockefeller.
Woman walking past a mural of Frederick Douglass
partner

Lessons for Sustaining Black Businesses After a Crisis

Private coalitions alone aren’t enough to address racial wealth gaps.
An illustration of a Good Humor ice cream truck with an ice cream man standing next to it, waving. They are surrounded by ice cream products.

The History of the Ice Cream Truck

As innovations go, the Good Humor vehicle is as sweet as it gets.
partner

Public Health Isn’t The Enemy of Economic Well-Being

As 19th century reformers showed, only a healthy workforce can fuel economic prosperity.

If You Think Quarantine Life Is Weird Today, Try Living It in 1918

From atomizer crazes to stranded actor troupes to school by phone, daily life during the flu pandemic was a trip.

Slavery Documents from Southern Saltmakers Bring Light to Dark History

For one West Virginia community, the acquisition is a missing puzzle piece to questions about slavery in the state.

Madame Yale Made a Fortune With the 19th Century's Version of Goop

A century before today’s celebrity health gurus, an American businesswoman was a beauty with a brand.
High risk, high return investments in whaling ships, such as the New Bedford, Massachusetts, provided a model for modern venture capital. Courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Venture Capital Builds The Modern World

The American method of high-risk, potentially high-reward investments has fueled innovation from New England whaling ventures to Silicon Valley start-ups.

The Real Nature of Thomas Edison’s Genius

The inventor did not look for problems in need of solutions; he looked for solutions in need of modification.

Amid a Revival of Anti-Monopoly Sentiment, a New Book Traces Its History

Matt Stoller charts the shifts in American attitudes toward corporate consolidation.
Alan Greenspan holding his right hand up to speak under oath, with an eagle seal on the wall behind him.

When Alan Met Ayn: "Atlas Shrugged" and Our Tanked Economy

We owe at least part of the 2008 financial crisis to Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism.
Big League Chew’s inaugural package in 1980.

How a Minor League Pitcher Turned a Dugout Conversation Into the Legend That Is Big League Chew

The inventor, who baked the first batch of the iconic gum 40 years ago, talks about the genesis of an American rite of passage.
Ad for Betty Crocker in the Ladies' Home Journal, featuring a recipe for chiffon cake.

The Power of Corporate Interests Over Home Baking

Throughout the early 20th century, food corporations created advertisement campaigns directed at women.
Image of the front cover of "The Republican Reversal: Conservatives and the Environment from Nixon to Trump."

Conservatives Before and After Earth Day

As Republicans denounce climate change as a “hoax” and dismantle the environmental regulatory state they worked to build, we are left to wonder: What happened?

The Innovation Cult

The function of the "innovation" buzzword is to sustain the myth that business genius creates society’s wealth.

When California Went to War Over Eggs

As the Gold Rush brought more settlers to San Francisco, battles erupted over the egg yolks of a remote seabird colony.
President Kennedy hands Senator Estes Kefauver the pen he used to sign a bill.

The Greatest Show of Them All

How a New Deal senator’s anti-monopoly investigations changed American business.

Debunking the Capitalist Cowboy

Business schools fetishize innovation, but their heroes succeeded due to manipulation of corporate law, not personal brilliance.

The New Deal Wasn’t What You Think

If we are going to fund a Green New Deal, we need to acknowledge how the original actually worked.
The poison squad, experimenters that tried poisons and studied their effects, drawn as men in suits striking dramatic poses.

Food Used to Be a Lot More Dangerous

Before the establishment of the modern FDA, anti-regulation attitudes ruled the world of food.

From Oil to Oprah: An Oral History of the StairMaster

The untold origin story of an iconic workout machine, told one step at a time.
"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" book cover

Thieves of Experience: How Google and Facebook Corrupted Capitalism

By reengineering the economy and society to their own benefit, Google and Facebook are undermining personal freedom and corroding democracy.

How Mark Burnett Resurrected Donald Trump as an Icon of American Success

With “The Apprentice,” the TV producer mythologized Trump as the ultimate titan, paving his way to the Presidency.

How Big Bonuses for Winning Coaches Became a Tradition in College Football

These bonuses are not a reaction to a multi-billion-dollar market that rewards winning – they are the foundation of it.

Atlas Weeps

Alan Greenspan and Adrian Wooldridge’s strange elegy for capitalism.

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