America’s ‘Marriage Material’ Shortage
Adults are significantly less likely to be married or to live with a partner than they used to be.
Work In Progress
Why Democrats Got the Politics of Immigration So Wrong for So Long
They spent more than a decade tacking left on the issue to win Latino votes. It may have cost them the White House—twice.
RFK Jr. Is a Bellwether
Kennedy embodies several trends across politics, science, and society, which require careful attention to understand how America is changing
The Three Pillars of the Bro-Economy
Day-trading, sports betting, and crypto are about to get bigger.
The Cost-of-Living Crisis Explains Everything
The economy under Biden looked good but felt bad.
America’s Class Politics Have Turned Upside Down
Why do so many liberals vote against their economic self-interest?
Blue States Gave Trump and Vance an Opening
How housing scarcity fuels the illiberal right
The Truth About Immigration and the American Worker
In many domains, the conventional wisdom among progressives is mistaken, oversimplified, or based on wishful thinking. The economics of immigration is not one of them.
We Need Supply-Side Education Policy
Eliminating degree requirements for jobs is very popular with voters but would do almost nothing to help workers who don’t have a college diploma.
Did the Fed Wait Too Long to Act?
America has officially defeated inflation without experiencing a recession—yet.
The YIMBYs Won Over the Democrats
A niche pro-housing movement has convinced mainstream Democrats of the need to build.
When the Bitcoin Scammers Came for Me
Lonely Americans are thirsty for companionship and hungry for money.
The New Law of Electoral Politics
Can Kamala Harris break the global incumbency curse?
The Truth About High Prices
The White House simply does not have great tools to bring the cost of living under control.
Get Ready for Tesla Cops
Police officers are falling in love with electric cars.
The Urban Family Exodus Is a Warning for Progressives
In large urban metros, the number of children under 5 years old is in a free fall.
Lithium-Ion Batteries Have Gone Too Far
We got duped into believing that every device we own should charge like a phone.
What Is America’s Gender War Actually About?
The political parties are more divided by their views on gender than they are divided by gender itself.
Poor Black Kids Are Doing Better. Poor White Kids Are Doing Worse.
A major study reports good and bad news.
Stop Pretending You Know How This Will End
The failed assassination of Donald Trump might not have any lasting effect on the election or politics in general.
White-Collar Work Is Just Meetings Now
The meeting-industrial complex has grown to the point that communications has eclipsed creativity as the central skill of modern work.
The Federal Reserve’s Little Secret
No one really knows how interest rates work, or even whether they work at all—not the experts who study them, the investors who track them, or the officials who set them.
America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety
English-speaking teens are spreading their problems abroad.
Americans Are Mad About All the Wrong Costs
Don’t complain about the price of a Big Mac. Complain about the price of a house.
The Future of Labor
Can workers’ power grow, even if union membership does not?
Americans Are Thinking About Immigration All Wrong
Population growth, economic growth, and income growth can be mutually reinforcing.
No One Knows What Universities Are For
Bureaucratic bloat has siphoned power away from instructors and researchers.
The Happiness Trinity
Why it’s so hard to answer the question What makes us happiest?
The 67-Hour Rule
Married couples are working as much as ever.
The True Cost of the Churchgoing Bust
Many Americans seem to have found no alternative method to build a sense of community.
Why Did The U.S. Navy Kill Arizona’s Housing Bill?
NIMBYism is coming from inside the government.
America’s Magical Thinking About Housing
The city of Austin built a lot of homes. Now rent is falling, and some people seem to think that’s a bad thing.
America’s Loneliness Epidemic Comes for the Restaurant
The restaurant recovery is not a simple story of universally positive outcomes.
How Happy Couples Argue
They don’t try to control each other. They try to control themselves.
The Americans Who Need Chaos
They’re embracing nihilism and upending politics.
Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out
Too much aloneness is creating a crisis of social fitness.
The War on ‘Woke Capital’ Is Backfiring
Republicans want to outlaw state investment in funds they see as tainted by progressive ideology. They’ll probably just get lower returns.
The Great Normalization
Last year, the crime and inflation crises largely evaporated. So did the leading theories about what had caused them.
The Nine Breakthroughs of the Year
CRISPR, GLP1s, and other advancements that astonished me