Forbes columns

New York Times "Economic Scene" columns (March 2000 to March 2006)

The Atlantic Monthly, "Culture & Commerce" columns

Special Features

A Small Circle of Friends
Some self-help groups save lives, and some just drift apart. What makes a personal network click?
Forbes, May 7, 2007

Mr. Charisma: Obama or Osama?
The New York Post, April 8, 2007

An 18th-Century Brain in a 21st-Century Head
Cato Unbound, Libertarianism: Past and Prospects, March 2007

Your Design Here
Are amateurs taking over? Don't panic--DIY design culture might just have something to teach us.
Print, March-April 2007

Grim Harvest
Review of Last Best Gifts: Altruism and the Market for Human Blood and Organs by Kieran Healy
The New York Times Book Review, January 28, 2007

From Shopping Centers to Lifestyle Centers
Shopping malls are finally fulfilling their original destiny: re-creating the essence of urban life.
Los Angeles Times, December 10, 2006

As Plano Goes...
...so goes the nation? Commentators around the country have been debating that for months. If only they understood what the booming Dallas suburb is really like.
Texas Monthly, December 2006

The surgery was simple; the process is another story
USA Today, October 25, 2006

Need transplant donors? Pay them
Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2006

Here's Looking at You, Kidney
Texas Monthly, June 2006

The Poverty Puzzle
The New York Times Book Review, March 19, 2006
Review of The White Man's Burden, by William Easterly

A Pen for Your Thoughts (.PDF download)
Spirit Magazine (Southwest Airlines magazine), March 2006
Opening photo reprinted with permission of Manny Rodriguez.

Controlling Quality: The Hard Road to Building a Brand
The New York Times, September 20, 2005

How Modernism Got Its Curves
A look at the extraordinary career of designer Eva Zeisel.
A slideshow essay
Slate, September 1, 2005

That Long Drive Out to the Airport
Why the Wright Amendment is bad for Dallas
D Magazine, August 2005

Market Share
Economists have long used their tools to analyze social phenomena. Now sociologists are learning to stop worrying and love -- or at least study -- the market.
The Boston Globe, July 24, 2005

Let's Make Some Magic, With No Strings Attached (wireless glamour)
The New York Times, May 4, 2005

Q&A: Robyn Waters
I.D. Magazine, May 2005

Is Dallas Good for Smart People? Sort of.
Dallas Morning News, March 5, 2005

Old Hollywood Glamour--And the Man Who Invented It
Slate, February 25, 2005

A Nimble Newcomer in the Staid Old Furniture Industry
The New York Times, February 22, 2005
Slide show, with commentary from American Leather CEO Bob Duncan

The Book of Jobs
Essay on the continuing popularity of What Color Is Your Parachute?
New York Times Book Review, January 16, 2005

High In the Sunlit Silence
The enduring glamour of aviation
Reason Online, December 22, 2004

The Eagle Has Landed
Review of Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas, by David Hackett Fischer
New York Times Book Review, December 19, 2004

With So Many Choices, No Wonder You Need Help
The New York Times, December 7, 2004

Where Snobbery Is Out of Style
In praise of "shopping magazines"
The Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2004

A Golden World
Excerpt from essay in Glamour: Glamour: Fashion, Industrial Design, Architecture
T: The New York Times Style Magazine, October 10, 2004

"Substance of Style" and the Modern Economy
The variety revolution
All Things Considered, National Public Radio, September 16, 2004

Missing the Dream
Review of On Paradise Drive, by David Brooks
The New York Post, July 4, 2004

Operation Everything
It stocks your grocery store, schedules your favorite team's games, and helps plan your vacation. A primer on the most influential academic discipline you've never heard of.
The Boston Globe, June 27, 2004

The (Gay) Marriage Tax
The Boston Globe, May 23, 2004

Why Buy What You Don't Need? The Marginal Appeal of Aesthetics (.pdf file)
Innovation, Spring 2004

A Prettier Jobs Picture
New York Times Magazine, February 22, 2004

Friedrich the Great
Dismissed by critics as a free-market extremist, economist Friedrich Hayek is gaining new attention as a forerunner of cognitive psychology, information theory, even postmodernism. A reintroduction to one of the most important thinkers you've barely heard of.
Sidebar: Hayek on Gay Marriage
The Boston Globe, January 11, 2004

Unhappily Better Off
Review of The Progress Paradox, by Gregg Easterbrook
The New York Post, January 4, 2004

Light Until the Wealth of Nations
How Christmas displays illuminate a strong economy
Reason Online, December 19, 2003
(A shorter version was published as Got a Light? in The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2003.)

The Design of Your Life
Men's Journal, October 2003

Going to Great Lengths
New York Times Magazine, August 31, 2003

The Economics of Aesthetics
Strategy+Business, Fall 2003 (free registration required)

The Aesthetic Imperative
Wired, July 2003

Wives' Tale: The "marriage penalty" taxes women for working, not wedding
The Boston Globe, April 13, 2003

Why Bush Stiffed Enron
The Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2002

Yes, Don't Impede Medical Progress (defense of "therapeutic cloning")
The Wall Street Journal, December 5, 2001

Ancients Arise to Challenge Modern Science
Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2001

Sometimes the Patient Knows Best
The New York Times, January 3, 2000

Surprise!
The Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2000

What Really Scares Microsoft
The New York Times, November 8, 1999

A World with All Kinds of Music
IntellectualCapital.com, October 22, 1999

The Pleasures of Persuasion
The Wall Street Journal, August 2, 1999

Our anxiety about what's to come is just the wish for things to stand still
The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 18, 1999

When Movies Become 'Product'
The New York Times, June 14, 1999

The Big One (review of Francis Fukuyama's The Great Disruption)
Los Angeles Times, June 13, 1999

How Has 'The Organization Man' Aged?
The New York Times, January 17, 1999

Misplacing the Blame for Our Troubles on 'Flat, Not Tall' Spaces
Los Angeles Times, February 8, 1999

The Work Ethic, Redefined
The Wall Street Journal, September 4, 1998

Carrying On About Carry-On Baggage
Intellectual Capital, June 18, 1998

The Sierra Club's Immigration Problem
Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1998

"National Greatness" or Conservative Malaise?
The Wall Street Journal, September 25, 1997

Pat Buchanan's South Carolina Problem
The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 1996

Million Man March
Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1995

Unabomber
Los Angeles Times, September 25, 1995

So Long, Organization Man (Review of White-Collar Blues)
The Wall Street Journal, April 11, 1995

Science and Vanity
The Washington Post, January 26, 1992

A Man of Two Heritages (Review of Days of Obligation)
The Wall Street Journal, February 17, 1993

Other Articles and speeches