Economics

“We’ve been taxing work, output and income and subsidizing non-work, leisure and unemployment. The consequences are obvious! To Don Rumsfeld,” Arthur Laffer wrote around the graph, signing and dating his work as well.

The Restaurant Doodle That Launched a Political Movement

How one economist’s graph on a napkin reshaped the Republican Party and upended tax policy

Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee illustrates the immensity of the missing Carmanah cedar in 2012.

How Thousand-Year-Old Trees Became the New Ivory

Ancient trees are disappearing from protected national forests around the world. A look inside $100 billion market for stolen wood

Would you trust nutrition research underwritten by a GMO company?

People Don’t Trust Scientific Research When Companies Are Involved

But sometimes, they should

Does Creativity Breed Inequality in Cities?

Richard Florida thinks so. In his new book, the urban theorist says sometimes the most innovative cities also have the worst social and economic disparity

To develop the next big mass-market wine, winemakers first hone flavor using focus groups, then add approved flavoring and coloring additives to make the drink match up with what consumers want.

The Science Behind Your Cheap Wine

How advances in bottling, fermenting and taste-testing are democratizing a once-opaque liquid

Vanilla has risen to become one the most popular and costly spices in existence.

The Bittersweet Story of Vanilla

Today, less than 1 percent of vanilla flavoring comes from the vanilla flower. Is that a good thing?

$50,000 platinum grill worn by rapper Lil Jon

A New Photo Book Showcases the Absurd Extravagance of the World’s Wealthiest Citizens

Economic recession or not, there are few limits on the ways the mega-rich will flaunt their fortunes

An unemployed painter named Richard Lawrence attempted to assassinate President Andrew Jackson in January 1835.

The Attempted Assassination of Andrew Jackson

A madman, a conspiracy and a lot of angry politicians

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park

Mining Exploration Begins in Michigan's Porcupine Mountains

Michigan is divided over a mining company's plans to drill for copper in a beloved state park

There are many hurdles to building the proposed border wall. And skimping on any steps means that "big, beautiful" wall won't stand for long.

What Geology Has to Say About Building a 1,000-Mile Border Wall

Compared to erecting a marble palace or high-steepled church, a wall may seem relatively straightforward—it isn’t

Isaac Newton got caught up in one of the world's first investment "bubbles," supposedly saying at the time that he “could calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people."

The Market Crash That Cost Newton a Fortune

The esteemed scientist wasn't the only one to fall for the first investment bubble

The Nobel Prize, named after the repentant creator of dynamite, has been awarded nearly every year since 1901.

What Does It Take to Win a Nobel Prize? Four Winners, in Their Own Words

Some answers: Messiness, ignorance and puzzles

Workers from the Kenya Wildlife Service carry elephant tusks from shipping containers full of ivory transported from around the country for a mass anti-poaching demonstration.

Most Ivory for Sale Comes From Recently Killed Elephants—Suggesting Poaching Is Taking Its Toll

Carbon dating finds that almost all trafficked ivory comes from animals killed less than three years before their tusks hit the market

Puerto Rico's #1 Crop Isn't Sugar, But It's Still Sweet

Puerto Rico's agricultural economy was once dominated by sugar plantations. Today, the same fields hold everything from corn to bananas

Demand for Coffee Hits Record High as Global Supply Tightens

Millennials have led the surge in java consumption

The presidential mask offers Americans a particularly playful—and anonymous—entrance into political humor.

What's Behind America's Obsession With Presidential Masks?

From nose-picking Nixon to Trump-kissing-Clinton, Americans have long imitated their political candidates

Food prices are getting higher. Or lower. Whichever.

Why Those Headlines About Rising Food Costs Are So Confusing

There's more to the story

The U.S. Government Is Buying Tons of Eggs and Cheese

A Depression-Era program is helping bail out America’s egg and dairy farmers

In the past few weeks, thousands of fish have gone belly-up.

The Massive Yellowstone Fish Die-Off: A Glimpse Into Our Climate Future?

This unprecedented kill reveals why we need to keep rivers resilient

Federal Corrections Instiution, Ray Brook, is housed inside the former Olympic Village for the 1980 games in Lake Placid

Why the 1980 Olympic Village Is Now a Prison

It’s one way to deal with leftover infrastructure

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