May/June Magazine Contents
Up one levelThe Upside of Income Inequality
Much of the widening gap in incomes reflects the rising payoff for a college education and other skills. Rising payoffs are a development that the authors, economists who have won the Nobel Prize and the Clark Prize, call ‘beneficial and desirable.’
Micro Man
Everyone, from free-market conservatives to socialists, loves Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, which has been lending tiny sums to millions of women in Bangladesh. Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, but Tom Bethell wondered if the story was too good to be true.
Hot Rocks, Cool Technology
Greener than wind or solar, geothermal energy gets little attention—even though, as Nick Schulz writes, it could provide 2,000 times our current power needs.
Movin’ Out
An Australian dedicated to American values, Andrew Liveris, the CEO of Dow Chemical, has been shifting plants overseas as U.S. natural gas prices make domestic manufacturing uncompetitive.
If We Exit
The costs, economic and otherwise, of staying in Iraq are terrible. The costs of leaving are much, much worse.
Does Economic Success Require Democracy?
Sadly, no. In fact, the politically unfree countries are enjoying more economic growth than the politically free ones. Kevin Hassett tells why.
Blue Skies, High Anxiety
Our air is cleaner than it’s been in a century, writes Joel Schwartz. So why do Americans worry it’s so dirty and dangerous?
Biofuels or Bio-fools?
Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley legend, is leading the venture capital rush into replacements for gasoline: biofuels made from corn and rougher stuff like switchgrass. But if prices fall and political subsidies vanish, the bubble may burst.
All the Coal in China
Cheap and abundant, coal is the energy that powers China’s economy, writes Rowan Callick. But it also may be the world’s worst environmental problem.
The Controversy Over Super Wool
Better sheep-breeding techniques and advances in loom technology have made the cloth that goes into men’s suits finer and softer. But, Nicholas Antongiavanni asks, are the suits really better?
Enter a ‘Hellish Place’
Tougher rules and longer sentences mean that prison for white-collar inmates is no longer Club Fed. Prisoner No. 20532-050 tells his eyewitness story to Luke Mullins.
Water, Water
It may be everywhere, but it’s scarce as well. How to use water most efficiently? Roger Bate finds the solution in a nation undergoing the worst drought in 1,000 years: Australia.
A Bettor World
Once apprenticed to a bookie, Justin Wolfers of Wharton now draws economic insight from the behavior of gamblers.
Should Corporations Be Democracies?
Absolutely not, says Peter Wallison. But maybe union pension plans should be.
Q&A: Energy Independence
‘Energy independence’ may be a hollow slogan, but ‘energy security’ is something we can achieve. Separating fact from fantasy, Steven Hayward shows how.