The future of cash, finance, economics, and trade
The Nanny Diaries of My Immigrant Mother
Immigrants lose their worth the minute they board a plane. Women like my mother, who was not professionally skilled in her country of origin, become pre-marked for domestic labor in flight.
For Unbanked Populations, the Future of Banking Is Pocket-Size
A dispatch from the streets of Myanmar.
The Future of Money Depends on Busting Fairy Tales About Its Past
Want to disrupt finance? Start here.
U.S. Debt Is Massive and Other Countries Are Desperate to Keep It That Way
The global financial system relies on massive amounts of perpetual national debt–and that’s OK.
Your Money, Explained in GIFs
Where it comes from, who creates it, what inflation is, and how much there is on Earth.
Who Will Invent the Money of Tomorrow?
Forget a global currency–we’ll see more types of digital cash than there are nations.
Why Aren’t We Teaching Math for the Real World?
Math is still important, but we have the priorities wrong in the current framework.
How to Smuggle Money into North Korea
“It takes 20 minutes to get cash into the hands of a North Korean,” said Jieun Baek, a fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Author of the forthcoming book North Korea’s Hidden Revolution, she estimates that somewhere between $12 to $20 million is transferred into the country annually from defectors […]
What We Can Learn About Happiness From Economics
They say money makes you happy–but, well, does it?
A Global War Against Dirty Money the U.S. Won’t Join
The securest money is plastic cash–for now.
Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money
How to create new currency in failed states.
We Need to Radically Rethink GDP
Are our economies slowing, or are we just measuring the wrong things?
GDP Sucks–Here Are Some Better Alternatives
Gross Domestic Product is the scourge of the modern world–we can do much better.
That Money is Funny
Five of the world’s most unusual forms of currency.
Made of Money: A Reading List
A crash course in the future of cash, finance, economics, and trade.
Maximum Wage: Your Response
Your thoughts on the idea that countries should introduce a maximum wage, pinned relative to earnings of the poorest.