Rumpus Exclusive: “Kristy’s Invisible Hand and Das Baby-Sitters Club Kapital”
The babysitters inspired me, and Kristy’s entrepreneurial vision seemed plain yet elegant; easy-to-follow, too.
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Posts Tagged: economics
Imposing the Life on the System: A Conversation with Eula Biss
Eula Biss discusses her new book, HAVING AND BEING HAD.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #207: Andrew Weatherhead
“I want my art to be symbiotic with my life, not separate from it.”
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Adrian Matejka
Adrian Matejka discusses his new collection Map to the Stars, writing about poverty in contemporary poetry, and how racism maintains its place in our society.
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Personal, Political, and Poetic: A Conversation with Susan Briante
Susan Briante discusses The Market Wonders, her newest collection of poetry in which she draws on market indicators like the Dow Jones Industrial Average to construct a criticism of contemporary culture.
...moreThe Cost of Gay Liberation
Jim Downs writes for Aeon on the radical socialist roots of the gay liberation movement in America, as well as the role of economics in allowing individuals to shape an openly gay identity.
...moreAre Writers Too Safe?
Is a lack of economic stability making writers too safe? Maggie Doherty argues “yes”: Nearly half a century later, we find ourselves at a different sort of crisis point. Radical literary experimentation continues, but it has become the privilege of a few. In Barth’s day, a robust welfare state supported writers. Public patronage programs provided […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Valuation Methods
In some of my fantasies, I make a pitch for art or for truth, defend them like commodities.
...moreThe Paradox of Growth As Good
Martin Kirk writes for Aeon on the paradoxical connection between economic growth and eliminating poverty. Kirk illustrates that increasing the size of the economic pie, by spending the world’s finite resources, with no change in distribution to impoverished populations, will not only not eradicate poverty in the near future, but will only accelerate the depletion […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Matt Bell
Author Matt Bell talks video games, fiction, nonfiction, politics, empathy, and his new books, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Scrapper.
...moreThe Economics of a Childhood Summer
At Longreads, Elissa Strauss analyzes the economics and frustrations that come with giving low-income children a summer.
...moreCreativity Builds Healthy Economies
Creativity is an essential component of a healthy economy, and Western nations are doing a terrible job of fostering intellectual creativity. Writers, artists, and thinkers are underpaid, as developed economies have given priority to a corporate model of shareholders and profits rather than innovation. Over at the New York Review of Books, Edmund S. Phelps explains that jumpstarting the […]
...moreThe Novel of Economics
Following her essay about the influence of Adam Smith’s economic theories in Jane Austen’s novels, writing at The Atlantic, Shannon Chamberlain gets back to the topic, this time debating what influence fiction had, and in particular the emerging genre of the novel, in Smith’s production: “Perhaps this sense of turmoil, of progress that could still be undone, […]
...moreAn Author’s Economics
How much does it cost to write a book? Kevin Sampsell, author of This is Between Us and A Common Pornography, opens up to The Portland Mercury about how much he actually earned from his books — or rather, how little.
...moreCents and Sensibility
While readers today might think of Jane Austen novels as the equivalent of 18th century bodice rippers, money, wealth, and economics played a major role both in their creation and in their narrative. Austen wrote as much for financial benefit as for art. Her characters, meanwhile, are as much interested in financial solvency as they […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Corinne Goria
Author and veteran Voice of Witness editor Peter Orner sits down with Invisible Hands: Voices From the Global Economy editor Corinne Goria to talk about putting the book together, economic interdependency, and the complex human stories behind everyday items.
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The Rumpus Interview with Astra Taylor
Driven by philosophical thought, Astra Taylor—documentary filmmaker, activist, and writer—looks at the way the Internet has affected social and economic change in her new book, The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age.
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Catawampus Uber Alles!: The Rumpus Interview with Peter Mountford
Writer Peter Mountford talks about his latest novel, the impossibility of altruism, the realities of the midlife crisis, and the “catawampus” that is economics.
...moreWell, This Is Certainly One Way to Give Advice
On a blog for the Wall Street Journal (where else?), Emily Oster gives advice based on economic theory. For example: There is a model in economics called the “sS” model. It’s not often applied to relationships, but I think it should be….If something really good happens, or many good things in a row, it pushes you […]
...moreEconomists Set Phasers on Stun
Nobel prize winning economist and NYT‘s columnist, Paul Krugman expresses his love for sci-fi and fantasy in an interview for Wired magazine. Krugman cites Isaac Asimov’s novel Foundation as his inspiration for becoming an economist, a damned responsible one at that: “‘I read [Isaac Asimov’s] Foundation back when I was in high school, when I […]
...more“What Isn’t for Sale?”
At The Atlantic, philosopher Michael J. Sandel breaks down the hidden (or not so hidden) costs of a culture in which almost everything is for sale, and articulates the key distinction between a market economy and a market society. “…Some of the good things in life are degraded if turned into commodities. So to decide […]
...moreFlexible Working
A British thinktank, the New Economics Foundation, is advocating for a shorter work week as a cure for Britain’s economic, social, and environmental woes. The economists argue that the solution to fewer jobs due to technological advances involves work-sharing, and a government legislated maximum work week. “Are we just living to work, and working to […]
...moreDeconstructing Debt
In this interview economic anthropologist David Graeber disputes the standard theory that the monetary system replaces the barter system, arguing that credit and debt come before money. Graeber sheds light on the complex relationship between debt and morality, transitions from commodity to virtual money, and the relative importance of money versus debt, before dipping into […]
...moreEconomics for Kids
Children’s books are teaching all kinds of lessons and not just the morals-heavy, value-driven ones that are meant to stave off latent delinquency. Read between the lines of children’s lit and you can brush up on some conceptual economics. One can begin to understand economic efficiency by reading Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, or […]
...moreInauspicious News For Our Economy
The whole system of American outsourcing has rendered our industry incapable of producing the next technological innovation, which unfortunately is the key to reconstructing our economy. One example of this is the Kindle. Amazon doesn’t have the means for the next generation of their techy product to be produced on domestic soil. This article sources […]
...moreMegatrends Now and Later
It seems like every year there are economic predictions and warnings about the impending doom that is coming or the next big thing to look out for, but what became of these megatrends? It turns out many of them lack the follow through. Heralding an impending, sustainable economic boom, the rise of Japan as a […]
...moreThe Limits of NGOs
Internationally, labor unions have a weaker presence. Making up for this slack are the non-governmental organizations that support health initiatives, women’s rights and ebb environmental degradation, etc. The presence of NGOs internationally, even with a history of positive consequences, have been facing governmental tensions over dealing with controversial issues, like food security or anti-corruption activist […]
...moreCreating Jobs
The Atlantic discusses job creation in both words and graphs. Derek Thompson breaks down the problem, explains where the jobs are hiding and tells us how we can grow, economically. “Finally, there is the innovation conundrum. Calling for more innovation doesn’t mean inviting the 25 MacArthur Grant Fellows into a room and asking them to […]
...moreNot the Greatest Villains Then Living in the World
The other week, The New Yorker published an excellent article by Caleb Crain about the peculiar economics and politics of life aboard a pirate ship in the 17th and 18th centuries. When the captain of an English slave ship was captured by pirates in 1719, his crew begged the pirates to spare his life, since […]
...moreA Brief History of Economics
Two weeks in a row now I’m doing a blog post on the upcoming feature story in the NY Times Magazine. This won’t become a habit–they get plenty of attention on their own. But it’s such a good article on such a dry subject that most people know so little about that I just have […]
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