America’s Great Divergence
A growing earnings gap between those with a college education and those without is creating economic and cultural rifts throughout the country.
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Mike Blake / Reuters The Future of the Department of Labor Under Trump
David Weil, an Obama appointee who headed up DOL's wage-and-hour division, reflects on the previous administration and assesses the early days of the current one.
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Reuters When Factory Jobs Vanish, Men Become Less Desirable Partners
Declines in manufacturing employment are shaping the structure of the American family.
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Alana Semuels / The Atlantic The Downsides of 'Efficiency'
Company mergers led to plant closures in this small town, illustrating how what’s good for consumers can often be bad for communities.
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Tony Avelar / AP When Robots Take Bad Jobs
Maybe it’s a good thing the trucking industry is ripe for automation.
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Brendan McDermid / Reuters Why #DeleteUber and Other Boycotts Matter
Even when a relatively small number of people participate
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Courtesy of the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room – Charlotte ... ‘Segregation Had to Be Invented’
During the late 19th century, blacks and whites in the South lived closer together than they do today.
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Carolyn Kaster / AP Why the Puzder Nomination Fell Apart
The fast-food mogul faced opposition from both liberal and conservative groups, though for different reasons.
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Answering Your Questions on Trump and the Rust Belt
(Editor’s note: Alana Semuels joined the TAD discussion group of Atlantic readers for an “Ask Me Anything,” and a…
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Bettmann / Getty Images How Immigrants Have Contributed to American Inventiveness
Fields with more foreign-born inventors see a bump in patents, which leads to economic growth.
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP President Trump, Job Creator?
Companies have announced a spate of new domestic investments and jobs in recent weeks. And the new president has taken credit.
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Gene Blythe / AP Do Regulations Really Kill Jobs?
Republicans love to blame the Environmental Protection Agency for some of the country’s economic woes. Is that a fair assertion?
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Zach Gibson / AP The Contradictions of Ben Carson's Vision for American Housing
In his confirmation hearing, he simultaneously pledged to maintain and eliminate programs from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters How Norwegians and Americans See Inequality Differently
According to a recent study, the former are much less comfortable with the idea of luck determining well-being.
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Eli Lilly and Company America Is Still Making Things
Manufacturing is dead. Long live manufacturing.
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Andrew Kelly / Reuters How to Stop Short-Term Thinking at America’s Companies
U.S. companies are hyper-focused on quarterly earnings. What can be done to push them to invest more in the years and decades ahead?
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Joe Raymond / AP What RVs Say About the American Economy
Sales of mobile homes are a good data point for inferring the mood of consumers.
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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters When Women Run Companies
What happens to employees under female leadership?
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP It’s Not About the Economy
In an increasingly polarized country, even economic progress can’t get voters to abandon their partisan allegiance.
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Michael Conroy / AP Indiana’s Medicaid Experiment May Reveal Obamacare’s Future
The state’s health-care system was expanded under the Affordable Care Act. Now, it may serve as a model nationwide.
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Tony Gutierrez / AP Severe Inequality Is Incompatible With the American Dream
Why extreme wealth makes it hard for people to do better than their parents did
