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Hocus Pocus

Columns

America Saves, America Shames
March 02, 2015
We’ve just concluded the ninth annual “America Saves Week,” such a wholesome-sounding event that it seems almost churlish to complain about it. As my pal Chuck Jaffe put it at Marketwatch, if the event’s name were accurate, it would be called “America Doesn’t Save ...

The Revolution Will Be Venture Funded
February 06, 2015
Where do revolutions begin? In the streets? On Twitter? In Greece? No! Little did we know, they begin in a Washington, D.C.-based venture capital fund. Aptly named 1776, these titans of entrepreneurship plan to overthrow our bloated and broken system, by replacing it with a more ...

A Letter to the King
February 03, 2015
Dear King Abdullah, First of all: Hi there! Secondly: I’m very sorry to hear that you are dead. But on the bright side, your relationship with America is the best it’s ever been! In fact, the Department of Defense is currently running an “essay contest” in your name, ...

Wes Anderson’s Class Acts
January 20, 2015
I don’t know a single person who’s really satisfied with this year’s Oscar nominations. The most exciting movies of the year are almost unilaterally shut out. The slate of nominated directors is, with the exception of Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu, ...

Gambling on Armageddon
December 30, 2014
When oil giant Mobil donated land containing the Texas City Prairie Preserve to the Nature Conservancy–America’s largest environmental group–in 1995, wildlife conservationists breathed a sigh of relief. At last, the endangered prairie chicken that had been threatened for ...

Blaming Parents, and Other Neoliberal Pastimes
December 29, 2014
The State of California believes the following things to be true: first, that reading to children will make them smarter. Second, that parents ordinarily disinclined for reasons of time or temperament from this activity may be won over by means of thirty-second radio spots. ...

Hacking the Planet: What Could Go Wrong?
November 24, 2014
You remember this science fiction story, right? Faced with the threat of extinction on a warming planet, an advanced race flies gigantic mirrors into the stratosphere to create a giant “space umbrella” that will bounce the sun’s rays back into the cosmos. But it doesn’t ...

Why the SAT Can’t “Democratize” Harvard
November 18, 2014
Does anyone actually like the SAT? Given how our media reports on every changing detail and decision related to the test, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Americans are absolutely dying to hear about it. A few days ago, CBS News reported that more and more colleges are ...

Can Humor Be Revolutionary?
November 06, 2014
In his new book, Russell Brand grandly declares: “The Revolution cannot be boring.” Accordingly, his long and winding Revolution (Ballantine Books, 320 pages, $26) mixes comedy and politics, quoting Monty Python and Louis CK alongside the likes of George Orwell and Noam ...

The “Status Bag” Bubble Won’t Pop
October 28, 2014
Recently, the luxury fashion retail site Net-a-Porter sold out of a thousand $200 Karl Lagerfeld Barbie dolls in a single day. Founded in 2000, the site has since expanded to an accompanying magazine, a less expensive (but-still expensive) kid sister site called The Outnet, and ...

How to Ease the Burden of the 1 Percent
October 22, 2014
Departures, a magazine that helps the 1 percent spend their money creatively, is a great read. It comes free with your American Express platinum card. If you don’t have an American Express platinum card, there’s a good chance you’ll find this magazine in a bathroom of your ...

The Jobs vs. the Environment Myth Lives On
October 16, 2014
Earlier this month, MSNBC host Chris Hayes participated in a bit of sparring with Cecil Roberts of the United Mine Workers of America. Placing himself firmly in the “anything but country music” camp of post-Carter American liberalism, Hayes brashly proclaimed, “in fifty ...