Writing

While not comprehensive, here’s a selection of some of my writing.

The financial sector:

• Can a Pagan Credit Union break the spell of big banking? – reported feature in The Outline, September 2019
• I Worked at Capital One for Five Years. This Is How We Justified Piling Debt on Poor Customers. – essay in The New Republic, October 2019
• A Judge Said a Lending Tycoon Didn’t Know He Was Breaking the Law. Should That Matter? – reported commentary for Slate, October 2019
• Why Credit Card Debt Is At An All-Time High, While Unemployment Is At A 50-Year Low – explainer/data journalism for Forbes.com, February 2020
• What To Salvage From the Wreckage of Libra – reported commentary for Slate, December 2019
• Under New Rules, Banks Will No Longer Earn Civil Rights “Brownie Points” For Pushing Families Into Credit Card Debt – reported commentary, Forbes.com, May 2020
• Behind America’s system of easy credit are 300,000 debt collectors, on the front lines of economic hardship – reported feature in TalkPoverty, a publication of the Center for American Progress, September 2019
• Why Ally Bank is Paying $2.6 Billion To Buy A Bank You’ve Never Heard Of – analysis and data journalism for Forbes.com, February 2020
• The False Promise of Bernie Sanders’ Plan to Make Credit Scores Less Racist – reported commentary for Slate, October 2019
• Banking on Black Women: Inside Maggie Walker’s Financial Empire – book review in Scalawag, June 2019
• Banks should measure their social impact – op-ed in American Banker,  October 2018
• Why We Shouldn’t Want Banks to Go All In on Artificial Intelligence – op-ed for Slate, October 2019
• Three countries America can learn from when it comes to protecting consumers – commentary in The FinReg Blog, a project of the Duke Law Global Financial Markets Center, September 2018

Economic policy:

• The American Disaster Relief System is Broken – reported feature in Vice, April 2020
• Why New Jersey’s Unemployment Insurance System Uses a 60-Year-Old Programming Language – reported commentary in Slate, April 2020
• A 20 cent raise can cause Iowans to lose thousands of dollars in child care support – reported feature in TalkPoverty, a publication of the Center for American Progress, June 2019
• What Seniors Need To Know About Trump’s 2021 Federal Budget – reported analysis for Forbes.com, February 2020
• Proposed Changes To Social Security Disability Insurance Could Undermine Your Retirement Security, Even If You’re Not Currently Disabled – reported analysis for Forbes.com, February 2020
• Giving People Money To Respond To COVID-19 Is A Good Idea. Here’s How It Might Actually Work. – reported analysis for Forbes.com, March 2020

Economic mobility, poverty, & opportunity:

• The secret anxiety of the upwardly mobile – reported feature in The Outline, October 2018
• A Professor of Ethics Weighs In on the Challenges of Being a Low-Income Student – Q&A in The Nation, October 2019
• Who Saved the American City? And Who Almost Destroyed It? – book review in Slate, November 2019
• Three Win Economics Nobel Prize for Revolutionizing Global Poverty Research – analysis for Slate, October 2019

Personal finance:

• The Surprising Science Behind Why People Underestimate Their Lifespans – Forbes.com, September 2019
• How This Week’s TSP Revamp Will Change Retirement For Federal Workers – Forbes.com, September 2019
• A series on retirement planning for freelancers for Forbes.com, January 2020 :
  • Getting started if you’re living paycheck-to-paycheck
  • Where to go once you’ve maxed out your Roth IRA
  • What you need to know about long-term disability insurance
  • How these two freelancers built financial security and started saving for retirement 

Healthcare, insurance, & social security:

• You Don’t Have to Boycott CVS – reported commentary for Slate, August 2019
• Number of Americans Without Health Insurance Increased in 2018, Report Finds – aggregation for Slate, September 2019
• Pork laws one through three – satire/commentary in Duke Chronicle, April 2012

Tech/Silicon Valley:

• Why Mark Zuckerberg Said an Elizabeth Warren Presidency Would “Suck for Us” – analysis for Slate, October 2019
• Facebook Earns $132.80 From Your Data per Year – analysis for Slate, November 2019
• Is the WeWork CEO’s $1.7 Billion Severance the Largest Ever? – analysis for Slate, October 2019
• TikTok Admits It Suppressed Videos by Disabled, Queer and Fat Creators – Slate, November 2019
• The lines of code that changed everything – Slate, October 2019

Business, labor, & economics:

• Dear hiring manager: you’re welcome – critical essay in The Outline, April 2019
• Minimum Wage Increases Are Great. But Only If Workers Actually Get Them –  explainer for TalkPoverty, January 2020
• Trump Admits His Trade War Isn’t Ending Anytime Soon – Slate, November 2019
• That Inflation Inequality Report Has a Major Problem – commentary for Slate, November 2019
• Boeing CEO Admits to 737 Max Mistakes, Apologizes to Victims’ Families at Senate Hearing – Slate, October 2019
• The NFL’s Sponsors Have Caused More Animal Suffering Than Michael Vick – Tenderly, May 2020

Consumption:

• Consider eco-footprint of gift-giving – op-ed in The Charlotte Observer, December 2008
• These are the best vegan cheese slices – Tenderly, October 2019

Personal essays:

• Knowing when Duke’s not normal – Duke Chronicle, April 2013