Virginia Postrel is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She is a visiting fellow at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy at Chapman University and author, most recently, of “The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World.”
The investor and his neighbors want to block multiunit construction in America’s most expensive town. But California’s reforms are gradually overriding such local opposition.
Packaging less stuff for the same price doesn’t fool consumers or economists. But diminishing quality imposes equally maddening extra costs that are almost impossible to measure.
Young people care more about price than sustainability when it comes to cheap clothes. But the Chinese e-commerce startup may eventually face other headwinds.
A conversation with author Mónica Guzmán on the costs of burning bridges with those we disagree with — and how exaggerated fears of other people’s views are driving Americans apart.
Rules intended to protect borrowers and rein in fees have drained the profit from small-dollar mortgage lending. Who suffers? People who are straining to start building wealth.
A Q&A with economic historian Claudia Goldin on women’s long struggle to balance the demands of work and children — and why government policies aren’t the answer.
A Q&A with outgoing Los Angeles schools superintendent Austin Beutner on how technology, data, federal funding — and Hollywood — are helping to revitalize the country’s second-largest public school district.
