January/February 2010 Issue

 

For our finance reform package, we tapped writers too smart to fail, including Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz ("Moral Bankruptcy"), MoJo blogger Kevin Drum ("Capital City"), DC bureau chief David Corn ("Thank You, Sir. May We Have Another?"), and editorial intern Andy Kroll ("Always Be Foreclosing"). Contributor Nomi Prins crunched our bailout numbers, as she did in her recent book, It Takes a Pillage. In 2001, then-Barron‘s staffer Erin Arvedlund ("Faces of Greed") was the first nontrade journalist to report on the impossibly stable returns of one Bernie Madoff—who became the focus of her book, Too Good to Be True. The work of Hungarian-born illustrator Istvan Banyai ("Moral Bankruptcy" and "Thank You, Sir. May We Have Another?") appears in The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, but kids know him from Zoom, his fascinating wordless children’s book. In addition to his work for publications like Time and Sports Illustrated, our cover artist Bill Mayer (also "Capital City") created the Bright Eyes stamp series for the US Postal Service.

Mark Oppenheimer ("The Ring-Bearer"), a contributor to the New York Times Magazine and Slate, read C.S. Lewis while getting his PhD in religion.

Nir Rosen ("The Slog of War") chose to hang out with Afghan cops at the most violent time of year, amid a US offensive—and all hell did not break loose. "It was the worst possible luck," he quips. A fellow at the NYU Center on Law and Security, he also had support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Erin Arvedlund

Erin Arvedlund

Nir Rosen

Nir Rosen

 

Beth Schwartzapfel

Beth Schwartzapfel

Caitlin Kuhwald

Caitlin Kuhwald

Matt Slaby

Matt Slaby


Beth Schwartzapfel ("The Green Mile") writes for the New York Times, Ms., and The Nation.

Contributing writer Ted Genoways ("Final Chapter"), whose Virginia Quarterly Review won two National Magazine Awards in 2006 (general excellence and fiction), admits he’s "a voracious consumer of bad television"—including Fox News.

Asked to draw a picture of God back in Sunday school, Caitlin Kuhwald ("Grand Old Party") drew a blueberry muffin. Staff reporter Stephanie Mencimer is old enough to remember journalism before the Internet. And no, she doesn’t "tweet."

Michael Behar ("The Mustang Redemption") last reported for Mother Jones on illegal cypress harvesting. Photographer Matt Slaby was so taken by the "honest and caring approach to the horses and the inmates" at Wyoming State Honor Farm that he embarked on a "larger cultural exploration of the West."