Author Archives: Felix

It’s a bit facile to take the real problems with Little Free Libraries, and to assume that Little Free Pantries suffer from the same ailments. They don’t.

Saving forests saves lives, both directly and indirectly. So let’s do it for that simple and near-term reason, and let’s pay for any necessary incentives through public-health resources rather than climate-related funding.

Slate Money on private student loan debt, Donald Trump’s ties to Deutsche Bank, and hedge funders evading taxes.

He might be able to win over the Davos crowd. But America as a whole has a much more finely-honed bullshit detector.

When you add NGOs to the development mix, it’s important to remember what you’re subtracting at the same time.

The painting will now leave the world of museums, re-enter private hands, and be replaced with an “interpretive plan” of “thematic zones”. It’s not a good trade.

Slate Money on going cashless with Visa, coding boot camps, and Warren Buffett.

Never let it be said that nothing substantive ever comes out of expense-account boondoggles like the Black Corporate Directors Conference.

In a weird way, Eric Trump is a good charity fundraiser precisely because he so intuitively understands the venality of the rich.

Once a museum reaches a certain size (and the Met is already much bigger than that size), growth pays no dividends.

Slate Money on The Chickenshit Club, sexual harassment in Silicon Valley, and Hobby Lobby.

The Greatest American Object in Art History

For the time being, the Met is going keep on kicking the tires of various billionaires, in the hope that one of them, eventually, will pay for a shiny new modern-and-contemporary wing.

Slate Money on Google’s antitrust violations, Italian banks, and Seattle’s minimum wage.

It’s invidious to try to single out individual contributions and then quantify their marginal effects.

If Sekulow hadn’t gotten involved in the all-encompassing political fustercluck that is the Trump-Russia investigation, almost certainly he would have happily kept on raking in the millions from unsuspecting small donors, without consequence.

Agnes Gund is a true innovator in terms of creating a whole new way for rich people to donate their millions.

Slate Money on Uber, Amazon buying Whole Foods, and initial coin offerings.

Slate Money on rich scams, poor scams, and email scams.

Sell your shares in Amazon, and give the cash to poor people.

Duhigg’s article is, ultimately, predicated on the idea that when there is a major problem in the world, that problem can effectively be addressed through individual charitable donations.

Slate Money on the U.K. election, the Spanish banking crisis, and Qatar.

Here’s a sensible way of looking at investment returns.

There is a part of me which would love it if things like the Manchester concert could be celebrated for what they are, rather than invariably being turned into the means to some fundraising end.

Slate Money on the Paris Agreement, credit scores, and Venezuelan bonds.