Archive - The Permanent Problem

Steve Teles on abundance: prehistory, present, and future

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's bestselling new book Abundance has kicked off a new political movement — and a vigorous internal debate on the future of…

Jun 12 •

1:04:03

America's Internal Brain Drain

In 1963, the Royal Society in the United Kingdom issued a report complaining about the emigration of British scientists to the United States, lured by…

Jun 9 •

April 2025

Jonathan Rauch on Christianity and Democracy

While the formal separation of church and state is a vital element of America's constitutional order, the success of our long-running experiment in…

Apr 23

58:23

Abundance and the Permanent Problem

On April 2, President Trump proclaimed “Liberation Day” and announced the imposition of dramatically higher tariffs on imports into the country.

Apr 22 •

My book has a cover

It’s always exciting when a book that began as a jumble of confusion inside your own head takes its first steps toward becoming a physical object in the…

Apr 11 •

The Open Society and the Friends It Needs (Part 2)

(Warning: this is a long one.

Apr 3 •

March 2025

The Open Society and the Friends It Needs (Part 1)

This is the first essay I’ve posted on this site since May 2024 — I’ve been away, turning the previous essays published here into a book.

Mar 20 •

February 2025

Musa al-Gharbi on Symbolic Capitalists and "Awokenings"

The rightward shift in public opinion that carried Donald Trump back into the White House is being widely interpreted as a backlash against the "Great…

Feb 19 •

1:02:28

July 2024

Eli Dourado on Abundance and Collapse

A new movement is taking shape around the idea of restoring "abundance." Uniting thinkers from across the political spectrum — including "supply-side…

Jul 16, 2024 •

1:01:29

June 2024

From blog to book

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve signed a contract with Oxford University Press to turn The Permanent Problem into a book.

Jun 25, 2024 •

May 2024

Tim Carney on America's "Family Unfriendly" Culture

Birth rates are plummeting around the globe, as half the world's population now lives in countries with sub-replacement fertility rates.

May 6, 2024 •

59:16

The curse of presentism

Back in the late 1980s, I watched a PBS special on the human mind and learned about the terrible fate of Clive Wearing, a man unable to make new…

May 2, 2024 •

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