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Rob HorningPopMatters General Features EditorAbout Rob HorningRobert Horning has developed a substantial body of work in PopMatters’ music reviews, concerts, film, and TV sections. His writing has also appeared in Time Out New York and Skyscraper. In his PopMatters column, “Marginal Utility”, Rob bridges the abstract and concrete aspects of consumerism. His writing is as grounded and approachable as an everyday trip to the grocery store. Rob has a BA and MA in English Literature; his interests in social theory, economics, and sociology generates his solid background knowledge for “Marginal Utility” and informs his music reviews. For more Rob Horning, be sure to read the Marginal Utility blog. Features
The Frankfurt School in ExileThe positivists regarded Hegelian dialectics as metaphysical voodoo; the New York Intellectuals thought the Frankfurt School's associates were closet Stalinists. [17 September 2009] The Cultural Logic of ComputationFar from being the great liberator, computers, Golumbia insists, actually serve to fix us in the grid of global capitalism while concentrating power and shifting it upward to those who control the networks we are enmeshed in. [24 July 2009] Baby, He’s a Star: Prince’s Life in FilmPrince's films struggled with several issues, yet the most prominent theme with most of his work was walking that line between credibility and commercialism, turning away from greed in order to embrace his inner artist (which, in Purple Rain's case, is all the more ironic, given that it made him a commercial blockbuster). [2 June 2009] Andrew Ridgeley: An AppreciationIt would seem that time has not been particularly kind to "the other guy in Wham!" The always enigmatic Ridgeley has gone from being one half of the world's most successful pop duo in the 1980s to a punch line on Family Guy. Is this entirely fair? [1 April 2009] George Orwell: Forgiving and Championing Bad ArtOrwell's essays remind us that better than our best intentions is our inescapable nature, our shared ordinariness, which will always have the potential to redeem us all if only we will embrace it. [18 December 2008] Book ArbitrageJoan Didion once wrote, "the hippies scorn money -- they call it bread." Rob Horning explains how best to reap the benefits of the secondhand bookstore's cash-or-credit system. [2 July 2008] Al Kooper, New York City (You’re a Woman) (1971)This album features some of the best of Kooper's original compositions and is free of his tendency to include reinterpretations of over-familiar songs. [31 January 2008] Losing CaliforniaAfter the Mamas and the Papas, unheralded songwriter John Phillips released one perfect solo album before disintegrating into addiction and self-recrimination. [5 October 2007] Hall & Oates, Abandoned Luncheonette (1973)Before their string of ubiquitous 1980s hits, this songwriting duo wrote surprisingly strange and pleasantly unpretentious soft rock. [22 June 2007] Electric Light Orchestra: Too Much at Once Can Blow the FuseAlone, ELO's pop mini-symphonies are perfect confections that captivate with their careful sonic details and ear-pleasing melodies and hooks. [16 February 2007] The Beach Boys, Love You (1977)Essentially a Brian Wilson solo effort, on which the ravaged, troubled genius takes a few more painful steps toward a purifying simplicity. [13 October 2006] The Unraveling of NilssonThe most reluctant rock star of the 1970s self-destructs in the studio in a manner that would make Alex Chilton proud, rejecting the FM pop-radio mainstream altogether. [23 May 2006] The Carpenters, The Carpenters (1971)Forget horror-core and death metal, the most terrifying and emotionally exhausting album ever made may be this soft-pop classic. [9 February 2006] Sincerity FixationConor Oberst is young, talented, and almost ostentatiously sincere. Too bad all that gets in the way of his songs. [7 February 2005] Columns
Sharing: The New ImpositionTwitter is less about disseminating information than it is about subjects trying to make themselves feel more real, ontologically speaking, in a increasingly mediated world. [5 October 2009] (more Marginal Utility) Your Brain is the New Factory Floor"[M]ore and more, 'production' -- that word my fellow economists have worked over for generations -- has become interior to the human mind rather than set on a factory floor..." [10 August 2009] (more Marginal Utility) The Myth of the Rational MarketHow silly we were to believe that investors always acted with predictable rapacity and efficiency. [21 May 2009] (more Marginal Utility) Panic! The Story of Modern Financial InsanityIn a sense, panic is an imprecise word to describe the emotion of financial crashes; paranoia better suits. [27 March 2009] (more Marginal Utility) Doomed to DilettantismInformation has never been easier to come by, yet it's never been harder to turn information into knowledge. [5 February 2009] (more Marginal Utility) Depression ModernAmericans can't afford to spend like they used to, but is frugal living ever really going to become trendy? [9 January 2009] (more Marginal Utility) The Database of SelfTechnology's ability to digitize everything threatens to reduce curiosity to trivia collecting and our sense of self to TK. [2 October 2008] (more Marginal Utility) Brand EvangelistsCompanies would like product placements in our personal narratives, and marketers are eager to show them how it can be done. [25 July 2008] (more Marginal Utility) Hurray for HypeEnjoying popular culture is necessarily a social experience; hype supplies the ground rules. [30 May 2008] (more Marginal Utility) Renters: Enemies of the Ownership SocietyIn light of the recently burst housing bubble and the resulting inflation, this renter is having a hard time maintaining sympathy for borrowers who went in over their heads, buying homes with far more space than needed. [4 April 2008] (more Marginal Utility) The Design ImperativeNo longer a prole with a dirty toilet, thanks to that fancy toiletbrush in hand, one becomes a fledgling design critic and a curator of the tastefully appointed museum that used to be a one-bedroom apartment. [29 January 2008] (more Marginal Utility) The Attention of Last ResortInstead of promoting the sharing of ideas and opinions among friends, social networking sites promote posturing and marketing, friendship as spectatorship, surveillance, and imitation, and give us the attention we crave. [18 January 2008] (more Marginal Utility) Paul Krugman’s ‘The Conscience of a Liberal’Krugman may be hoping to discredit the very label conservative, so that it could be used as a cudgel the way liberal had been used by the Limbaughs of the world the past few decades. [7 December 2007] (more Marginal Utility) Financial FantasiesWhat truly moves markets is a mystery, but what moves humans to participate is pure fantasy. [20 November 2007] (more Marginal Utility) Inevitable ConsumptionWas the housing bubble symptomatic of the infantile mentality that Benjamin Barber, in his recent book, insists that shopping-mad Americans have had foisted upon their selves? Or is there a different lesson to draw? [19 October 2007] (more Marginal Utility) Too Many MirrorsStyle is often described paradoxically as an indescribable quality, as something timeless, which is precisely what makes it so useful to the fashion industry. [17 August 2007] (more Marginal Utility) Elitist Dumpster DiversFreegans might seem like environmental crusaders, but they parasitically glean the leavings of those they deride, the people who have actually struggled to make a difficult peace with an imperfect economic system. [13 July 2007] (more Marginal Utility) Disposable PersonalityWe've grown accustomed to the planned obsolescence of our products; we assuage the continual threat of obsolescence of our personalities by continually changing, refreshing ourselves like an email inbox. [18 May 2007] (more Marginal Utility) The Pleasures of PropagandaAnimated Soviet Propaganda, a recently released collection of cartoons the Russians commissioned to indoctrinate children with the presumed moral superiority of communism, reminds us how nice it is to have prejudices aroused and confirmed. [16 March 2007] (more Marginal Utility) The Fear of SuccessIt seems we've come to believe that it is better to feel like we lost the game than to dare consider that the refs threw it. Such passivity spills over into self-doubt, which further fuels the fear of success. [9 February 2007] (more Marginal Utility) The Patent Medicine ParadigmTake this and you'll feel better. Today's branded products work just like the patent medicines of old. [15 December 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Freedom from ChoiceThanks to an ever diversifying market, our consumer choices are supposed to reveal precisely what we prefer. But is all this choice overwhelming our personal preferences and sweeping us up into futile overconsumption? [13 November 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Virtual UtopiaUtopias we can recognize as such are doomed to failure, forever resigned to fantasy. Is online universe Second Life such a place, where one experiments harmlessly with fantasy, or is it an organic necessity, an inevitable outgrowth of an intolerable present? [9 October 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Sympathy for the MiddlemanDespite mounting debt, it's imperative that we continue to laugh at calls for austerity and conservation, and celebrate those noble marketers that keep us consuming -- whoops, I mean innovating. [15 September 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Oh, the Tangled Webs We WeaveThe apparent escape into the cultural niches available online will eventually lead directly into data-collecting advertisers' traps. [21 August 2006] (more Marginal Utility) flag CreativityLike Calvinists who stockpile life's finer things in hopes of shoring up their sense of themselves as elect, hipsters surround themselves with the trappings of creativity and trust that this substantiates their claim to being cool. [14 July 2006] (more Marginal Utility) The Underground EmpireAre the outposts of underground culture -- bookstores, record stores, etc. -- places where American curiosity and enthusiasm are kept alive, or places where ingrained snobbery is allowed to snuff it out? [8 June 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Headphones and Head SpaceThe quest for a perfect synthesis of public and private existence may lead us to online 'metaverses' where we don't really exist at all. [5 May 2006] (more Marginal Utility) The Attention EconomyAmatuer online blogs and MySpace pages give currency to a growing 'attention economy', wherein the most successful have garnered the most flattering friends - and advertisers. [13 April 2006] (more Marginal Utility) The Snacks Attack SocietyShopping, cooking, eating, washing dishes... it's all such a time-sucking, distracting chore. Best to wrap it all up in plastic and hurry it along, lest lost time eat at you. [9 March 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Shopping ParanoidBeware, be wary on your hunt for the perfect (you name it); for you are the hunted. [14 February 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Information WhirlwindThe prestige of sharing an extensive downloaded music library is wearing so thin that it's becomming almost as transparent as that ever-blowing cyber wind. [10 January 2006] (more Marginal Utility) Holiday Shopping: The Good FightWarriors of Consumption, Black Friday Masses, The Joys of Discretionary Spending, The Privilege of Spending. [14 December 2005] (more Marginal Utility) The Usefulness TrapRemoved from the velvet-draped display; torn from the colorful packaging; off the rack and in the closet... it's just not all it seemed to be. The use value falls so short of the hype value of commodities, that actual ownership and use of a thing is disappointing if not disillusioning. [16 November 2005] (more Marginal Utility) The Customer Is Always WrongAmong other things, customer service is little more than survelliance with a smile. The end of craven customer service could return some dignity to the world of consumption. [4 October 2005] (more Marginal Utility) Buy Me BeautifulThanks to cosmetic surgery, our bodies are now commodities. [9 September 2005] (more Marginal Utility) The Consumer in the KitchenNixon and Khrushchev's kitchen debate taught Americans that our citizenry is 'free'-- to shop. [12 August 2005] (more Marginal Utility) The “Me” SyndromeMarginal Utility -- The 'Me' Syndrome -- The glamorization of the rich inner life is the primary achievement of the culture industry, since what it sells is the kind of ripe fantasy that only one with a rich inner life would prefer to actual living. [8 July 2005] (more Marginal Utility) Inefficient IntimacyPornography simplifies sex by making it a commodity. In the desire to accumulate more, intimacy is irretrievably lost. [13 June 2005] (more Marginal Utility) Meters, Purple People Eaters and The Revolution BetrayedOn Taste tracking software; is it an anonymous angel? or something rather sinister? [10 May 2005] (more Marginal Utility) In Search of Real AmateursShould the majority rule in terms of what art our society makes? Audience-vote-driven entertainment effaces the art being voted on and supplants it with the audience's self-regard, so that it all merely reflects the power the audience feels. Expertise on the subject is irrelevant; being heard and counted among the voters is all that matters. [13 April 2005] (more Marginal Utility) Indecent ConsumptionWhy try to form a labor union at your local Wal-Mart when you can strike an equally seditious blow against the system by jerking off to photos of women in latex underwear? No matter how much we label pornography's users as 'addicts' or 'degenerates' and tout religious values, porn is not an immoral anomaly; it's a capitalist inevitability. [9 March 2005] (more Marginal Utility) An Etiology of BoredomIn a land of plenty, the commodity of respect -- the sense of being socially recognized -- continues to be rationed, rendered scarce. [26 January 2005] (more Marginal Utility) Traveling the Public/Private DividePortable entertainment and communication technology has obliterated the distinction between public and private spaces, and the inconsiderateness that accompanies these devices is fast becoming the public status quo, which drives more people to tune out, hastening the spiral toward complete incivility. [5 January 2005] (more Marginal Utility) Celebrities and the Barnum EffectAh, the shine of a pretty new thing, the clever ploy of its packaging. We enjoy the fantasy that such things arouse, and then, when shoddy reality sets in, we tip our caps to the ingenuity by which we were led to indulge the fantasy. [1 December 2004] (more Marginal Utility) Thrift Store GentryThe thrift store shopper needs to turn a misfortune into a virtue; that of the conscientious non-conformist. [3 November 2004] (more Marginal Utility) Convenience and the Cost of Free MusicHorning is not sure if he should admire those who maintain a personal ethical code and refrain from downloading free music -- a function the record industry has enabled -- or despise them for holding back the revolution. [6 October 2004] (more Marginal Utility) We’re All Walking Sandwich Boards, These DaysPerhaps people seem so much like ads because ads now make up the only universally acknowledged public discourse; ads are the only kind of communication now accepted in public space. [15 September 2004] (more Marginal Utility) The New Sumptuary Laws for Modern-day SubjectsNow that the unwashed masses can afford dry cleaning, ads must teach the non-elite that freedom 'from' want is really just the freedom 'to' want. [12 August 2004] (more Marginal Utility) The Mystery of Consumer Demand, or Personality as InventoryTheories about consumers have change over the years, as they should. These days, we see ourselves as the sum total of the things we possess, as opposed to the sum total of things we have experienced. [14 July 2004] (more Marginal Utility) The Myth of the Rebel ConsumerOne can use the thrift store purchase of a Herb Alpert record to express dismay at the current state of the music industry, and use the coffee grinder at home to thumb one's nose at Starbucks and somehow feel righteous about such seemingly savvy shopping methods. But expressing one's politics through what one buys is no politics at all; at best it is but a vote of assent for the existing economic arrangements. [16 June 2004] (more Marginal Utility) Reviews
Examined Life ed. by Astra TaylorThese conversations reveal philosophers practicing their craft in a somewhat spontaneous fashion, thinking on their feet, grasping for what must be oft-repeated riffs and rendering them applicable to the moment. [24 August 2009] 
To Serve God and Wal-Mart by Bethany MoretonAs conservative Christianity focused more intently on reaffirming that a woman's real work was domestic and reproductive, Wal-Mart became an ideological ally. [19 July 2009] 
K Blows Top by Peter CarlsonCarlson effectively conjures the post-Stalin era of the Cold War and the inherent media absurdities revolving around Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet Premier; the man who once promised to bury us all. [6 July 2009] 
The Book of Cool by Marianne TaylorIn general, Taylor's writing is unflaggingly good-natured, but that doesn't seem to suit the subject matter, which trades in stereotypes and casual cruelty. [23 June 2009] 
Catalog by Robin CherryAbsurd as they frequently are, catalogs have a good chance of surviving longer than the magazines of which they have long seemed so derivative. [13 April 2009] 
Ad Women by Juliann SivulkaAd women may have flattered themselves into believing that their success proved they transcended gender and were superior to the stereotypes they trafficked in. [11 February 2009] 
Roy Harper: Flat Baroque and Berserk / Stormcock / JugulaThough his meandering and idiosyncratic compositions have become a source of inspiration for neo-hippie folkies like Joanna Newsome, Roy Harper has been neglected in America for too long. New reissues may help right the wrong [4 December 2008] 
John Phillips: PussycatToo obsessed with failure to be truly self-indulgent, Papa John's lost album, recorded in the mid-1970s with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, is full of sympathy for life's losers. [15 October 2008] 
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton SeaThey seem to be on one of the last American frontiers, where native optimism can still stubbornly face down an inhospitable climate, environmental wreckage, and state neglect to make for an unencumbered life that seems wholly one's own. [30 November 2007] 
Big OilWith Big Oil, you can finally indulge your fantasy of fashioning virtual Nigerias of chaos and plunder, without burdening your conscience with the consequences. [11 January 2007] 
Andy Kim: How’d We Ever Get This Way/Rainbow RideWith his unaffectedly yearning tenor and laconic delivery, Brill Building songsmith Andy Kim made bubblegum music suitable for adults. [2 November 2006] 
The Open Mind: The Open Mind'60s psychedelia purged of all whimsy, wonder, and utopian overtones, the Open Mind's heavy, druggy anthems foreshadowed 1970s hard rock [6 October 2006] 
Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan:1966-1978 After the Crash [DVD]This is a fan-made product, albeit a good one, when judged against bootlegs and fanzine stuff, but judged against real documentaries, it's a bit of a drag. [29 September 2006] 
The Triffids: Born Sandy DevotionalOn this brooding, evocative record from the mid-1980s, underappreciated Australian songwriter David McComb produced what's essentially a noir novel in song. [8 September 2006] 
Broadcast: Future CrayonA collection of non-essential B-sides spoiled by a preponderance of half-realized instrumentals. [17 August 2006] 
The Ides of March: VehicleThis hodge-podge by a Blood Sweat & Tears sound-alike, rushed out to capitalize on the title track's success, fails to live up to that song's campy ludicrousness. [15 August 2006] 
The Pipettes: We Are the PipettesWith catchy songs and studied irreverence, these three English teenagers in polka-dot dresses make the idea of girl groups seem fresh again. [31 July 2006] 
Play Between Worlds by T.L. TaylorIf you have no intention of ever playing EverQuest but are still curious about what sort of spells clerics can cast and the contingent ethics of 'kill stealing', this text is for you. [13 July 2006] 
Nilsson: Son of SchmilssonThe most reluctant rock star of the 1970s self-destructs in the studio in a manner that would make Alex Chilton proud, rejecting the FM pop-radio mainstream altogether [16 May 2006] 
The Guess Who: The Best of the Guess WhoYou may never think you need to hear a Guess Who song, but they often come as some relief when they crop up on the radio or in the supermarket Muzak mix. [3 April 2006] 
Household Words: Bloomers, sucker, bombshell, scab, nigger, cyber by Stephanie A. SmithSurely Smith knows that a radical reinterpretation of Dreiser or Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon is not going to take the sting out of being called nigger or scab. [14 March 2006] 
Delta 5: Singles and Sessions 1979-1981Delta 5 featured a trio of women singing in plain, unadorned voices, signaling a de facto rejection of the notion that female singing should be as sweet, simpering and desperately ingratiating as women themselves are too often expected to be. [20 January 2006] 
Patti Smith: Horses/HorsesWhat’s surprising about Patti Smith’s Horses is how subversive it still is, despite its having long since been canonized as one of rock’s most important and influential works. [23 November 2005]
Bango: BangoBango is allegedly a much-sought-after rarity on the psych collector's market; presumably Brazilian psych-rock records didn't have as wide a distribution as, say, the Quicksilver Messenger Service. [7 October 2005] 
Terry Reid: SuperlungsThe better part of Reid's talent lies in how natural and inevitable he can make his vocal impossibilities sound. [6 October 2005] 
Fursaxa: LepidopteraFursaxa's works confront you with an ornately elaborated but ultimately private universe of insular symbols, a forbidding place you can admire for the thoroughness with which it has been imagined, but not somewhere you can imagine yourself. [6 September 2005] 
Def Leppard: Rock of Ages: The Definitive CollectionA collection of rock tracks so slick and depthless they epitomize the plastic fantastic emotionalism of mega-producer Mutt Lange. [23 August 2005] 
The Girl from Monday (2004)In the film's America, the government has been replaced by an advertising firm. [29 July 2005] 
Smog: A River Ain’t Too Much to LoveThe bedrock of virtually every Smog songs remains Callahan's deliberate guitar playing, often clipped arpeggio triplets sounding chords with no embellishment, and his nonpareil voice, the perfect instrument for relating his elusive first-person parables. [25 July 2005] 
Pat Benatar: Greatest HitsBenatar was one of the first pop singers as famous for how she looked as how she sounded, and thus was instrumental for cluing the music industry in to how image alone could sell records. [22 July 2005] 
Jandek: Glasgow SundayThough Jandek has come closer to conventional music than anyone would have thought possible a decade ago, he remains a traveler on his own unfathomable road. [16 June 2005] Kraftwerk's intrigue stems from the impossibility of determining how seriously they take themselves. You want to laugh at them, but you're never sure if the joke is really on you. [13 June 2005] 
Gene Autry: The Essential Gene AutryTwo-disc collection of the singing cowboy's truly essential tracks is a quintessential piece of Americana. [26 May 2005] 
Ella Fitzgerald: Sings the Jerome Kern Song BookOne of the final pieces in the laudable songbook project, this disc reveals its own lack of interest. Fitzgerald may be pitch-perfect, but emotionally it falls a little flat. [15 April 2005] 
Shivaree: Who’s Got Trouble?Ultimately, Shivaree never quite transcends nostalgia for the older and unduly neglected pop-culture forms by which it's clearly inspired. [4 March 2005] 
Lydia Lunch: Smoke in the ShadowsProto-goth goddess Lydia Lunch has long been mistress of her own kitsch genre, reciting in her tough, ceaselessly sarcastic croak her bathetic tales of masochistic women and the men who kick them. [17 January 2005] 
Puffy AmiYumi: Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumiPuffy AmiYumi takes bellwether Beatles riffs and dresses them in the sonic accoutrements of their '70s imitators -- the arena-sized bombast of Cheap Trick, the sci-fi sound effects of ELO, the happy harmonies of Abba, the hyperhookiness of the Raspberries -- to create karaoke-ready J-pop. [14 January 2005] 
Entrance: Wandering StrangerIf his earnestness doesn't make you squeamish, you might appreciate a trip down his desolation row. [8 December 2004] 
The Nutty Professor (1963)We come to see the film itself is the formula, making impossible Buddy Loves of us all. [8 November 2004] 
Patti Smith: Trampin’More pertinent to Trampin’ than her previous albums themselves is the sheer authority her 30 critically lauded years allows her to bring to whatever she attempts. [27 May 2004]
Survivor All-StarsSurvivor dramatizes one of capitalism's core tenets: cooperation is a provisional strategy in the game of 'every man for himself.' [2 March 2004] 
Power Trip (2003)The real villain, as Power Trip portrays it, is the corrupt Georgian government, led at the time by Eduard Shevardnadze. [8 January 2004] 
My Architect (2003)In a sense, his father's buildings are Nathaniel's villains, monuments to his father's priorities. [4 December 2003] 
In My Skin (2002)In My Skin scuttles narrative closure for a more primal unity, an extreme self-referentiality. [20 November 2003] 
Gossip: Undead in NYCThe logic behind this live album must be that rawness demonstrates authenticity, otherwise the muffled, poorly mixed sound and haphazard between-song edits would have to be chalked up to laziness. [13 November 2003]
Prey for Rock & Roll (2003)The mere presence of joker-faced Gina Gershon in a movie makes it campy. [10 November 2003] 
Portastatic: The Summer of the SharkThe Summer of the Shark stubbornly refuses to be memorable, becoming less distinct and more elusive with each listen. This perpetual anonymity benefits some songs, allowing the subtle mood swings they chronicle to surprise with each listen. [5 June 2003]
Erase Errata: Other AnimalsTheir roots are less with the post-punk war-horses like the Gang of Four and Devo, and more with LiLiput, the Swiss feminist band from the early ‘80s. Like LiLiput, Erase Errata makes the form their music takes a political statement in itself. 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[21 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Cheap and fat [17 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Ideology and Aesthetic Pleasure [15 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Learned worthlessness [10 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Perfect markets as coercive ideology [9 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Right to rampant risk-taking [7 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Private knowledge’s value [6 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Health-insurance profits [2 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Good-enough techMarginal Utility: The High Line and claustrophobic design [1 September 2009]Marginal Utility: Nanostories, etc. [31 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Bonus material: Path dependency and status quo bias as ideologyMarginal Utility: Resort Motel Architecture in Wildwood [30 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Class consumers [21 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Class and classism and the meritocratic fantasy [19 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Overfollowing on TwitterMarginal Utility: Beatles Rock Band [18 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Reified design [14 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Fear of Sharing [13 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Free [11 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Soviet Consumerism [10 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Even more bonus material [9 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Stupid Names [7 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Reputation and rescission [5 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Televised food and consumption deskilling [4 August 2009]Marginal Utility: Carl Wilson’s ‘Let’s Talk About Love’: A Journey to the End of Taste [3 August 2009]Marginal Utility: McArdle hatred [31 July 2009]Marginal Utility: The intractable health-care market [29 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Going Analog [28 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Infinite FlameoutMarginal Utility: More bonus material [27 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Conviction consumptionMarginal Utility: Japanese 2-D lovers [25 July 2009]Marginal Utility: The Facebook “lobster trap” [24 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Jobless recovery [21 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Maps and legends [20 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Victorian nostalgia [19 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Bonus materialMarginal Utility: Death of crocs [16 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Clinging to our idiosyncrasy [15 July 2009]Marginal Utility: “The era of frugality” redux redux [13 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Consumption display; or, against sharing [12 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Conspicuous conservation [11 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Fear of specialty stores [9 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Why did people think house prices can’t fall? [7 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Real men use their tools [4 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Death of the blogosphere [3 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Slowing down [2 July 2009]Marginal Utility: Tell ‘em that it’s human nature [30 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Placebos as performance [29 June 2009]Marginal Utility: “A beginning is a very delicate time.” [25 June 2009]Marginal Utility: The end of autonomous curiosity [24 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Chitchat and tittle-tattleMarginal Utility: The Energy of Conspiracy Theorists [23 June 2009]Marginal Utility: John Is DeadMarginal Utility: Semaphore signals [22 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Health insurance and personal responsibility [20 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Dumb movies [19 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Medical waste [18 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Digital anarchy [17 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Corporate 99-cent storesMarginal Utility: Exploitation as business model [10 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Blaming everyone and no one [9 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Customer satisfaction and American IdolMarginal Utility: Hooverville Williamsburg [8 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Leave deciders alone [7 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Working for free [5 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Creative writing and crippling self-consciousness [4 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Thoughts on Yellowstone [2 June 2009]Marginal Utility: Prince moviesMarginal Utility: Meme moments [30 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Sundry music-related matters [29 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Un-games [26 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Slacker security [25 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Alone in the woods [24 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Costs of free [15 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Using consumers for housing bets [13 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Thinking man’s filter [12 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Family photos as entertainment [11 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Brand hegemony [9 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Chinese saving [8 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Digital fetishesMarginal Utility: Speed eating [6 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Credit-card convenience [5 May 2009]Marginal Utility: Attention grabber [4 May 2009]Marginal Utility: The strange suspicion of advertising [30 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Is authenticity born in recessions? [29 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Hiding tastes [28 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Box of books in the trash [27 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Comments on comments [26 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Undoing ideology with policy [24 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Red rocker and knight riderMarginal Utility: Defending the authenticity quest [23 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Crybaby bankers [21 April 2009]Marginal Utility: The treadmill of ambition [20 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Yearning for ubiquitous anonymity [18 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Jeans on [17 April 2009]Marginal Utility: A hipster lost generationMarginal Utility: Hobby economy [16 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Technological determinism and convenience bias [15 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Information costs [14 April 2009]Marginal Utility: The “gleefully frugal” [13 April 2009]Marginal Utility: The Death of the HipsterMarginal Utility: Twittering the revolution [10 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Yes Man and financial hubris [9 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Necessary awkwardness [8 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Desire dependency [7 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Facebook as the new Compuserve [6 April 2009]Marginal Utility: Muerte al voice mail [2 April 2009]Marginal Utility: The future of book manufacturing [1 April 2009]Marginal Utility: “Online monoculture” [31 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Bank rescues: the not so New Deal [27 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Commodfied intelligence [26 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Reflections on revolutionMarginal Utility: Memeification [24 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Outsourced motivation [20 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Weak readingMarginal Utility: Foucault’s Facebook [18 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Dubious economic headlines [17 March 2009]Marginal Utility: The end of newspapers [16 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Yearning for the destruction of Battlestar GalacticaMarginal Utility: Virgin Megastores [15 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Failures of social media [13 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Performance theft [12 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Cash is kingMarginal Utility: Unplayable Tetris [11 March 2009]Marginal Utility: “Bankruptcy for profit” [10 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Kitsch as dehistorisized aesthetics [9 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Realtime and realspace [7 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Descent into autarky [5 March 2009]Marginal Utility: What Hitler read [4 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Work harder at consumption [3 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Diderot effects [2 March 2009]Marginal Utility: Buying an experience [27 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Happy talk [26 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Giving up friendship for Lent [25 February 2009]Marginal Utility: MicroaudiencesMarginal Utility: TelesocialityMarginal Utility: Middlebrow Oscar [24 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Pepsi people power [23 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Music rating inflation [20 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Shepard Fairey and notoriety artMarginal Utility: In praise of Stephen Glass [18 February 2009]Marginal Utility: The craven creative classMarginal Utility: Following up [16 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Sex and travel [13 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Fear of AmishMarginal Utility: Manufacturing loneliness [11 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Idiot interviewersMarginal Utility: Kindle still seems unnecessary [10 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Compensatory chocolateMarginal Utility: Theses inspired by Hipster Runoff [6 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Reinflating the housing bubble [5 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Twitter and Newspeak [4 February 2009]Marginal Utility: The “idea crunch” [3 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Als sie die Banker holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Banker [2 February 2009]Marginal Utility: Competitve consumption in dormancy [30 January 2009]Marginal Utility: The author as brandMarginal Utility: Operational aesthetics in Survivor [29 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Volunteer critics [28 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Twitter shame [27 January 2009]Marginal Utility: “Projects for paying attention to attention” [26 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Complicated televisionMarginal Utility: Necessary frictions [23 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Crisis opportunity [22 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Facebook holdouts [21 January 2009]Marginal Utility: “Manufacturing consent” for Obama [20 January 2009]Marginal Utility: The sadness of Michael’s [17 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Made-up Marx [16 January 2009]Marginal Utility: The necessity of TV ads [15 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Re-editing frenzy [14 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Ain’t gonna hang no picture frame [13 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Trying to avoid distraction [12 January 2009]Marginal Utility: The alluring danger of dilettantism [9 January 2009]Marginal Utility: More money, more problems [8 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Ereway inway ethay oneymay [7 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Oh, what I want to know is are you kind? [6 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Persuasion industry’s assault on personhood [5 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Spending less, buying more [2 January 2009]Marginal Utility: Meaningful inconvenience [31 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Kapital coolMarginal Utility: What ads sell when they fail to sell [30 December 2008]Marginal Utility: More on consumer disappointment [29 December 2008]Marginal Utility: The importance of disappointment [25 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Beauty as prisoner’s dilemma [24 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Twitter: the ultimate advertising medium [23 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Do brands have personalities?Marginal Utility: Teen angst continuing to pay off well [22 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Gendered gift-giving angst [20 December 2008]Sound Affects: Medical risks of headbanging [19 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Irrationality and shopping “addiction”Marginal Utility: Lend to everyone, let the government sort it out [18 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Getting zirpish [17 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Consumer atrophy [16 December 2008]Marginal Utility: The Madoff pyramid scheme [15 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Problems with preventing foreclosures [13 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Rebranding disease [11 December 2008]Marginal Utility: The brotherhood of hobos [10 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Consuming and the safety net [8 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Lonely in trafficMarginal Utility: Attacking Žižek [5 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Trollope’s The Way We Live Now [4 December 2008]Marginal Utility: The opposite of AmericansMarginal Utility: The financial crisis and generational warfare [2 December 2008]Marginal Utility: Vive Tanta [1 December 2008]Marginal Utility: The worst song ever [28 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Depression modern [27 November 2008]Marginal Utility: “Nocebos” and WebMD disease [26 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Thoughts on Papa John [25 November 2008]Marginal Utility: The bias toward positive reviews [24 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Friendship As Media [23 November 2008]Marginal Utility: The future of the music business [20 November 2008]Marginal Utility: When countries go bankrupt [19 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Fatherly advice from the Last Dictator [18 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Obama as historical ruptureMarginal Utility: Veblen and the savings rate [17 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Three cheers for being boring [14 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Consumer demand in ChinaMarginal Utility: Consumer confidence and optimism [13 November 2008]Marginal Utility: The flight to qualityMarginal Utility: Against studying novelistic merit [12 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Reflexivity and bubble trouble [11 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Planet Finance [8 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Going generic [7 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Where are the young Republicans? [6 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Postmodern finance [5 November 2008]Marginal Utility: Blaming the weather [4 November 2008]Marginal Utility: The pleasure of multiple selves [2 November 2008]Marginal Utility: The limits of fandom [30 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Harvesting online influencers [29 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Forced smiles [28 October 2008]Marginal Utility: When shows get “televisiony” [24 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Greenspan’s principal-agent problemMarginal Utility: “The ‘Nothing But Flowers’ fallacy” [23 October 2008]Marginal Utility: False memories and advertising [22 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Second stimulus [21 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Doing it to debt [20 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Screw hedge funds—smoke weed [17 October 2008]Marginal Utility: The pejorative “gay” [16 October 2008]Marginal Utility: “The faith-based economy” [15 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Indebtedness is not moral weaknessMarginal Utility: The End of A&R [14 October 2008]Marginal Utility: God bless text messagingMarginal Utility: Institutionalizing savings [13 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Income inequality as souce of financial chaos [10 October 2008]Marginal Utility: From happy homeownership to the end of our economy [9 October 2008]Sound Affects: She ain’t heavyMarginal Utility: Album cover context [8 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Guys with cats: “extra special” [7 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Commercial paperMarginal Utility: Is the “death of capitalism” also the death of consumerism?Marginal Utility: The consolations of branding [6 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Ubiquitous measurement [3 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Privacy and publicity [2 October 2008]Marginal Utility: Joe Six-Pack goes to Washington [1 October 2008]Sound Affects: Punk’s not dead, it’s butteryMarginal Utility: Public and private selves [30 September 2008]Marginal Utility: Band as brand [29 September 2008]Marginal Utility: Fomenting narcissism [28 September 2008]Marginal Utility: Demise of the Mediterranean diet [24 September 2008]Marginal Utility: The take-away lifestyle [23 September 2008]Marginal Utility: Bad bailout [22 September 2008]Marginal Utility: Risieria San Sabba [21 September 2008]Marginal Utility: How to fight Googlephobia [10 September 2008]Marginal Utility: Regarding “Channels of Desire” [9 September 2008]Sound Affects: Growing Up at the Side of Chairman MaoMarginal Utility: Broadcasting the self [8 September 2008]Marginal Utility: Is music still a product? [5 September 2008]Marginal Utility: The subtext of “Drill baby drill” [4 September 2008]Marginal Utility: The roots of kleptocracyMarginal Utility: The Numerati, by Stephen BakerMarginal Utility: The credit experience [31 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Against curiosity [25 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Can’t save, won’t saveMarginal Utility: Happy nations [23 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Beyond the threshold of Burgertime [20 August 2008]Marginal Utility: The Aldi alternativeMarginal Utility: The birth of the wrongness [18 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Wrongness and Family Guy [14 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Brand anorexia [13 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Harmful efficiencies [12 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Fear of merging [11 August 2008]Marginal Utility: The enduring creative class and the myth of samizdat [9 August 2008]Marginal Utility: How brands prime behavior [8 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Advertising as creative destruction [7 August 2008]Marginal Utility: “The exceptionalist fallacy” [6 August 2008]Sound Affects: Stereotyping musical genres [5 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Don’t worry, be happyMarginal Utility: Fashionable apathy and the power elite [3 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Hipster hatred [1 August 2008]Marginal Utility: Eating symbols [31 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Connoisseurship and snobbery [30 July 2008]Marginal Utility: The myth of critical distance [29 July 2008]Marginal Utility: The Truman Show Delusion [25 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Looking for clues [24 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Tired of making choices [23 July 2008]Marginal Utility: The lost culture of thrift [22 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Zygmunt Bauman’s Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? [17 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Hyperopia hype [16 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Face management [15 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Fanny and Freddie Got Fingered [14 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Advertisements for ourselves [11 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Everybody is a star [10 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Random friends [9 July 2008]Sound Affects: Corporate rock apotheosis [8 July 2008]Marginal Utility: A Minsky momentMarginal Utility: Antisocial networking [7 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Starred items are forever [2 July 2008]Marginal Utility: The Eiffel Tower as fountain of illogic [1 July 2008]Marginal Utility: Other people’s mixtapes [30 June 2008]Marginal Utility: The romantic appeal of the “long tail hypothesis” [28 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Anonymous authority [26 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Environmentalism as aspirational brand [25 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Copyright of Murakami [24 June 2008]Marginal Utility: The return of vinyl [23 June 2008]Marginal Utility: The time cost of free goods [20 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Precious moments [18 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Bogus babymaking crises [17 June 2008]Marginal Utility: The copyright industry arms race [13 June 2008]Marginal Utility: The great bourgeois virtues [12 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Versioning and the Kindle [11 June 2008]Marginal Utility: More on the promotional culture [10 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Absorbed with gadgets [9 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Evaluative criticismMarginal Utility: Financial fictions [7 June 2008]Sound Affects: The Whitburn Project [6 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Snakeskin Jacket SyndromeMarginal Utility: Avant-garde marketing [5 June 2008]Marginal Utility: The travails of the megawealthyMarginal Utility: Rob Walker’s Buying In [4 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Ostentatious gastronomy [3 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Turning goods into experiences [2 June 2008]Marginal Utility: Why are oil prices so high? [29 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Anecdote of the Boalsburg Memorial Day Festival [27 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Dead brands [21 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Having more money vs. buying cheaper goods [20 May 2008]Marginal Utility: The homeownership cult [19 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Taste the musicMarginal Utility: Manufacturing neuroticism [16 May 2008]Marginal Utility: The end of record stores [14 May 2008]Sound Affects: The New Yorker’s 100 essential jazz albums [13 May 2008]Marginal Utility: The conserver societyMarginal Utility: “The Hype Cycle” [12 May 2008]Sound Affects: Black Metal BakingMarginal Utility: Protest brandingMarginal Utility: Participatory surveillence [10 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Wealthy time [9 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Peyton Place and the roots of reality entertainment [8 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Difficult theory [6 May 2008]Marginal Utility: Defying the stimulusMarginal Utility: Green thumb strategy [2 May 2008]Marginal Utility: The unheard music [1 May 2008]Marginal Utility: The “atmosphere of craven conformity” [30 April 2008]Sound Affects: The Most Unwanted Song [29 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Social surplus or accursed share?Marginal Utility: Inferior goods and the lump of consumption fallacy [28 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Homeownership ideology [24 April 2008]Marginal Utility: A fifth column at the Wall Street Journal [23 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Silent rave [21 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Jettisoning aesthetic fundamentals [18 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Caring about the music business [16 April 2008]Marginal Utility: “Starve your neighbor”Marginal Utility: Grounded planes [11 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Deconstruction time again [10 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Housing as “forced savings” [9 April 2008]Marginal Utility: The return of Malthus [7 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Triumph of the will [4 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Only weirdos rent [3 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Social gaming [2 April 2008]Marginal Utility: Trash-outs as performance art [1 April 2008]Marginal Utility: No smiles [30 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Beating Zippy [28 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Gimmie shelter [21 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Twilight of the English professors [19 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Enemies of the ownership society [18 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Bear Stearns less valuable than A-Rod [17 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Feeling sorry for sex [13 March 2008]Marginal Utility: The Fed’s latest bailout [12 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Secrets of the Emperors ClubMarginal Utility: The end of A&R [11 March 2008]Marginal Utility: The end of the sexual class system, circa 1970 [7 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Social-conservative theory, an oxymoron? [6 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Consuming the idea of productivity [4 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Kids as consumer goods [3 March 2008]Marginal Utility: Twelve steps to financial disaster [29 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Socialism’s moral failure [25 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Too many stores? [21 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Country-fried bigotry [19 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Feeling single [14 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Bastiat and the consumer’s point of view [13 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Two-year lifespan of social networks [11 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Stimulating spending and manufacturing optimism [9 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Cutting credit cards [8 February 2008]Marginal Utility: PolarizationMarginal Utility: Long live philistinism [5 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Completely incomplete [4 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Metablog blogging [2 February 2008]Marginal Utility: Scientific sanction to love [1 February 2008]Marginal Utility: The taste of luxury [29 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Hedonic marriage [24 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Manufacturing demand for mortgages [22 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Paid followers [21 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Crowdsourced art [17 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Blame the mortgage brokers [16 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Necessary bubbles [14 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Individualist totalitarians [12 January 2008]Marginal Utility: The ease-of-influence factor [10 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Making deals with oneself [9 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Starbucks and McDonald’s [8 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Boredom as character flaw [7 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Price incentives and peer production [4 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Cultural consumption at the margins [3 January 2008]Marginal Utility: Small business sentimentality [30 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Disappointed bridges [28 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Egalitarian customer service [26 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Forever catalogs [24 December 2007]Marginal Utility: The irrepressible melancholy of year-end best-of-music lists [21 December 2007]Marginal Utility: The NAR’s sunshine boys [19 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Waiting for the Rhapsody [18 December 2007]Marginal Utility: “Reading the spreadsheets upside down” [17 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Texting love [14 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Winning at white elephant [13 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Joy in repetition [12 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Taste versus curiosity [11 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Mall shootings [7 December 2007]Marginal Utility: The evils of word-of-mouth advertising [4 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Prime subprime borrowers [3 December 2007]Marginal Utility: Top down culture [30 November 2007]Consuming Consumables: Teenage: The Creation of Youth Culture by Jon Savage [$29.95] [28 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Post-commercial entertainment [27 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Consumer confidence and consumerism [23 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Condition branding [19 November 2007]Marginal Utility: The ice-men of competitive goofy golf [14 November 2007]Marginal Utility: The attention of last resort [13 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Speed dating data [12 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Affordable luxury [9 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Headbanger’s dole [8 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Ironic tourism [7 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Blabber jammers [5 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Cavestomp 2007 [4 November 2007]Marginal Utility: Costumes are creepy [31 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Timeless [28 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Haggling [25 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Smoking crack [24 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Vicariousness in Trollope [22 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Manly Sunday [21 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Facebook’s future [19 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Political transvestism [18 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Priests and jesters [17 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Ideological education [16 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Financial narratives [14 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Scalping Hannah Montana [12 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Ads for cell phone use [11 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Overrating rating [10 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Market failures [4 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Radiohead becomes economists’ favorite band [3 October 2007]Marginal Utility: “Real facts” [2 October 2007]Marginal Utility: Sleaze addiction [26 September 2007]Marginal Utility: Overtime and meaningful work [25 September 2007]Marginal Utility: Greenspan’s media blitz [23 September 2007]Marginal Utility: More on disaster capitalism [16 September 2007]Marginal Utility: The return of the last intellectual [15 September 2007]Marginal Utility: The dark secrets of the Denver Airport [14 September 2007]Marginal Utility: Disaster capitalism [13 September 2007]Marginal Utility: Did Americans really want McMansions? [12 September 2007]Marginal Utility: The “greening of Wal-Mart” [11 September 2007]Marginal Utility: A few theses about the Beatles [10 September 2007]Marginal Utility: Nimbyism and environmental justice [8 September 2007] |
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