The Best Business Writing 2013

Dean Starkman, Martha M. Hamilton, Ryan Chittum, Felix Salmon

Columbia University Press, Jun 18, 2013 - Business & Economics - 464 pages

An anthology Malcolm Gladwell has called "riveting and indispensable," The Best Business Writing is a far-ranging survey of business's dynamic relationship with politics, culture, and life. This year's selections include John Markoff (New York Times) on innovations in robot technology and the decline of the factory worker; Evgeny Morozov (New Republic) on the questionable value of the popular TED conference series and the idea industry behind it; Paul Kiel (ProPublica) on the ripple effects of the ongoing foreclosure crisis; and the infamous op-ed by Greg Smith, published in the New York Times, announcing his break with Goldman Sachs over its trading practices and corrupt corporate ethos.

Jessica Pressler (New York) delves into the personal and professional rivalry between Tory and Christopher Burch, former spouses now competing to dominate the fashion world. Peter Whoriskey (Washington Post) exposes the human cost of promoting pharmaceuticals off-label. Charles Duhigg and David Barboza (New York Times) investigate Apple's unethical labor practices in China. Max Abelson (Bloomberg) reports on Wall Street's amusing reaction to the diminishing annual bonus. Mina Kimes (Fortune) recounts the grisly story of a company's illegal testing—and misuse—of a medical device for profit, and Jeff Tietz (Rolling Stone) composes one of the most poignant and comprehensive portraits of the financial crisis's dissolution of the American middle class.

Contents

• 1 The Sharp Sudden Decline of Americas Middle Class: 3
• The Struggle for Justice and a Place to Call Home: 35
• BAD MEDICINE: 95
• A Medical Horror Story: 97
• 4 Prescription for Addiction: 123
• 5 Anemia Drugs Made Billions but at What Cost?: 133
• BIG BUSINESS: 151
• 6 Making the Worlds Largest Airline Fly: 153
• 7 Gusher: 167
• BAD BUSINESS: 191
• 8 Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by WalMart After TopLevel Struggle: 193
• 9 Chesapeake and Rival Plotted to Suppress Land Prices: 221
• 10 Fear Fans Flames for Chemical Makers: 235
• MEDIA AND MARKETING: 249
• 11 His Hers: 251
• 12 Top Five Ways Bleacher Report Rules the World: 265
• 13 Why Indias Newspaper Industry Is Thriving: 281
• 14 The Frequent Fliers Who Flew Too Much: 305
• BIG THINK: 315
• 15 Tradeoffs Between Inequality Productivity and Employment: 317
• 16 The Naked and the TED: 327
• ADVENTURES IN FINANCE: 347
• 17 Wall Street Bonus WIthdrawal Means Trading Aspen for Coupons: 349
• 18 The Tale of a Whale of a Fail: 357
• 19 Case Against Bear and JPMorgan Provides Little Cheer: 371
• 20 How ECB Chief Outflanked German Foe in Fight for Euro: 377
• 21 From the Trouble Is the Banks: 387
• 22 Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs: 397
• How a Lawyer Exploited the Fine Print and Found Himself Facing Federal Charges: 403
• BRAVE NEW WORLD: 421
• 24 How Companies Learn Your Secrets: 423
• How Corning Created the Ultrathin Ultrastrong Material of the Future: 445
• 26 Skilled Work WIthout the Worker: 459
• 27 I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave: 471
• 28 In China Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad: 495
• 29 How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking: 515
• Permissions: 527
• Contributors: 533

About the author

Dean Starkman is editor of the Columbia Journalism Review's business section, The Audit, which tracks financial journalism in print and on the web, and is the magazine's Kingsford Capital Fellow. A reporter for two decades, he worked eight years as a Wall Street Journal staff writer and was chief of the Providence Journal's investigative unit. He has won numerous national and regional journalism awards and helped lead the Providence Journal to the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Investigations.

Martha M. Hamilton is a writer and deputy editor with PolitiFact.com, which, in 2009, became the first non-print winner of the Pulitzer Prize. She also investigates complaints about financial journalism for CJR's The Audit. She was a writer, Wall Street and corporate crime editor, and personal finance columnist for The Washington Post until 2008. Hamilton is also the author, along with former Post colleague Warren Brown, of Black and White and Red All Over.

Ryan Chittum is deputy editor of CJR's The Audit. He's a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and has written for numerous other publications, including the New York Times. He is also a contributor to Bad News: How America's Business Press Missed the Story of the Century. His recent work can be seen at www.cjr.org/author/ryan-chittum-1/.

Felix Salmon is the finance blogger for Reuters. He arrived in the United States in 1997 from England, where he worked at Euromoney magazine. He also wrote daily commentary on Latin American markets for the former news service, Bridge News, and created the Economonitor blog for Roubini Global Economics.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Best Business Writing 2013; Columbia Journalism Review Books
• Editors: Dean Starkman, Martha M. Hamilton, Ryan Chittum, Felix Salmon
• Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2013
• ISBN: 0231535171, 9780231535175
• Length: 464 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Business Writing; Business & Economics / Economics / General; Business & Economics / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Journalism