About me

I am a writer and journalist. I am the Director of Portfolio Communications for Select Equity Group, a New-York-based investment fund. Prior to that, I was an editor and economics writer at The Economist, where I served in a number of economics roles, including six years as author of the Free Exchange economics column. Before joining The Economist I worked as a freelance journalist, as an associate at an economics consulting firm, and as an industry analyst at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not all at once.

I am the author of a forthcoming book, tentatively titled Faith, Society, and What Can Be: A New Theory of Human Progress, which will be published by Yale University Press in 2025. I’ve also written The Wealth of Humans, published in 2016, and The Gated City, a Kindle single, published in 2011. Other work has been published by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Bloomberg, and a number of other places. I have also had articles published by the Journal of Economic Geography, the journal of the Royal Economic Society, and the journal of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

At present I live in Raleigh, North Carolina, with my wife Lisa, my two children, my two dogs, and two rabbits, Richard and Edith.