Megan McArdle

Columnist
Megan McArdle is a Washington Post columnist and the author of "The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success."
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Latest from Megan McArdle

Harris wiped the floor with Trump. But what did we learn about her?

Did the debate cause a vibe shift? Columnists Charles Lane, Megan McArdle, Dana Milbank and Jim Geraghty discuss how much voters care about policy, whether Trump made any good points and how his false claims about pet-eating immigrants mask a genuine issue.

September 11, 2024

How to lift people out of poverty without just giving them cash

Solutions to lifting people out of poverty are more challenging, less politically popular than giving checks

September 9, 2024
(Washington Post illustration; iStock)

Cash alone proves inadequate to solve the problems of the poor

A blow to the just-give-people-money theory of how to address poverty.

September 3, 2024
(Washington Post illustration; iStock)

Let’s talk about free speech after Pavel Durov’s indictment

We have been wrestling with the problems posed by services like Telegram for years.

August 29, 2024
Pavel Durov in Barcelona in 2016. (Albert Gea/Reuters)

Harris has an exotic plan to tax the rich. But it’s not enough.

Taxing unrealized capital gains is a desperation move.

August 26, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on July 15, 2021.

Why Harris’s housing plan won’t work

Kamala Harris can’t count on adding 3 million houses to the market by 2028.

August 20, 2024
Houses under construction in Brambleton, Va.

Why the disinformation brigade has utterly failed to weaken Trump

Too many efforts to weed out falsehoods have been marred by politics.

August 15, 2024
A viewer watches Elon Musk's interview with Donald Trump on X on Monday. (Adam Gray/Reuters)

What will the Google antitrust ruling mean for search — and all of us?

Creating more competition could be good for consumers, other tech companies and even Google itself.

August 9, 2024

When markets get scary, crypto proves its worthlessness

The recent market meltdown found cryptocurrencies doing the opposite of what they were supposed to do.

August 8, 2024
Coin renderings of cryptocurrencies bitcoin, dash, ethereum, ripple and litecoin.

The perfect crime of 2024 happened on Tuesday

No one was harmed, and the suspect is in custody. What remains is the symbolism.

August 2, 2024
Secret Service agents at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 18. (Joshua Lott/The Washington Post)