The Best Business Writing 2014

A breakout success, our anthology of the year’s best business investigative writing includes provocative essays on the ongoing collapse of American middle-class jobs under the weight of maximizing shareholder values (Washington Post); the underground networks of financial exchange that insulate Russia from diplomatic consequences and real economic pain (New York Times); the shady practices and libertarian ethos of the new Silicon Valley (Frankfurter Allgemeine, London Review of Books); and the implications of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean-In (The Baffler), the most talked about career-advice book of the year. Additional articles cover London’s long history of embracing corrupt foreign money (Vanity Fair); the crimes and misadventures of the young founder of Silk Road, the wildly successful online illegal goods site known as the “Ebay of vice” (Rolling Stone); the secret dealings of an elite Wall Street society (New York); the real failings of the Fed during the 2008 economic crisis (The Atlantic); the PIMCO fund controversy (Wall Street Journal); the brilliant campaign behind J. Crew’s brand transformation (Fast Company); the decline of the funeral business (Philadelphia); the political plans of the Koch brothers (The New Yorker); the Amazon tax fight (Fortune); and the science of junk food (New York Times Magazine). Contributors include: Russell Brand Gregg Easterbrook Jesse Eisinger Susan Faludi Ben Judah Lucy Kellaway David Kushner Jane Mayer Evgeny Morozov Matthew O’Brien Kevin Roose Rebecca Solnit Ashlee Vance Jia Lynn Yang