There is someone whose job it is to try to extract royalty money from anyone who plays music in a place of business. Most people do not react well to this request.

A reporter heads to Nauru, a tiny island nation in the Pacific, to track down the hub of a worldwide money-laundering operation—a shack filled with computers, air-conditioners, and little else.

Vignettes of the residents of South Elliot Place.

John Friend, who founded a new school of yoga, says the practice should be about both exercise and spirituality. Oh, and making money.

Erich Spangenberg is in the business of owning other people’s ideas. He makes a fortune.

A profile of Tom Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the sixth-highest paid lobbyist in the country. Since Obama took office, Donohue has scared-up tens of millions in new donations.

The Great Recession meant great things for Nick Popovich, who gets paid by banks to take planes back from hard-up millionaires.

On January 1st, 2011, the U.S. estate tax will jump from zero to around 50%, which gives a lot of very rich elders (or perhaps more accurately, their heirs) millions of dollars in incentive to expedite death.

An interview with Clay Shirky on “why no medium has ever survived the indifference of 25-year-olds.”

Nitrous balloon vendors clash in the parking lots of jam band festival across the Northeast.

The rise and fall of Design Within Reach.

In 2007, Harrah’s made 5.6% of its total Las Vegas revenue off of a single person: Terrance Watanabe.

Mysterious, man-made “natural flavor” explains why most fast food—indeed, most of the food Americans eat—tastes the way it does. An early excerpt from Fast Food Nation.

How a French journalist recruited a posse of Brazilian parking lot attendants and pizza-delivery guys and created Hollywood’s most addictive entertainment product.

As of this year, more women than men are in the U.S. workforce. More women are managers and more women are earning college degrees. Here’s why.

“The problem is I’m older now, I’m 40 years old, and this stuff doesn’t change the world. It really doesn’t.” –Steve Jobs, 1996

Foursquare and Gowalla are in a VC-funded race to become the dominant location-based social network. But their founders say both companies have a larger purpose.

Fred Franzia makes a lot of money selling really cheap wine.

Profile of the flip-flop wearing 61-year-old ‘dude’ who turned around a dying company by selling all-American sex to teens – and isn’t apologizing.

Tadashi Yanai (“he is like Warren Buffett in Japan”) takes his Uniqlo brand stateside.

Craig Cunningham has a simple solution for getting bill collectors off his back. He sues them.

How Indians with the surname Patel came to own 1/3 of the motels in America.

China is securing sub-Saharan Africa’s natural resources at a staggering rate. With the buying spree comes contracts, workers, and of course, politics. (Part 1 of a 6 part series, rest here)

A recent episode of This American Life was put together by reporters from Pro Publica based on this original reporting about the bubble-profiteering hedge fund Magnetar.

Paul Krugman breaks down the basics of climate change economics, from Arthur Cecil Pigou to Capitol Hill.