Megan McArdle | |
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_(cropped).jpg) McArdle in 2013 | |
| Born | (1973-01-29)January 29, 1973 (age 52) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania Chicago Booth |
| Occupation(s) | Columnist, blogger |
| Years active | 2003–present |
| Spouse | |
Megan McArdle (born January 29, 1973) is an Americancolumnist andblogger based inWashington, D.C. She writes forThe Washington Post, mostly abouteconomics,finance, and government policy.
McArdle began her writing career with a blog, "Live from the WTC", started in November 2001. She is currently an opinion writer forThe Washington Post. Other publications she has worked for includeThe Atlantic,Newsweek,The Daily Beast, andBloomberg View. She has also published book reviews and opinion pieces in theNew York Post,The New York Sun,Reason,The Guardian, andSalon.
McArdle was born and raised inNew York City. Her father, Francis X. McArdle, was former managing director of the General Contractors Association of New York[1] during theKoch,Dinkins, andGiuliani administrations. Her mother, Joan McArdle, was a real estate broker forPrudential Douglas Elliman.[2]
McArdle attended high school atRiverdale Country School.[3] Afterwards, she graduated from theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where she received a B.A. inEnglish literature. She then earned anMBA fromUniversity of Chicago's Booth School of Business.[4]
During her junior year of college, she worked as a canvasser for thePublic Interest Research Groups, the nonprofit founded byRalph Nader. Her experience there hurried along her "transition fromultraliberal to libertarian." The organization was, she later wrote, "the most deceptive, evil place I've ever worked."[5]
Dave Weigel called McArdle "the original blogger-turned-MSM journo".[6] In 2012,David Brooks called McArdle one of the most influential bloggers on the right.[7]
McArdle began blogging in November 2001 with a blog called "Live From The WTC," which arose from her employment with a construction firm involved in cleanup at theWorld Trade Center site following theSeptember 11 attacks. She wrote under thepen name "Jane Galt," playing on the name "John Galt," a central character inAyn Rand'sObjectivist novelAtlas Shrugged. In November 2002 she renamed the site "Asymmetrical Information," a reference to theeconomics term of the same name. That blog had two other occasional contributors, Zimran Ahmed (writing under the pen name "Winterspeak"), and the pseudonymous "Mindles H. Dreck."
McArdle gained some online attention in May 2003 for coining what she termed "Jane's Law" in a blog post discussing political behaviors.[8][9] The law, written with regard to the two mainU.S.political parties,Republicans andDemocrats, reads: "The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane."
McArdle was an outspoken supporter of the Iraq War both before and after the invasion by the United States. She later made a partial admission of error for this position.[10]
Another post by McArdle, from April 2005, discusses why she takes no position on the issue ofsame-sex marriage. She wrote: "All I'm asking for is for people to think more deeply than a quick consultation of their imaginations to make that decision... This humility is what I want from liberals when approaching market changes; now I'm asking it from my side [libertarians], in approaching social ones."[11]
In 2003 McArdle was hired byThe Economist to write for their website, in the "Countries" and "News" sections, and in October 2006 she foundedThe Economist's "Free Exchange" blog.
In August 2007 McArdle leftThe Economist and moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a full-time blogger forThe Atlantic, keeping "Asymmetrical Information" as her blog's name.[12]
In 2009, she criticized an article inPlayboy byeXile Online editorsMark Ames and Yasha Levine which detailed the influence of theKoch brothers in American andTea Party politics.Playboy took down the article as a result of the negative response.[13]
By 2010, McArdle had also becomeThe Atlantic's business and economics editor. In February 2010, her blog lost the title "Asymmetrical Information," asThe Atlantic switched to having every blog (exceptAndrew Sullivan'sThe Daily Dish) be identified solely by its author.[14]
She was a Bernard L. Schwartz fellow at the public policy think tankNew America.[15]
In June 2012, McArdle leftThe Atlantic, and began writing forNewsweek/The Daily Beast.[16]
In June 2013, McArdle announced that she was departingNewsweek to joinBloomberg View as a columnist.[17]
McArdle is an occasional television and radio commentator, having appeared onThe Kudlow Report,[18]Fareed Zakaria GPS,[19][20] and American Public Media'sMarketplace.[21]
McArdle joinedThe Washington Post as an opinion columnist in March 2018.[22]
McArdle has described herself as a "right-leaning libertarian."[23] David Brooks categorized her as part of a group of bloggers who "start from broadlylibertarian premises but do not apply them in adoctrinaire way."[24]
McArdle has been critical of the libertarian politicianRon Paul, taking him to task for not strongly disavowing racist statements that appeared in his newsletters,[25] arguing against his championing oftax credits, and accusing him of lacking specificity about cutting government spending.[26] McArdle was also quoted as saying that Ron Paul "doesn't understand anything aboutmonetary policy," and that "he wastes all of his time on theHouse Financial Services Committee ranting crazily."[27]
In late 2008, McArdle wrote extensively against a proposedfederal bailout of the U.S. auto industry (which ultimately occurred in early 2009). In November 2008, various of McArdle's blog posts on the subject were quoted approvingly byconservativecommentatorsDavid Brooks,[28]Michael Barone[29] andJohn Podhoretz,[30] among others.
Since 2009, McArdle has argued extensively against instituting a system ofnational health insurancein the United States, and specifically against the federalhealth care reform bill thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in March 2010. In addition to a number of blog posts on the subject, she also wrote an article, "Myth Diagnosis," in the March 2010Atlantic.[31]
In a July 2009 blog post, McArdle listed two reasons that she objected to such a system: first, that it would stifle innovation, because "Monopolies are not innovative, whether they are public or private," and second, that "Once the government gets into the business of providing our health care, the government gets into the business ofdeciding whose life matters, and how much."[32] CommentatorEzra Klein ofThe Washington Post criticized this post, writing, "In 1,600 words, she doesn't muster a single link to a study or argument, nor a single number that she didn't make up (what numbers do exist come in the form of thought experiments and assumptions). Megan's argument against national health insurance boils down to a visceral hatred of the government."[33]
In an August 2009 post, McArdle reiterated, "My objection is primarily, as I've said numerous times, that the government will destroy innovation. It will do this by deciding what constitutes an acceptable standard of care, and refusing to fund treatment above that. It will also start controlling prices."[34]
In a comment to that post, McArdle stated, "The United States currently provides something like 80–90% of the profits on new drugs and medical devices. Perhaps you think you can slash profits 80% with no effect on the behavior of the companies that make these products. I don't." In a subsequentWashington Post online chat, a commenter asked her, "You said that medical innovation will be wiped out if we have a type of national health care, because European drug companies get 80% of their revenue from Americans. Where did you get this statistic?" McArdle responded that it was "a hypothetical, not a statistic." This was criticized in a blog post inThe New Republic.[35] In response to this criticism, McArdle stated that she had misunderstood the question, and "thought the commenter was referring to the postulated hypothetical destruction of all US profits." She also stated that, though "there are no hard numbers available," she estimated that the U.S. contribution to pharmaceutical profits was at least 60%.[36]
McArdle married Peter Suderman, an associate editor for thelibertarian magazineReason, in 2010.[37]
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Megan McArdle is leaving Newsweek for Bloomberg View, where she will cover the economy, business, politics and national affairs as a columnist.
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