Tradereads

Benign view of loans helped create bonds, which led to more lending.

Organized crime groups from China called Triads are involved in Vegas casinos.

Why Goldman Sachs is hoarding aluminum in Detroit.

Much of what investment bankers do is socially worthless.

Delivery of first class mail is falling at a staggering rate.

The lives of illegal immigrant fruit pickers.

An oral history of The National Sports Daily.

How digital detectives deciphered Stuxnet, the most menacing malware in history.

On the emerging student loan bubble.

How slot machines snuck into the mall, along with money laundering, bribery, shootouts, and billions in profits.

Jamie and Frank McCourt moved to L.A. in 2004 to live their dream—as owners of the illustrious Dodgers—then went on a massive spending spree: $74 million on four homes, a $12 million pool, and a $10,000-a-month hairstylist. But though their team hit an initial winning streak, their marriage cratered. With their divorce producing a slew of unsavory financial details, Vanessa Grigoriadis learns why Major League Baseball is as furious as the McCourts are with each other.

Pret a Manger, the veddy British chain, has gained a foothold in our McWorld of burgers and fries, where you can fun-size this, combo that and, let’s face it, sort of expect sullen service.

Khalid Shaikh was fired from the company he helped create, YouSendIt. Then the cyberattacks started.

The brave new world of privatized postal services.

What happens at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland?

An evangelical Virginia farmer says a revolution against industrial agriculture is just down the road.

A writer goes undercover at a shipping warehouse in Mississippi—and wonders whether Americans will ever demand higher standards for how their Internet purchases are being fulfilled:

We will be fired if we say we just can't or won't get better, the workamper tells me. But so long as I resign myself to hearing how inadequate I am on a regular basis, I can keep this job. 'Do you think this job has to be this terrible?' I ask the workamper.

'Oh, no,' she says, and makes a face at me like I've asked a stupid question, which I have. As if Amalgamated couldn't bear to lose a fraction of a percent of profits by employing a few more than the absolute minimum of bodies they have to, or by storing the merchandise at halfway ergonomic heights and angles. But that would cost space, and space costs money, and money is not a thing customers could possibly be expected to hand over for this service without huffily taking their business elsewhere. Mother Jones | Mac McClelland | Feb, 2012