Essays & Op-Eds
Offshore Accounts Aren’t for Evading Taxes. They’re for Evading Laws Altogether.
2021, Washington Post
For the wealthiest people in the world, offshore finance provides a way to escape the rule of law—not just taxes, but any laws they find inconvenient. This is why the Pandora Papers includes so many cases of shell companies, trusts and foundations that are not being used for tax avoidance.
Keywords: offshore, Pandora Papers, elites, impunity
The Anti-Vaccine Con Job Is Becoming Untenable
2021, The Atlantic
This article uses the Sociology of fraud–from Goffman’s “On Cooling the Mark Out”–and of reference groups–from Merton’s Social Theory and Social Structure–to explain why many Americans have resisted vaccination, or gotten vaccinated in disguise.
Keywords: COVID-19, sociology of fraud and con artists, Goffman, Cooling the Mark Out, reference groups, Merton
Here’s Why Your Efforts to Convince Anti-Vaxxers Aren’t Working
2021, The Guardian
This article uses the Sociology of reference groups (Merton) and fraud (Goffman) to explain vaccine and mask refusal during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords: pandemic, COVID-19, fraud, Goffman, reference groups, Merton, anti-vaxx, vaccine refusal, mask refusal
How Sociologists Can Battle Covid Denialism
2021, The Chronicle of Higher Education
This article uses reference group theory (Merton), along with Goffman’s theory on the group dynamics of fraud, to explain a variety of puzzling behaviors by Americans during the pandemic: mask and vaccine refusal, vaccination in disguise, and efforts to falsify vital records by omitting COVID-19 as a cause of death.
Keywords: COVID-19, anti-vaxx, mask refusal, vaccine refusal, pandemic, group dynamics, fraud, con artists, reference groups, Goffman, Merton
How to Plan a Research Project
2021, Psyche.co
Planning research projects is a time-honored intellectual exercise: one that requires both creativity and sharp analytical skills. The purpose of this Guide is to make the process systematic and easy to understand. While there is a great deal of freedom and discovery involved – from the topics you choose, to the data and methods you apply – there are also some norms and constraints that obtain, no matter what your academic level or field of study.
Keywords: research planning
The Professionals Who Are Really Not Helping
2021, The Atlantic
An analysis of the misconduct occurring across multiple American professional groups, in historical context, and what professional associations should be doing to stop it.
Keywords: professionals, misconduct, elites
Trump’s Very Ordinary Indifference to the Common Good
2020, The Atlantic
What happened offshore was never going to stay offshore: my grand unified field theory of elite impunity, linking Trump’s tax avoidance to his refusal to follow public health guidelines or uphold his oath of office.
Keywords: tax avoidance, Trump, offshore, elites
Trump’s Tax Avoidance Is a Tax on the Rest of Us
2020, New York Times
An analysis of the New York Times’ exposé on former President Donald Trump’s history of tax avoidance.
Keywords: tax avoidance, Trump, dine and dash
I Almost Lost My Career Because I Had the Wrong Passport
2019, New York Times
How I got caught in Denmark’s ethno-nationalist immigration policy, and what anti-immigrant fervor costs countries–including the US.
Keywords: Denmark, immigration, ethno-nationalism
‘Aristocrats are Anarchists’: Why the Wealthy Back Trump and Brexit
2020, The Guardian
Offshore finance links ultra-nationalists and the ultra-rich in a shared political project: the quest to weaken or dismantle the rule of law internationally.
Keywords: populism, offshore finance, Trump, Brexit
The Bad Behavior of the Richest: What I Learned from Wealth Managers
2018, The Guardian
The ultra-rich and the ultra-poor have a lot more in common than stereotypes might lead you to believe.
Keywords: wealth, poverty, public policy
Yes, Trump’s Cabinet Is Super-Rich. That’s Not Why We Should Be Worried
2017, Washington Post
In 2017, incoming President Donald Trump’s Cabinet was comprised of the ultra-rich, their collective wealth dwarfing that of any other in American history. While money and privilege have been more the rule than the exception in US politics, from George Washington to George W. Bush, Trump’s picks were distinctive in their opposition to the missions of the federal departments they were chosen to lead.
Keywords: elites, Trump cabinet, DeVos, populism, Roosevelt