Baffling the consensus since 1988, this journal seeks to debunk the ideology of the free market and to drive public discourse in literate and humane directions. Issues contain thundering anti-business salvos from the sharpest minds, as well as poetry, literature, and satirical art. Contributions for The Baffler No. 20 (The High, the Low, the Vibrant!) include Thomas Frank on creative-class visions of vibrancy, Steve Almond on the postideological pantomiming of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, Eugenia Williamson on the narrative conventions of NPR's This American Life, Matt Hinton on the big bucks in the world of college sports, and Jim Newell on the fraudster Adam Wheeler, who faked his way into Harvard. The Head Office This Cradle Won’t Rock John Summers Salvos Dead End on Shakin’ Street Thomas Frank Cash-and-Carry Aesthetics Jed Perl The Joke’s on Presenting ... The Daily Show and The Colbert Report Steve Almond Class on TV Heather Havrilesky Oh, the Pathos! Presenting ... This American Life Eugenia Williamson Accountants for The Pew Charitable Trusts David D’Arcy The Dollar Debauch Dilemmas of the Rentier Class Chris Lehmann Into the Infinite The Threshold of Joy Kim Phillips-Fein Notes & Quotes The Head Office Kurt Tucholsky Daniel’s Dictionary Daniel Aaron Maze of Doom Tod Mesirow A Bad Day in Brooklyn Emma Garman Studies in Total Depravity Party of Barack Obama’s annoying journey to the center of belonging Chris Bray Adam Wheeler Went to Harvard Jim Newell Billionaire Epitaph for the student-athlete Matt Hinton Stories Lancelot Gomes Manohar Shetty Mr. Secondhand Manohar Shetty Bhutas Saskya Jain Memoir Delusional Parasitosis and Me Will Boisvert Poems Faulty Logic Alan Gilbert Kingdom and Kingdom 2 (a poetics) Rae Armantrout The Back Country Geoffrey O’Brien Tranche I and Tranche II Joshua Clover Projecting Love Forrest Gander The City Mouse and the Country Mouse Susan Stewart One Way Matthea Harvey The Blackest Black Forest John Yau Green Gallows for the Wall Street Bankers The Homeless Economist Remainders Simone de Beauvoir’s Les Belles Images Seth Colter Walls Ancestors Life and Times of a Libertine Christopher Lasch