Extra dimensions are of interest because string theory, a class of mathematical models based on quantum theory that seeks to describe reality in the most fundamental way, requires that there be at least six of them, maybe more.

ECONOMIST: Cosmology

Economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen took a crack at it in The Theory of the Leisure Class, the 1899 classic that wryly posited the theory of "conspicuous consumption, " his phrase for keeping up with the Joneses.

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Of course there's always Thorstein Veblen's explanation: "conspicuous consumption, " propounded in his 1899 classic, The Theory of the Leisure Class.

FORBES: Money, Happiness And The Pursuit Of Both

Far from being the force for change envisioned by Samuel Huntington and other advocates of modernization theory, the middle class in many young democracies is now actually acting as a brake on change.

FORBES: Emerging World's Middle Class: Crying, 'Stop!'

Therefore we need to come up with a new overarching theory of everything in order to preserve the middle class and thus liberal democracy.

FORBES: Fukuyama's Latest Nonsense and Why Karl Marx Was Right

That theory allows lawyers to bring class actions on behalf of all investors who bought a stock during a given period on the assumption that any misrepresentations are priced into the stock and investors rely on the price when they decide whether or not to buy.

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In a masterly introduction, Mr Rose suggests that recent developments in cultural and critical theory have obscured, or more accurately ignored, the experience of working-class audiences of books, plays and paintings.

ECONOMIST: Cultural history