It was one year ago today, back on October 14, 2008, when Jason Debacker and I started this blog. The first post on Econosseur.com was entitled, "Who is to blame for the crisis? Supply and demand approach". As of the writing of this post today, we have had 39,069 visitors. Jason and I wanted to thank all of you who have read our commentary, suggested ideas, or given constructive criticism in the comments. We love the forum.
Below are some of the highlights from the last year.
Below are some of the highlights from the last year.
1) The post that generated the most visits and the most comments was definitely "On Economic Debate--the ad hominem index" (June 30, 2009). This post was a simple analysis of the logical argument styles employed by the two main thought leaders in the blogosphere regarding the economic justification for the Administration's fiscal stimulus proposals--Greg Mankiw and Paul Krugman. I simply showed how Paul Krugman regularly employed ad hominem attacks in the arguments for his policy position, while Greg Mankiw would go out of his way to highlight the strengths in his opponents arguments in addition to precisely criticizing the points on which he disagreed. Mankiw posted a link to my post on his blog, and the debate seemed to move to the comments section of my post because Mankiw's blog does not allow comments. I would highly recommend reading the comments section of my post for many examples of ad hominem arguments. The irony.
2) The next most popular post was entitled, "NCAA Bowl FInance: Something Changed in 1995" (July 6, 2009). This post got picked up by a number of sources (e.g., ESPN.com and The Orlando Sentinel). This post touched on a sensitive topic for fans of both BCS and non-BCS football schools, which made the comments very fun.
3) The most popular page on Econosseur.com is our economic jokes page. Jason and I have been posting economic jokes on this blog since it began because economics is a subject that often takes itself too seriously. In a Google search of the term "economic jokes", our jokes page regularly comes up in the top five hits. Please send us any good economic jokes or funny economic happenings, and we'll probably post them.
4) Lastly, this blog was born out of the global financial crisis that started in the second half of 2008. The biggest topic that Jason and I have blogged about is still in the "business cycles, recessions, bubbles" category with 76 posts to date.
Thanks again to all of you who have followed, contributed, commented, and suggested. Economics is an interesting and far reaching field that provides a framework for trying to answer many of the world's important questions. Here's to another year of Econosseur.com.
2) The next most popular post was entitled, "NCAA Bowl FInance: Something Changed in 1995" (July 6, 2009). This post got picked up by a number of sources (e.g., ESPN.com and The Orlando Sentinel). This post touched on a sensitive topic for fans of both BCS and non-BCS football schools, which made the comments very fun.
3) The most popular page on Econosseur.com is our economic jokes page. Jason and I have been posting economic jokes on this blog since it began because economics is a subject that often takes itself too seriously. In a Google search of the term "economic jokes", our jokes page regularly comes up in the top five hits. Please send us any good economic jokes or funny economic happenings, and we'll probably post them.
4) Lastly, this blog was born out of the global financial crisis that started in the second half of 2008. The biggest topic that Jason and I have blogged about is still in the "business cycles, recessions, bubbles" category with 76 posts to date.
Thanks again to all of you who have followed, contributed, commented, and suggested. Economics is an interesting and far reaching field that provides a framework for trying to answer many of the world's important questions. Here's to another year of Econosseur.com.
Congrats guys!
I know I check often!