- by New Deal democrat
Some months ago another progressive blogger took a shot at us because some very un-progressive bloggers are on our blog list. And both Bonddad and I have written some very pointed criticism of some of Mish's posts. So, here's why Mish, and Mark Perry, and Scott Grannis (Calafia Beach Pundit) are on the blog list.
The blog list is designed to enable you to use this page as a jumping off point to read most if not all of the interesting economic and investing commentary that is published in any given day. Check in two or three times a day and you can tell very quickly if some good commentary on a point of interest to you has been written. In fact, that's exactly what I do.
Mish is on that list because when he's writing actual data-digging commentary as opposed to gold-buggery or anti-union screeds, he makes me think. For example, this morning there's a good post up comparing commodity indexes with a variety of other indexes. Even if I disagree with his conclusions (which is probably at least 80% of the time), I have to think about why. His posts on the employment to population ratio are very good examples. He ignores Boomer retirements and has never acknowledged the Cleveland Fed and JP Morgan(?) studies. But unless and until you believe you can refute his arguments, they should be thought about seriously. That's a very worthwhile process.
Similarly if Mark Perry or Scott Grannis simply regurgitates some Heritage Foundation talking points, it takes 2 seconds to click away. But both bloggers have been data driven, and optimistic about the economy, for several years. When world trade fully recovered and exceeded its pre-recession levels, nobody else noticed. But they did. As energy exploration in North Dakota started to impact US energy import levels, nobody else noticed. But they did. In short, they are the perfect antitode to permabears.
If you haven't clicked on any of those blog updates that scroll down throughout the day on the right hand side of the page, you really ought to try some out.
