For several years now, Mike Moffatt has been running the economics page at About.com, as well as writing a blog to which I've linked repeatedly. He has decided to move on to other projects, but he'd like to keep blogging.
Nick and I would also like him to keep blogging, so we are very pleased to welcome Mike to WCI. His first post should appear shortly.
It will be interesting to see if someone else gets the whole too much currency denominated debt "thing".
Posted by: Too Much Fed | March 20, 2010 at 01:14 AM
I've read Mike on and off for a few years, I can't recall him ever using the word 'debt,' so you may be disappointed, Fed
Posted by: Declan | March 20, 2010 at 04:00 AM
According to Google I've used the term 'debt' 235 times. To put that in perspective, I've used the term 'marijuana' 2,640 times and 'Pigou' 259 times, so that should provide some indication of where my preferences lie.
I'm delighted that Stephen and Nick have added me to the team. Glad to be on board!
Posted by: Mike Moffatt | March 20, 2010 at 12:24 PM
Welcome aboard Mike! Looking forward to your first post.
Posted by: Nick Rowe | March 20, 2010 at 12:37 PM
"I've used the term 'marijuana' 2,640 times"
haha nice. Can we get a post on this? It's probably the single most popular economic issue in Canada, if Harper's youtube town hall thing is any indication.
Really, is there any non-politician in Canada who is actually opposed to legalization and taxation? I don't think I've ever actually met a single Canadian of any political orientation who is against it. They either don't care or are all for it.
Posted by: bob | March 20, 2010 at 02:54 PM
Bob - I think there's more people opposed (who would come out of the woodwork once any move towards legalization was announced) than you might think. They don't care at the moment, because they don't see a change happening. Still, aside from that, I agree with you 100%.
Mike - I tried a google search for 'debt' within your blog url and got 108 results (using deficit as well or searching the whole site will get you more hits). Clicking on the first 20 hits (yes, I have too much time on my hands, why do you ask?), you used the word debt twice, you quoted people using it 3 times, and 15 times it was used in the comments. Extrapolating, this suggests you yourself have used the word debt 11 times in almost 7 years of blogging (you've been at this a long time!). Nick's probably used the word debt 11+ times in a single post on more than one occasion!
Not that it matters, there's nothing wrong with someone who blogs more about pigou and pot than debt, I was just letting Too Much Fed know that he/she was going to be disappointed if he/she was hoping for you to turn out to be a Steve Keen or Mish type...
Posted by: Declan | March 20, 2010 at 05:20 PM
"Mike - I tried a google search for 'debt' within your blog url and got 108 results (using deficit as well or searching the whole site will get you more hits)."
That would be the difference - I did the entire URL.
When I started at About, there were a handful of economics sites and maybe only 3 or 4 economics 'blogs' (and I don't think anyone called them that back then). Marginal Revolution didn't exist, EconLog started a couple months after I joined About, Greg Mankiw wasn't blogging yet, etc. etc.
The funny thing is, I was the *second* Economics Guide at About. I replaced John Irons (who later went on to create Argmax.com) who was the Economics Guide from 1997-2002.
Posted by: Mike Moffatt | March 20, 2010 at 05:33 PM
Nice to see Worthwhile is expanding! Welcome to Mike.
Posted by: David | March 21, 2010 at 11:48 AM