Newspapers are obsolete—Part 2: Understanding the economy

Insight and influence in the field of macroeconomics are moving away from the mainstream business press and into the blogosphere. This post quotes from a writer for the Columbia Journalism Review (which BTW has its own blog) chastising the mainstream business press for not being more prescient about the current financial crisis. The post goes on to report at length and specifically about the rise of economics blogs, some of which get more than 20,000 daily views. Several of these bloggers explained that they host, read, and comment on economics blogs because the conversation is deeper, more evidence based than sound-bitey, and is a much faster way to thrash through a problem (like what to do about the current financial crisis) with other economists and real-world types. These bloggers' influence is growing, as they are widely read by reporters, government officials, and business people. Meanwhile, the print journalists tend still to limit their reporting to he-said-she-said stories. Thanks to Mark Thoma who brought this story to my attention here.