Thoughts on my participation

I didn’t know what to call this post since it is about myself, a topic I tend to try to obscure in public for reasons of personality quirks. But I need to open this up for Angry Bear contributors and readers, whom I actually admire and for whom I feel a great respect. I do not say that enough I think. More under the fold for those who want to follow.



I am having medical treatments over the last several months for conditions not life threatening but that leave me dulled both cognitively and in the inner fire necessary to keep a national blog going with quality content. (Also severe headaches sometimes) I know this has carried over to AB in the public arena, but I was minimizing my role and actual joy that I get from AB.

I have not shared this with the Bears for some reason, for which I apologize…my thanks to Ken especially for stepping up to provide content but without the needed background to know what he was stepping up to accomplish. And to Mike for help sorting out some of the ambivalence over the time and energy demands invisible to readers but neccessary to running a blog not simply personal in nature. As an avocation, it is easier to use the blog as part of a business plan or to further professional goals as an economist than to remain an amateur (financial or status incentives removed).

As I get better I can be more focused and wrestle with the balance of contributions between solid economic presentations technical in nature and the more political and social values expressed in the media debates that are at the core of ‘economic thought’ in public discussions. The demands of either tend to have different requirements.

Anyway, it will still take some time to get back up to speed.