Friday, July 17, 2009

We Are Sisyphus

UPDATE: Apparently she placed "unknown" and not "23rd." Despite proudly proclaiming 25 winners and five honorable mentions, the list itself is in alphabetical order with no mention of earned rankings. Seriously, can't we get some smart conservatives in the mainstream, somewhere.

Megan is as subtle as ever:

The Wall Street Journal lists the top 25 economics blogs.
Wow, it's like, is she really this passive aggressive or just too stupid to understand how something looks from the outside? Go ahead and say it, dear. We know how proud you are to come in at 23rd place.
Megan McArdle
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/
Originality: 5 light bulbs
Geekiness: 2 calculators
Readability: 4 reading glasses
Megan McArdle doesn't fit the typical profile of an economics blogger: she's a technology project manager-turned-freelance writer, a self-described libertarian who gained prominence when she began blogging about economics and politics under the pseudonym "Jane Galt," a reference to the protagonist of Ayn Rand's popular novel "Atlas Shrugged". She went on to work at the Economist, helping to launch its Free Exchange blog, and since 2007 has maintained her own blog with the Atlantic, gaining widespread media attention in May when she broke the news that New York Times reporter Edmund Andrews's wife had previously filed twice for bankruptcy – a fact he neglected to mention in his tell-all book "Busted," about his family's foreclosure and financial struggles.
Quibble: Ms. McArdle's libertarian views mean her blog -- and her take on policy issues -- can be fairly predictable, undercutting the audience her work actually merits.
I'm not sure where the praise in this review is, other than the implication that her audience should be larger. I also don't understand how one gets 5 light bulbs for being original yet is "fairly predictable." Oh well, I'll leave that for the geniuses at the WSJ. Maybe they can also tell us when the economics part of her blog happens and why we should care if her single accomplishment is to find out that someone who was obviously an ass has a wife who went bankrupt twice.

With friends like those, she don't need us.

4 comments:

clever pseudonym said...

I figured Megan made that list of the top 25 economics blogs because there only are 25 economics blogs total and they wouldn't have full list unless they threw her in.

Way to showcase your modesty, Megan.

bulbul said...

Technology. Project. Manager.

Wow.

That explains a lot. Like, all of it.

Ken Houghton said...

What bulbul Said.

Strangely, Angrybear--where we do original research--only got 3 light bulbs, while McMegan, who posts links she doesn't understand and discusses them, got 5.

I would subtly suggest there is some political bias in the ratings, but that would be cruel.

Zac said...

Two "quibbles":

No Ritholtz, no Roubini, in my book that means the list sucks.

She's not #23; the rankings are in alphabetical order and there are half a dozen "econ*" blogs. She might be #25, might be #1 (fat chance).

And Ken, if you're implying that there might be some sort of right-leaning slant at the WSJ, aw, geddouttahere!