I began blogging for EconLog in 2005. I hadn’t even published my first book, but Liberty Fund took a chance on me and made me a regular blogger. After seventeen years and thousands of blog posts, I’m supremely grateful to Liberty Fund, my fellow bloggers, and of course you, dear EconLog readers.
Starting on March 1, however, I have accepted a position running an all-new blog, Bet On It, hosted by the Salem Center for Policy at the University of Texas. I will be the chief blogger as well as the editor. As you may know, I’ve spent about four months of Covid as a visiting scholar at the University of Texas. It’s been a great home away from home, thanks to Executive Director Carlos Carvalho. And since the Salem Center is energetically expanding, this was a natural move. Part of the deal is that I’ll continue to spend several weeks in Austin every year – and work with Salem to recruit other visiting scholars, hold public events, and much more.
The upshot is that this will be my last week as an EconLog blogger. I sincerely hope you all keep following EconLog, but I’m also hoping that you’ll add Bet on It to your regular reading. The thousands of posts I’ve written for EconLog since 2005 will of course remain in the Archives. And Liberty Fund and I plan to continue working together on other projects. But February 28, I’ll post my last piece for EconLog. Starting March 1, expect all of my new blog posts to appear on Bet On It.
The format for Bet On It is still evolving. Since I run the website, I will have full power to respond to your suggestions and requests. If the blog is perfect on day 1, please let me know. Otherwise, though, please let us know how to craft the look and functionality to your liking. Dwarkesh Patel, a great and enthusiastic programmer, is helping me out – and there’s little he can’t do. (Check out our podcast interview). The designer is @sengsavane, the artist who is also did the book cover for Labor Econ Versus the World.
When I joined EconLog in 2005, it really was a different era. Though the War on Terror was ongoing, the world looked brighter to me.
Intellectually, while the economics profession continued to be mired in dull-yet-technical dead ends, there was still a strong consensus against the biases I criticize in The Myth of the Rational Voter: anti-market bias, anti-foreign bias, make-work bias, and pessimistic bias. Although the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy has never been redone, I have little doubt that less rational people are gradually taking over the profession. Even correcting for my own pessimistic bias, more younger economists than ever really do seem like they never learned the economic way of thinking. A shocking share of top research is mere causal inference with no economic reasoning to guide it. And most new Ph.D.s are casually woke at heart. They’re oblivious to economics’ multi-century war on Social Desirability Bias and demagoguery. Earlier generations of left-leaning economists spent a lot of energy curtailing the left’s excesses. By and large, the latest generation of left-leaning economist is now part of the left’s excesses.
Politically, while the rationalist and libertarian ideals that I cherish were never close to dominant, the landscape still looked markedly better in 2005. With the collapse of the Soviet bloc still recent, socialism remained beyond the pale where it belongs. And at least in the U.S., free-market economics seemed to have a place at the table. George W. Bush even called for quite radical deregulation of immigration, albeit with little persistence. Putin did not yet seem like the dictator of Russia. China still looked like it was liberalizing. Globally, it was not yet obvious that after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, political progress was practically over. I never thought the War on Terror would end successfully or even smoothly, but the rise of the ISIS and the return of the Taliban startled me. And while I was not shocked by the Covid pandemic – far worse plagues have happened before – I remain horrified by the reaction. In 2005, I would have predicted a shutdown of two weeks before life roughly returned to normal. So far, I’m off by a factor of fifty.
Despite economic and political decay, we have enjoyed continuing economic and technological progress. But continuing economic and technological progress was just what I expected when EconLog started. I’m grateful for what we got. My optimism was on-target. Yet even there, I can’t help but muse that if telework technologies had developed more slowly, the Covid moral panic would have ended long ago.
The good news: By the power of selective non-conformism, you can live a good life even when your society and subculture are in decline. Since 2005, I’ve focused ever more strongly on doing the kind of work that means the world to me. I’ve written big books of big ideas. I’ve spoken to audiences all over the world. I’ve even published a successful graphic novel, with more to come. And I’ve blogged the topics that matter to me, while steering clear of ephemera. It was the path of selective non-conformism that brought me to spend so much Covid time in Texas, which in turn inspired my new project with UT’s Salem Center. As I keep saying, self-help is like a vaccine. It works if tried.
Liberty Fund has treated me extremely well over the years. Extremely well. I’d especially like to thank my long-term co-blogger David Henderson, who joined in 2008, and Director Amy Willis. What fine people! It’s been my privilege to work with them, and with the whole EconLog team.
Soon after I started blogging, Tyler Cowen joked, “You’re not really a blogger.” His point: Unlike most of the competition, I wasn’t reacting to the latest news or whatever’s hot. My goal as a blogger has always been to write think-pieces that stand the test of time. I hope I’ve done that during my seventeen years at EconLog. At my new blog, starting March 1, I plan to stay the course. Bet on it!
READER COMMENTS
RSS Lover
Feb 21 2022 at 10:41am
The new site seems to be missing an RSS feed–or, indeed, any method of subscribing to updates at all.
Nathan Taylor
Feb 22 2022 at 9:01am
Yes, if you can turn on an RSS feed on the new site, that would help us old school people who still use it to track writers.
The number of people using RSS has decreased greatly, but I suspect (hope?) that those who read using RSS are power readers, who often comment or write themselves, and as such are exactly the kind you most want to attract.
Thomas L. Knapp
Feb 21 2022 at 10:42am
Sad to see you go, but best wishes in your new digs (which I’ll also visit regularly).
Thomas L. Knapp
Feb 21 2022 at 10:46am
First imperfection alert for Bet On It: Unless Inoreader is missing them AND someone at the new place forgot to stick links in there for them, there aren’t any RSS feeds.
Jonathan S
Feb 21 2022 at 1:47pm
+1 on RSS not working for the new blog url
Pablo
Feb 22 2022 at 10:10am
I came here just to say this. Bryan, please add an RSS feed!
Boris
Feb 21 2022 at 10:46am
Does the new blog have an RSS or Atom feed? I’m not finding it so far, which makes it hard to follow it.
Oscar Cunningham
Feb 21 2022 at 10:47am
Please add an RSS feed or similar to the new blog.
Christophe Biocca
Feb 21 2022 at 10:56am
Your new blog has 8 or so sample posts that probably came with the template, but weren’t removed when you started adding your own. They start in 3rd position on the archive page.
KevinDC
Feb 21 2022 at 11:18am
Bryan,
I’m sad to see you leave EconLog, but also very glad to know your writings will continue. Your writings have had a significant influence on my own thinking. Back in 2007, I was getting ready to move from California to North Carolina, and had a drive of several days ahead of me. My books had all been packed up by the moving company, so before heading out I went to the bookstore to find some reading material for my stops while I trekked across the continent. I picked out two that day – one was Stephen Pinker’s The Blank Slate, and the other was The Myth of the Rational Voter. I found your book truly eye-opening, and have appreciated all of your insights since that day. Though I can often by critical of you here in the comments, it’s always in the spirit of seeing you as an insightful thinker whose ideas are worth engaging, as someone who deserves something better than veneration – respect. I look forward to your future work!
Chris
Feb 21 2022 at 11:26am
I’ll be the fourth call for an RSS or Atom feed. Without one, there’s no reasonable way for me to follow. The archive links appear to be broken, too.
rss
Feb 21 2022 at 12:15pm
To echo the others, you HAVE to add an RSS feed. I use Feedly to follow blogs such as yours – and it can’t handle the new site in its present state.
Peter
Feb 21 2022 at 12:17pm
Just a quick one, on your other site add an RSS feed
Scott Sumner
Feb 21 2022 at 12:19pm
Good luck in your new venture. You will be greatly missed.
CSK
Feb 21 2022 at 12:40pm
A huge loss for EconLog, but I look forward to following your new work at Bet On It.
Todd Kreider
Feb 21 2022 at 12:54pm
Good luck!
Oh, and have fun.
Dan
Feb 21 2022 at 1:19pm
Please make sure Bet On It has an RSS feed! I’ve spent the last few years following your blog here via RSS and it would be a shame to lose that.
Aaron Stewart
Feb 21 2022 at 1:40pm
A bunch of people mentioned the lack of RSS feed. RSS is how I get updates from your EconLog blog.
Please set up RSS so that we can filter based on the author. If EconLog didn’t allow this, I wouldn’t be subscribed right now — I get enough spam.
As long as that’s resolved, I look forward to the change!
jseliger
Feb 21 2022 at 1:58pm
Please include an RSS feed with the new blog, if possible.
Steve Winkler
Feb 21 2022 at 2:34pm
Best of luck in this new adventure! I’m looking forward to what comes next.
Joshua Woods
Feb 21 2022 at 2:36pm
Thanks for all the great writing you’ve delivered here. Will definitely follow the new site. I’ve followed since 2012 and have always wondered about your policy on blog comments, I know you don’t often reply which I respect as a quality of life measure but perhaps a “comment of the month” or upvotes/downvotes would be a nice addition to make commenting feel a bit more engaging.
TGGP
Feb 21 2022 at 4:39pm
I remember when it was just you & Arnold Kling. I disagreed with Kling a lot (why did he want to “push” PSST? what was the evidence for it?), but he was more interesting than mere boilerplate libertarianism. I took EconLog out of my RSS feed once most of the posts were from the newer co-bloggers, but would still visit regularly to read you, and I was already reading Scott Sumner regularly before he joined. This is not quite one of those death-of-blogging moments but it is the end of a long run that introduced me to my current favorite blogger (Robin Hanson). The bright side is that I’ll be able to add your RSS feed once you have one.
Colin Steitz
Feb 21 2022 at 7:48pm
Simply put, thanks for being a part of my learning.
Colin
Phil H
Feb 21 2022 at 8:56pm
“more younger economists than ever really do seem like they never learned the economic way of thinking…most new Ph.D.s are casually woke…the latest generation of left-leaning economist is now part of the left’s excesses.”
Crusty old man alert! The world is getting better, but somehow all the people in it are getting worse? Very curious…
Still, the new blog sounds very interesting, and I will go and check it out.
RPLong
Feb 21 2022 at 9:55pm
What a loss to EconLog! You’ll be sorely missed. Keep up the good work that you do, and best of luck.
David Seltzer
Feb 22 2022 at 5:56am
Bryan, Good luck on your new venture. Following your blog, I’ve learned to think a bit more like an economist. I found the real learning came from the nuances of fundamental principles.
Thomas Strenge
Feb 22 2022 at 1:49pm
All the best on your new gig. But my queue is full, so don’t bet on me following you at a new blog. But I’ll keep buying your books!
ee
Feb 22 2022 at 8:48pm
One of my favorite things that you do is you link back to previous related pieces. This helps build a fuller case that is digestible (per each post) and consistent.
An apology: I generally only comment when I disagree. But I swear I’m a big fan! Good luck with the new blog, will follow.
Frederik Marain
Feb 27 2022 at 4:53am
betonit.blog -> “Server not Found”
Frederik Marain
Feb 28 2022 at 5:23am
Fixed. Thank you. Looking forward to it.
Ken P
Feb 28 2022 at 7:36pm
I’ve enjoyed reading you here and I’m sure will enjoy reading you at your new location.
BTW, someone gifted me your book, Open Borders a few days ago. Love it!
Comments are closed.