James McAndrews and Simon Potter
Since the launch of the Liberty Street Economics blog in March 2011, our economists have published more than eighty-five posts on a range of issues such as financial sector reform, the global role of the dollar, the federal debt ceiling, and the U.S.-China trade imbalance. The reception we’ve received from our readers suggests that the blog is a success. We’re pleased to see a wide range of visitors read, comment on, and share our work—even when it’s delivered occasionally with a “wonk alert.”
Still, in keeping with the nature of a blog, we aim for accessibility, and we work to distill ideas typically addressed in academic seminars or journal articles to their most readable. A recent example is our most popular post to date—Gauti Eggertsson’s look at how fears of inflation did, and could still, trigger an ill-timed policy response. (See our most-viewed posts below.)
In the spirit of accessibility, we’ve taken several steps over the past few months to enhance Liberty Street Economics. We’ve introduced newsier “Just Released” posts to offer a quick take on newly published economic data or to preview key questions arising for policymakers now. And our research librarians have developed the intriguing “Historical Echoes” thread, a crowd favorite.
Most recently, we’ve relaxed our comment policy. Effective immediately, you’ll have a full week to comment on a new post and you’ll no longer have to register with TypeKey or TypePad to do so. Of course, comments will still be moderated, and they should be on point. As in the past, we won’t necessarily answer every one—but our economist-bloggers are generous with their time and welcome the opportunity to share an exchange with you.
In addition, most of our posts will go up earlier in the day, around 7 a.m. New York time. We’re also adding new features such as a tag cloud to help you better navigate our archive, a streamlined sharing functionality, and two Twitter feeds: @LibertyStEcon to track the blog and @NYFedResearch to provide a wider range of information on all of our work.
Your comments, questions, and patterns of sharing our posts continue to generate new insights for us—we thank you and continue to encourage such active participation. Your response assures us that our decision to blog was a good one.
Top Economic Posts
- “Commodity Prices and the Mistake of 1937:
Would Modern Economists Make the Same Mistake?” - “Have Consumers Been Deleveraging?”
- “How Easy Is It to Forecast Commodity Prices?”
- “The Vanishing U.S.-E.U. Employment Gap”
- “How Well Do Financial Markets Separate News from Noise?
Evidence from an Internet Blooper”
Top “Historical Echoes” Post
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors.