Manifesto in Q&A

1. Why a blog?

I love this stuff, and I'm hoping to engage with a wider audience about things that I find fascinating and that I care about.

I am additionally hoping this blog will serve as a catalyst helping me formulate my ideas and idealism. Writing helps me think. I'm hoping that keeping a blog will help me keep thinking.

A blog is also a unique opportunity for dialogue. Ideally this will provide a platform for a broad range of ideas exchanged in good faith.

2. Who is this for?

My goal is to write from a point of view and in a language that everyone can understand and find relevant, from policymakers to my grandmother to knee-jerk conservatives. I will fail in this at times.

3. What are your goals?

Facilitate clear-headed (but not too clear-headed) understanding of economics and political economy.
Be explicit about definitions and assumptions and avoid getting lost therein.
Foster dialogue.
Avoid polemics and maintain respect.
Convey my own fascination.
Build and share my own body of economic knowledge.
Ideas are powerful because they can impact society. Changing ideas may eventually, in little or big ways, change the world.

4. Aren't lots of people already blogging about economics? Are you trying to reinvent the wheel?

Yes and, well, yes. Or rather, I am trying to take apart the wheel and reassemble it in a way that helps me understand why it runs and how it might spin better. I may not arrive at any profound and universal (let alone new or undiscovered) truths, like 3.14159 or the fact that all points on the wheel should be equidistant from the center, but I hope that with a bit of diligence and your help I will at least figure out how to tell the spokes from the tires.

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