2014-04-30

Appalling Vanity

Every so often, I read something so revolting that the only thing I can think to do is engage in an act of public shaming by writing about it on my blog.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is what vanity looks like (all emphases mine):
But I see myself, and Mark Thoma, and Brad DeLong, and Mike Konczal, and Simon Wren-Lewis, and a few others as something quite different — as voices in the wilderness. 
Now, you may say that it’s a pretty cushy wilderness — and in my case it definitely is; not just monetarily, but my spot at the Times is a dream gig for many journalists, I have a million Twitter followers, etc. etc. You may also say that there is indeed a choir that hears my preaching — and for sure there is; plenty of liberals read me for reassurance in what they already believed.
But other people also read me — often with distaste, but still they do hear what I say. What I and other econobloggers write is heard at the ECB, the IMF. the European Commission, CBO, the White House, Treasury, and so on. So there is some outreach.
And against all this power of conventional wisdom — which is often, by the way, at odds with basic economic analysis and the preponderance of evidence — you have … a handful of progressive economics bloggers. Some of them — well, mainly me — have prominent perches...
He might be right or he might be wrong, but who can tell from beneath the thick, slimy coating of his all-consuming, overweening vanity?

For shame.

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