Grasping Reality with a Sharp Beak
It's hard to imagine J. Bradford DeLong writing Grasping Reality. The blog's form and topics vary widely. At times, the UC Berkeley economics professor is imagining a philosophical dialogue between two narrators. At others, he is deeply investigating complex financial or economic research topics, sharing rough drafts of his course's syllabi, dissecting economic indicators or tearing apart the latest weak and/or dishonest argument that has wandered into the blogosphere. And yet it all comes from the same mind sitting at a computer typing.
But somehow he does it, and the economic blogosphere is that much better for it. Brad DeLong's blog is one of the original economics blogs and has set the standard by which excellence in the space can be judged. It is one part intellectual salon, one part graduate seminar, one part synopsis of the current economic debate and one part fight club. From "Why oh why ..." to the other memes it has created, DeLong has helped define some of the central themes of the economics blogosphere. Grasping Reality is always interesting and highly recommended.
Konczal is a fellow at the liberal think tank Roosevelt Institute and the author of the blog Rortybomb.