Happy Thanksgiving and Thanks to Readers

This is week is Thanksgiving in the USA. As usual, I’m spending it with my family in Alabama.

This year I wanted to take a minute to say a sincere “thank you” to my readers. I appreciate that you take time to read my column. I appreciate everyone who signed up as a paid subscriber to support my work. And I appreciate all the feedback.

The feedback is important for me to improve. It’s also very valuable for me to hear what you are interested in. Please continue to send questions about current economic issues that interest you, debates you hear, or just (economic) things you are curious about. Everyone’s watching different news and thinking about different aspects of our collective economic situation today. Send me your thoughts. Send me your questions.

The feedback has also been helpful to confirm what other writers also say. Eventually, you learn to just be yourself and write. When I do, those columns seem to be the most popular and I get the most feedback.

I will continue to experiment, however. The problem is that I am a professor and I get long. The pieces I most enjoy are those when I hit a topic and mix in explanations of economic concepts so that I’m sure everyone’s following. People seem to like those the most. But they get long.

When I started, I was aiming for the 800 word limit most opinion pieces have. Today, most of my columns average around 3,000 words. Some people have told me they like the longer pieces. A few comment, “great piece, but a little long”. I agree.

So, I’ll try to vary it up. Perhaps I’ll do periodic longer pieces and aim for other, more regular content, that’s shorter. I’d like to provide both over time.

Finally, I do not want to be political and do not want to be a doomsayer. I don’t want to just complain. I am exploring topics and digging into them, but I don’t just want to criticize all the time. Two friends recently told me independently that they enjoy the columns but they depressing. I was feeling the same.

So I’ll make a conscious effort to mix in more positive columns. I’m working on two now. One of them will also be along the lines of an idea I have to cover a unique economic development issue in the world from time to time. I want these to be economic focused but also have something that gives us all a little hope in humanity and hope for the future.

After all, the problems come and go, but the world is an amazing place. The overwhelming story we need to remember is that, today, more people than at any time in history have been lifted out of poverty and suffering. And there is every reason in the world to think that will continue. That is truly something to be thankful for. Let’s not lose site of it.

Thank you all again for reading. I truly appreciate it.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Chris