“The 25 Best Financial Blogs”

Time Magazine has developed a list of best financial blogs. Naked Capitalism is on the list, as are the other usual suspects plus some names readers might find surprising.

Each blog gets a mini-review. Ours is here; we also reviewed The Big Picture.

The full list:

Business Insider
Grasping Reality with a Sharp Beak
Econbrowser
Rortybomb
Dealbreaker
Paul Kedrosky
The Wealth Report
WalletPop
Naked Capitalism
Real Time Economics
Megan McArdle
DealBook
Street Sweep
Free Exchange
Economix
The Big Picture
Zero Hedge
Planet Money
Ezra Klein
The Consumerist
Freakonomics
Calculated Risk
Marginal Revolution
Felix Salmon
The Conscience of a Liberal

Read more:

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57 comments

  1. Shacklett

    This would suggest that there are *only* 25 financial blogs in existence.

    Otherwise, there’s no way McAddle could be on the list.

  2. attempter

    Congrats, although Time characteristically gets it wrong.

    This:

    If only more regulators would read Smith’s blog, the country would be better for it.

    is already proven wrong. The important thing is that more and more non-rich people read it.

    On that note, I’ll chuck in this quote I saved a few days ago, not sure what I was going to do with it:

    To take an extreme example, most opinion writers would surely happily sacrifice a million pageviews for the sake of being read by Barack Obama.

    http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/03/04/frank-rich-vs-the-nyt-paywall/

    How absurd is that? Is he really so delusional that he thinks Obama would do anything but furrow his brow with confusion, or else laugh?

    Anybody who understands what’s happening and cares about it is trying to speak directly to the people, and cares nothing about an “elite” audience, since we all know the elites are incorrigible and can never be reached.

    A few years ago The Oil Drum admitted that it had been all wrong in its original hopes that it would serve to “educate the elite”. In their wildest hopes they dreamed of being summoned to Washington as Energy Secretaries and such.

    But they admitted they had been delusional, that never had any chance of happening, and they were now just going to focus on educating the people.

    1. readerOfTeaLeaves

      But they admitted they had been delusional, that never had any chance of happening, and they were now just going to focus on educating the people.

      (sputtering…)
      “Just”?!

      I think that ‘just’ is not justified.
      Think how complicated a lot of this finance stuff is made out to be — never in my wildest dreams did I know about, or care about, MERS, CDSs, and a variety of other acronyms.

      I think the task of educating ‘the public’ (ie, people like myself, with a mighty sense of outrage and disbelief, but zero background or prior interest in ‘finance’) is really an uphill challenge.
      And a steep uphill at that.

      Wall Street wants us all to believe that it’s inscrutable, rocket science, or impossibly complicated and our wee little minds can’t possibly take it in. Breaking it into manageable pieces, staying on the topics and explaining the relationships among is more than ‘just’ a simple thing ;-)

      Besides, the policy makers and DoJ have so completely dropped the balls that I regard them as nearly useless in addressing the kind of fundamental restructuring that needs to happen. In a networked world, educating ‘the people’ is probably the toughest job, but the one with the biggest long term payoff.

      Simple or easy, it ain’t.

        1. readerOfTeaLeaves

          Ah. My apologies; I misread you this time ;-)

          It did seem odd, given your extensive commenting; it surprised me to think you meant ‘merely’, but I’m clear now that was not your intention. Thx for graciously clarifying.

          Best, rOTL

    2. LeeAnne

      Alex Jones readers and listeners are going through the roof. Admittedly wacky, but so be it. He gets the job done. Speaking directly to the public; hysterically, emotionally, bombastically. He also supports extreme right wing candidates and political positions; but that’s immaterial in this context. Nobody’s politics matter. If he were more politically sophisticated he wouldn’t mention politics at all; it just gets in the way of his unique message which is that corporate powers are enemies of people everywhere, have reached a critically dangerous mass against Americans, and not satisfied with getting into everyone’s head with propaganda, they’re now in our pants.

      1. ZOG Dude

        Hey LeeAnne the Trilateral Commission maded this list during Bilderberg, afterwards they all had sex with space alien prostitutes from Roswell using the gold from 7 WTC to pay them.

  3. duffolonious

    Megan McArdle? Seriously? I’ve seen so many people rip her to shreds that I’ve completely ignored her.

    Is she another example of nepotism? Like Bill Kristol.

    1. Procopius

      Basically yes, although not quite as blatant. Her old man was an inspector of contracting in New York City. He got surprisingly rich. From that he went to starting his own contracting business. He got surprisingly rich. Then he went back to New York City in an even higher level supervisory job. He got surprisingly rich. So Megan went to good schools and had her daddy’s network of influential “friends” to help her with her “job search” when she graduated. Of course, she’s no dummy, and did a professional job of networking with all the “right” people she met at school, too.

  4. Tertium Squid

    By the way Yves, thanks for using a nondescript pseudonym like “Smith”. I spent many months thinking “Maxine Udall” was a near relative.

    1. Paul Repstock

      That was a very good analysis John. The system is broken as much as the people involved. I couldn’t comment on your blog because I won’t register with Google.

      I think it is worthy of reposting here, atleast a synopsis.

  5. sgt_doom

    There are really stooges and rubes around who actually read Time magazine?????

    Amazing…..

    1. Bill

      I tell everyone I know to read Yves. Everything she writes she writes well. I know I am reading the truth when I read Yves. She has trained my mind to spot dishonesty and half truths in the msm. Thanks Yves.

  6. Fraud Guy

    Congratulations to Yves!

    To me, the key point about her contribution to financial journalism is that she’s out-reporting and out-analyzing the WSJ day after day. I still struggle with the question of whether organs like the WSJ were always pathetically shallow, and we just didn’t know until the web gave us a portal into serious coverage by knowledgeable insiders. Or is it that the WSJ and its ilk are the once fallen mighty, now so denuded of resources that some lady in her pajamas can outdo them daily.

    The answer is some of each, I suspect.

    1. Procopius

      I wonder too. I always heard the WSJ was a great newspaper; conservative in its editorial stance, but the best factual reporting on the business world available anywhere. I’ve only really noticed it since Rupert bought it, but it’s “news” stories don’t seem very accurate to me, and seem to include a lot of editorial opinion. Something like Fox News, in fact. Just sayin’.

      1. Nathanael

        WSJ broke the Enron story, and the Worldcom scandal.

        Those were their last two great pieces of inveestigative reporting; since then it’s been crap.

        But back in the 80s and 90s they actually did really good work — they were must-reads for anyone trying to keep track of corporate malfeasance, as they broke major criminal scandals on a regular basis.

        They stopped their investigative reporting a few years BEFORE selling out to Murdoch.

        The editorial page was always shit, of course.

  7. Random Blowhard

    Fraud Guy – There is another alternative, their corporate owners are deliberately engaging in Goebells propaganda in order to advance the agenda of Wall Street.

  8. Anon

    Agree with Random – the “analysis” offered by right-wing plutocrats and their favored pundits in the financial media is shallow by design.

  9. armchair

    I wonder if Roubini has any tinge of regret for effectively taking his site out of circulation (money and/or membership required)?

  10. Tertium Squid

    I was considering twitting you guys out for fnur-fnurring Megan McCardle, but just now I read this on her blog:

    “right now, it is very hard to fire teachers, and many schools are very bad. It’s worth trying whatever we’re not doing.”

    corporal punishment?
    decimation?

    1. Procopius

      Corporal punishment is out of favor here, but rote memorization seems to work pretty well in Thailand. Of course, parents here complain about how bad the schools are, too. I’ll bet they do in Finland, as well.

    2. attempter

      It’s worth trying whatever we’re not doing.

      Like actually educating human beings to help them reach their full human potential, instead of churning out serviceable, commodified corporate cogs?

      Naw…

  11. gruntled

    Congratulations, Yves. This is one of the best financial blogs, with or without the recognition of MSM.

  12. Deus-DJ

    “Best” standing for most popular. Yves gets as much credit as she does for undeniably being on top of current predicaments moreso than anyone else out there. But make no mistake, this is not a list of the “best” blogs, but the most popular ones.

  13. PrincetonAl

    They left off Mike Shedlock, one of the most prolific and iconoclastic bloggers out there, and whose traffic is greater than a number of these blogs combined, is an indication of an interesting selection process.

    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

    Traffic doesn’t equal best … but Mike presents his own non-mainstream views that gets trafficked by billionaires and the common man alike, that offer very prescient advice to investors while dealing with a broader range of financial issues than just investing.

    I admire his intellectual honesty and willingness to call it as he sees it, critical of many things financial, and to be willing to call bubbles early and often makes him an invaluable resource.

    1. wunsacon

      Agreed.

      Obviously, the reporters at Time know how to look up blog statistics. So, why do some names appear ahead of Mish?

      I have a couple of suspicions:

      (a) They don’t want to stack the list with too many people like Mish and Denninger who (like Yves) keep yelling “fraud” or present other non-orthodox views.

      (b) Time’s a business. Perhaps there’s a reason to cross-recommend some of your frenemies and potential dealmates.

    2. Peripheral Visionary

      Certainly the most glaring omission–his volume of readership and comments is several times that of many of the other blogs listed. He is not at all popular in many fashionable circles, but that doesn’t change the reality of his reach. Probably the most-read libertarian blog out there, which these days is saying something.

  14. HarrisonBergeron

    Agreed, Mish should be on that list, I don’t always agree with his take on things but I have learned volumes from his site.

  15. Paul Repstock

    You ill always be “Yves” to me. No matter.

    You certainly earned a high ranking in this list; Possibly higher than you got??

    I don’t always agree (but if I were religious, I’d probably argue with God..:) ), but you always support your articles, which is something few financial bloggers can claim.

    Nobody can doubt your courage and dedication at tackling the scarry topics.

    As always, I’m grateful for your tireless efforts.

    Paul

  16. LeeAnne

    Congratulations Yves; thanks for letting us know. We would have missed it otherwise. I for one would regret that. Who would read Time’s best anything? I’m grateful that, to be credible, Time dare not leave you off the list. You’re a ‘must read’ for anyone seriously interested in understanding our fast moving economics scene and cutting through the minefield of spin out there.

  17. PQS

    Speaking as a rank amateur who was perfectly content to let Wall Street do whatever it wanted, thinking I was relatively immune from its tentacles, (and apart from the occasional outrage like Enron, which, after all, did eventually result in some punishments….) the collapse of the World Economy and a fierce desire to understand it are what brought me to this blog.

    Yves’ laser-sharp insights and wealth of background knowledge, coupled with her keen sense of outrage, have provided me with what I consider to be a first-class education in What Went Wrong and How to Fix It. I will always be grateful for her efforts here, and I’m glad that the MSM has noticed and given her wide exposure.

  18. Michael H

    Congratulations!

    Pretty ironic considering this blog is far a better news source than Time magazine ever was. (And echoing sgt_doom above, there are still people who actually read Time magazine??)

    “If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”
    — Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow)

    1. Paul Repstock

      Ok, enough now. After all these kissy poo’s. Do I get a keyboard without a sticky ‘W’, hen you sell out for $320 million? Huh? lol

      Quite the furror around HufPo..:)

  19. Stephan

    After reading Tyler Cowen’s latest piece “The Fiscal Illusion” in the NYT his blog “Marginal Revolution” should be removed from the list. The only illusionary thing I found in the whole article was the last sentence “Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics …”. The article is a shocking display of economic illiteracy.

  20. eurocent

    I find Excess of McArdle and Defect of Mish on that list. Yves and CR are the best by far, though.

  21. Flakmeister

    Congrats! Yves, I think you have done a wonderful job. I would be delighted if you could get an appearance with Jon Stewart..

  22. aletheia33

    “word of mouth”–individuals telling individuals–is known among marketers, i believe, as one of the most powerful, if not the most, processes for achieving high recognition and interest. word of nc keeps spreading, and nc keeps gaining a wider audience. this will continue. in addition, witness the way the “obscure” teacher gene sharp, by simply persisting in his work, is now the go-to source for the leaders of the current uprisings. yves’ work is gradually earning credibility and recognition. and not being wildly, widely popular and widely known does not mean not having influence.

    let’s hope the time mention brings more readers here who will visit and then stay.

  23. Glen

    No mention of Michael Pettis’s blog. :(.

    While the focus is on China his blog is like a classroom for balance sheet economics. A must read.

  24. wunsacon

    Congratulations, Yves. Thank you for your good writing and for choosing some great guest bloggers as well.

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