My
last post was a bit too pessimistic in suggesting that those looking for
alternative analyses to the rubbish perpetrated on anglo-saxon MSM would find
it a difficult task. There are quite a few “alternative news” sites – The Conversation is a
non-profit which tries to combine academic insight with journalistic skills; the US Counterpunch has a stronger tone.
And
it is analysis – rather than description – we need these days.
Having
explored a few weeks ago the question of which
(English language) magazines
would pass a test which included such criteria
as –
-
Depth of treatment
-
Breadth of coverage (not just political)
-
Cosmopolitan in taste
-
clarity of writing
-
skeptical in tone
I
decided to run the same criteria on anglo-saxon blogs and, using the "blogrolls" of some of the best, came up with about 20 sites which satisfy most of the criteria -
Stumbling
and mumbling; an economist who is intrigued by dilemmas and attempts to find patterns in social science
http://potlatch.typepad.com; Blog of
William Davis who is Reader
in Political Economy at Goldsmith’s, London and also Co-Director of the Political
Economy Research Centre. But he hasn't posted for a year!
http://memex.naughtons.org; Naughton is
one of the best writers on IT matters
The memory bank; Fascinating site
of anthropologist Keith Hart which also contains full text of his book on Money
http://www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/; The blog of Diane Coyle, a literate economist
http://www.coppolacomment.com/; The blog of Francis Coppola, a highly literate
banker
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/; A Marxist economist who makes sense
http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.ro/; One of the most thoughtful, referenced and well-written
of political blogs - which used to be called “All that is solid”. It's
explicitly sympathetic to the Labour Party and the unions but never hesitates
to call nonsense out,
http://neweconomics.org/; the site of the
New Economics Foundation
PRIME - Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME) is a network of macroeconomists, political economists and professionals from related disciplines who seek to engage with a diverse audience in order to de-mystify economic theories, policies and ideas
PRIME - Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME) is a network of macroeconomists, political economists and professionals from related disciplines who seek to engage with a diverse audience in order to de-mystify economic theories, policies and ideas
Book Forum; is a site I’ve strangely neglected from including in previous
roundups. It’s a daily list of academic articles selected, however. from too narrow a range of US academia .
http://www.progressonline.org.uk/;
site of the soft left think tank.
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/;
Blog of Richard Murphy – who has advised Jeremy Corbyn.
http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/comment/;
site of political economy unit at Sheffield University
http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.ro/; academic historian of modern Britain
Hard
Leftist blogs
Interesting
that Bookforum is the only US site to pop up in this test!! Not sure why… perhaps because most of
them are tribal and, paradoxically, too mainstream? Of
course, there are exceptions – such as the superb and highly idiosyncratic Brainpickings – which totally avoids
any hint of current affairs and gives us timeless excerpts from the classics…..
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