Welcome to 2024 – the 20th year of my blog

Welcome to 2024. This marks the 20th year that my blog has been operating although there were a few years early on when I was experimenting with the technology etc and nothing much emerged. In continuous terms, the blog has been going for 15 uninterrupted years this year. Over that time, it has evolved from a 7-day a week commitment to a reduced offering. Here are my latest thoughts on how I will use the medium in the coming year.

This has been the longest break from work I have had in several decades.

We have just moved and there was a lot of work to do in relation to that so I thought it was useful to take a break from work and reevaluate things.

Every now and then I rethink what the purpose of my blog and make changes accordingly.

I admit that my sense of purpose may not align with the preferences of the readership.

For example, some people were aghast when I scrapped the Weekend Quiz.

But that decision was forced on me because I had to update the Linux distro to host a much higher version of php to ensure I could run the latest (and most secure) version of WordPress.

The software that ran the quiz would not work on that more recent version of Linux and it was going to be too much programming work to bring it up to speed.

So I did some hack to ensure the old quizzes would still be available with answers etc to help the education process but the weekly interactive quiz ended.

When I get time, I will finish the code I have started to make the quiz a standalone application via my home page. But don’t hold your breath!

I also review the logs on my server to see what posts are most interesting to people and that drives some changes.

I have spent some time during this (long for me) break assessing what will better fit the blog commitment with my other work, including the need to produce a few book manuscripts this year to satisfy contractual obligations.

One of those projects will produce a second edition of our – Macroeconomics – \ textbook.

I knew at the outset in 2004 that this form of social media only really works best when there is reliability and continuity in the content.

I have seen so many promising blogs die when the enthusiasm of the authors wane and the content dries up.

So I will continue regular (not daily) updates mostly because, one, I like writing fast to keep my brain agile, and, two, there is still an educational role to be fulfilled to advance our ideas.

This form of writing is unlike my academic work and gives me some relief from that work.

The major change I am making is to stop the monthly analysis of the US labour market – which I found was one of the least viewed pages on my blog each month.

I will still download the data and run my analytical programs for my own edification but will save time producing the written form.

I will continue the data analysis for various ABS releases for Australia because they feed into the journalist cycle and sometimes change the way the mainstream media write up and interpret the data.

I may also drop the Wednesday blog post and revert to a Monday-Thursday pattern, breaking it when there is an important data release (such as national accounts which comes out on a Wednesday) or some other reason (for example, my Kyoto Reports on a Tuesday when I am in Japan).

So forward into 2024.

All the best and I won’t say let’s have a good year – rather, given the global circumstances, we might just wish for a less bad year relative to 2023.

Promotion – GIMMS event – London, January 26, 2024

There has been a major policy experiment conducted in the last few years which seems to have escaped the attention of the media and commentators.

It is very rare that we have the chance to compare two diametrically opposed approaches to a global problem that has impacted on all nations.

But since 2021, most central banks have significantly increased interest rates to, in their view, combat the inflationary pressures that emerged.

These nations have also tightened fiscal policy to, allegedly, ‘support’ the anti-inflationary stance of their central banks. Japan, in contradistinction has held interest rates constant while also increasing their fiscal policy stimulus to help households and firms deal with the rising cost-of-living pressures.

The nations that implemented contractionary policies not only misunderstood the nature of the inflationary pressures, but also demonstrated the poverty of the mainstream policy approach.

In this talk, I discuss the reasons the mainstream approach failed and why it is unfit for purpose.

Date and time: Friday, January 26, 2024 from 13:00.

Location: Unite, 128 Theobalds Road London WC1X 8TN United Kingdom

The organisers at GIMMS note that they would ask that people assemble from 13.00 onwards for a prompt 13.30 start to make the most of this important opportunity.

Coffee and cake will be available in the break which will be followed by a Q&A session.

Ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gimms-event-professor-bill-mitchell-tickets-788915095287

I receive no payment for this event.

I hope to see all the gang there and I would hope you will wear masks at the event to protect yourself and those around you.

NOTE: I will also be speaking at an event on Saturday, January 27, 2024 in London for the Workers Party.

I will post more details when I have them.

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2024 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.