Some of the most interesting people happen to be unpleasant. The economics blog Marginal Revolution is like that. I’ve been reading and benefitting from it for more than a decade, and it continues to be one of the most interesting aggregator blogs. I am so acquainted with the writing of its two authors, Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok, that I know which of them wrote the post after reading only the first couple of words and without having looked at the name. Both Cowen and Tabarrok are economics professors with broad interests, many of which align with my own.
Yet, recently I’ve been visiting Marginal Revolution less often. Posts have declined in quality and have become less interesting. This is the case both for posts that link to other sites and original posts by Cowen and Tabarrok. Increasingly, the two professors are not seeing eye to eye with their readers.
Politically, the blog is unobjectionable. It has avoided aligning itself strongly with any ideology besides free market economics. Even so, instead of discussing contentious topics in a balanced way, posts are frequently one-sided and polemical in a way that is fairly typical of men past their 60th birthday. This is apparent both for issues I disagree on and those I disagree on.
This flaw is particularly apparent in Tabarrok’s posts. Because he tries hard to convince his readers of a specific point, he avoids mentioning caveats, subtleties or counterarguments. As a result, his posts come across as sales pitches. The problem with this approach is that I do not wish to be told what to believe. I prefer honest and trustworthy discourse so that I can make up my own mind.
Cowen’s posts suffer from the same problem, but in a more subtle way. For example, he favors views that minimize the dangers of technologies such as smartphones, social media and AI. I happen to agree with this, but I find the way he dismisses those who are genuinely concerned lacking engagement, and as a result, his posts on those topics are less impactful than they could be.
At the same time, Cowen frequently avoids making clear statements in instances that call for clarity. I’m sure he has perfectly good reasons for this, but it’s not an attitude I can admire.
Nehaveigur 