08/02: Two Things I Learned About the Economy Last Week
Category: General
Posted by: jamespothmer
Two Things I Learned About the Economy Last Week
1. People are really pissed. Angry in a public stoning kind of way. Of course I sensed it but it really hit home when I did this Room for Debate piece about executive bonuses for the Times:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/bonuses-for-bad-performance/#othmer
The so-called expert debate was interesting, but it's the comments section that really blew me away. So far, 806 angry people have weighed in, most posting responses significantly longer than the 300 word limit my editor imposed upon us. For context, 806 is about four times the response they got for previous topics, including the stimulus package, Iraq, etc. Most of the responders wanted blood, and quite a few wondered what the Times was doing asking a novelist, talking about semantics of all things (note to self: don't use irony when writing about the financial sector), what he thought. I did, too.
2. People are dying for some good news. The most recent evidence of this is Media is Thriving, the blog-like thing Rick Webb at The Barbarian Group has been posting on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/mediaisthriving
The premise: only positive news about the media. The result: only positive, if not world-changing news about the media, but most interesting is that more than 2500 Twitterers already following.
1. People are really pissed. Angry in a public stoning kind of way. Of course I sensed it but it really hit home when I did this Room for Debate piece about executive bonuses for the Times:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/bonuses-for-bad-performance/#othmer
The so-called expert debate was interesting, but it's the comments section that really blew me away. So far, 806 angry people have weighed in, most posting responses significantly longer than the 300 word limit my editor imposed upon us. For context, 806 is about four times the response they got for previous topics, including the stimulus package, Iraq, etc. Most of the responders wanted blood, and quite a few wondered what the Times was doing asking a novelist, talking about semantics of all things (note to self: don't use irony when writing about the financial sector), what he thought. I did, too.
2. People are dying for some good news. The most recent evidence of this is Media is Thriving, the blog-like thing Rick Webb at The Barbarian Group has been posting on Twitter.
http://twitter.com/mediaisthriving
The premise: only positive news about the media. The result: only positive, if not world-changing news about the media, but most interesting is that more than 2500 Twitterers already following.