This is a facetious way of letting you all know that, as of about 5 minutes ago, there are now 1,000 users (plus yours truly) subcribed to this blog.
The average daily unique readership count is currently 5,500, which I believe implies roughly 3-5 times that many readers on a monthly basis.
I also know from feedback from journalists and other correspondents that the comments made here are read and appreciated by a very wide audience. My posts might be the fulcrum, but the contributions from you all keep the wheels well and truly spinning. I’ve also learnt a lot from what has been posted here.
Charles Mackay’s observation that people go mad in crowds, and return to their sanity one by one, surely applies in this bubble. It’s very good to know that the crowd of those who have regained their senses–or never lost them in the first place–numbers at least a thousand.
Finally, thank you one and all for the tone that has been maintained in the discussions here. Most of us know how disagreements can get out of hand on the Internet, without the benefit of body language to take the edge of words that are sometimes said in jest but interpreted as in anger. It’s been remarkable that with a total now of 4,736 comments over one and a half years, that this blog has been an exemplar of civilised debate.
All the best, Steve
Thank you Steve for your informative site. It makes me feel at ease to know others think along the same lines as i do.
I travelled overseas for nealy ten years and when i got back in 2002 i noticed something that i found hard disturbing.
People were talking about real estate and making money on houses as if it were a sport. It was the topic of conversation amongst friends. Headlines all over the front page of Sunday newspapers describing how new price records had been recorded.
I walked by an auction in Bondi (Sydney) with a huge crowd their to witness people bidding up a very small corner block for what i considered to be an absolutely ridiculous price. It was just like a spectator sport.
The government at the time was telling us how great it was that real estate was making us all wealthy.
I couldn’t believe how society had changed in relation to home ownership.
All i could think of is how will future generations be able to afford to put a roof over their heads?
It’s thanks to people like you we are now seeing things for what they really are.
Baldbadger
Thank you Steve for all your hard work. I have been reading your blog since I saw you tell Kerry O’Brian I think it was, that for Australians to survive the approaching trouble they had to get out of debt. This is my first comment though. Your articles are very informative, and I have learnt a tremendous amount from you and from others whose work you recommend. I’m also introducing as many as I can to your site. I now roll my eyes when I hear economists talk about the economy “returning to trend”, and I’m mighty glad I sold up and bought some land when I did. Thank you for the service you provide.
Az
I also want to thank you Steve. I find this site compulsive, and have learnt so much.
As you say the ‘tone’ has been maintained, and the civility of questions and replies is great! The discussions between the regulars and those who ‘jump in’ now and again, as well as those who contribute for the first time are invaluable in the sharing of information.
And thank you for your answers that must take up much of your valuable time.
Congratulations Steve! A job well done.
As you said, Australia has the same debt disease as the US and UK, and for that reason it’s only a matter of time we will have the same suffering.
The mainstream economic commentators are still looking at the seemingly serene small Aussie pond and extolling its good ‘fundamentals’ while completely oblivious to the coming tsunami from the outside world.
Regarding the FHOG, some of these FHOG buyers are buying precisely because they know they are losing their jobs. They just want to get a foothold into the housing market before unemployment cause them to be un-eligible for loans. Some of these people think it is a matter of ‘strategy’ to handle their financial situation in the event of unemployment.
Indeed, sub-prime is right here in Australia.
I’ve been following the site via RSS for some time and often read the comments. I agree that the quality and civility of the comments is very high, which is a pleasant change from many sites.
Steve’s posts, at all levels of complexity of wonkery, are much appreciated. I especially found the Cavaliers of Credit post eye-opening. I had to read it three times, the last time very carefully, to really “get it”. That also made a pleasant change for me, who usually skims internet content too quickly.
Thanks for all the work!
Hi, I just joined 5 mins ago.
Am I 1002 ?
Well earned and most worthy. Yours is a critical voice of reason amongst a cacophony of sycophants, which makes it an absolute “must read”.
To the next 1,000…
Newby here. Attracted not just by the interesting posts, but by the great discussion in the comments. Let’s say there is a depression, how different an experience it is to be compared with the isolation from ideas that must surely have accompanied the last one for all but a very few.
Congratulations Steve. I first saw you on Lateline and then looked you up. I love your site even if some of the graphs do hurt my head
Keep up the fantastic work!
Maybe all the lurkers should post one line to commemorate this great milestone?
Great stuff Steve!! (And others) It’s great to have a source of “alternative” information & views.
Congrats Steve,
Note, you also have 413 people (including me) subscribed to your RSS feed at Google Reader who see all your posts and I dare say a few more on other RSS feed readers.
–Q
Good on ya Steve.
Your heart is in the right place – for the ordinary Joe (or Josephine ) Soap. I’m sure you realise by now you will not get an invitation to be the next economist for Macquarie Bank!
I tuned in to your wavelength on the Debunking Economics site a few years ago and you made sense. Having studied economics over 20 years ago I always felt there was something unstable/implausible about the foundations of
economic theory as conventionally described.
The economic theories of supply and demand; static analysis; the rational economic man/woman;the self-equilibrating economy; etc has been used (sometimes wittingly but mostly unwittingly) to transfer wealth to a small and powerful elite and lumber the rest with high expectaions and loads of debt.
Keep up the good work.
This site has helped me understand that i am not insane – and hopefully on the right track.
That’s interesting Quarrel,
I’m a newbie when it comes to RSS feeds–don’t use them myself and though I’m aware of the WordPress link on my site, not sure how make use of it.
Decades ago I knew almost everything you could know about computers, but the industry has moved well past my knowledge level these days.
How do you find out the number of RSS subscribers?
Congratulations, You have the best content I only read half the time….because of having to click through from the RSS feed. Can you please, please restore the full text feed that your used to have?
Thanks for that steve g,
That was a default WordPress setting in the latest version. I wasn’t aware of the change as a result. Full text is now restored.
yippee!
Thanks Steve,
I came across your paper “Deeper in Debt, Australia’s addiction to borrowed money” back in 2007 and I have been an avid reader of you’re site and supporter of your views.
You have certainly saved me money, at the time I was researching the market to buy my first house, when i stumbled across the paper by accident. And I’m not taken in by the grant!
I have also saved in the current financial crisis by moving much of my savings to cash early last year.
Its great to see so many new readers and contributers.
Keep it up all!
Steve,
Quarrel has not got back to you yet, so I’ll give you a quick rundown on RSS starting with Google Reader, but keep in mind that Google Reader is not the best RSS Reader to use. RSS just allows you to stay up to date with content from multiple sites all in one place (inside the RSS Reader). To use Google Reader:-
1) Register and signin to the site https://www.google.com/reader
2) Go to your site and then hover your mouse over the RSS feed of interest and click the right mouse button and select “Copy Shortcut”.
3) Go back to the Google Reader and click on the “Add a subscription” button in the top left hand corner and paste your feed there, then your blog articles will appear on the right in full.
4) In the top right hand corner click on “show details” and you will see a chart. Above the chart you will see the number of Google Reader Subscribers, which at the moment is still showing as 413.
The only problem with Google Reader and most other RSS Readers is you still have to manually visit the Google Reader URL or in other cases startup an RSS Reader application on your PC to check your RSS feeds, which is no good if your a very busy person like yourself.
The best solution is to use Klipfolio ( http://downloads.klipfolio.com/downloads/klipfolio-personal-dashboard ). The great thing about this RSS Reader is it is “set and forget”. Once you set it up, it sits in your system tray in the bottom right hand corner of your computer and alerts you whenever there is new news items. After downloading it and installing it:-
1) Click on “Add->Add and RSS Feed” in the title bar
2) In the “Feed Viewer” that just opened click on the right mouse button and select “Manage Feeds”.
3) Using the “Feeds” tab paste the desired feed into the RSS Reader.
4) Under the “Options” tab set the Refresh frequency or leave it at the default value of “Every two hours”.
5) Click on the “Alerts” tab and select Alert me when: “New items are added” and “Any item changes” and then click close.
You are now ready to go. If you are at your computer when the new news item is added, you will see a pop-up. If you are not, then when you return to your computer, you will see the Klipfolio System Tray icon flashing. When this happens, just click on it to pop up the reader and hover over the news items to read a summary. Click the news items of interest to read the whole article and comment.
Steve, you have provided a great service to me and others. The least we can do is to help you as you have helped us. Please do not hesitate to ask for help again if you need it. We are all in this together!
Congratulations Dr Keen, well done! I have been a follower since your radio interview on ABC radio, unbelieveable! I quickly did my ‘homework’ and voila! ‘common sense’ (to me).
Thank you for the alternative voice on economic affairs in oz and I firmly believe “they” are coming around to “it” and ALL will have a EUREKA moment soon. I pray that some lessons will be learnt by all Australians, once and for all (about debt). Please keep going!
Congratulations Steve. You can be justifiably proud of this achievement, and more to come no doubt.
We don’t know the extent to which your work will be accepted into mainstream policy making. But the very fact that you are undeniably right ought to have some impact one would think. In the meantime , like others before me, I would like to thank you sincerely for the hard work you have put in and your thoughts which you continue to share with us all here.
Hi Steve,
I have been following your site for some time now and enjoy the way way you present your ideas. My partner works at a Sydney uni. so I have an idea of what your work load might be, so thank you for putting aside time to help people like me read up and try and make an informed decisions (renting and saving for the future).
Keep up the great work.
Moz
PS For the last 10 years I thought things were just not right debt wise and now I see why.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your excellent blog and for bringing these issues to the normal punter.
As exazonk says, “the graphs sometimes hurt my head” but I too love your site
bring on 2001 members!
Steve,
For most of this decade I’ve been completely perplexed as to various investment valuations, and as to how little value people were placing upon money. With no real analysis tools to disentangle my thoughts and what was going on – I could only come up with the simplistic thought that money (which I now think of as liquidity/credit) was being treated as confetti.
I’ve had many “aha” moments since finding your site and I thank you for providing so much useful information and insightful models with which to grapple with current events.