Economics professor Mark Thoma’s fourth-floor office in Prince Lucien Campbell isn’t exactly the newsroom of The Wall Street Journal. But thousands turn to Thoma’s blog, The Economist’s View (http://economistsview.typepad.com) for economics news every day, and it has unexpectedly become one of the most popular economics blogs on the Internet.
On Tuesday afternoon, Thoma scrolled through 243 feeds on one of his two Dell desktop computer monitors, along with a laptop, to keep up with online postings about economics. Thoma darted his head back and forth between the two desktop screens and clicked a mouse to navigate the news of the day.

Thoma can be found in his office at least three hours every day and writes four or five posts daily. So far, he has written more than 5,000 posts. The Economist’s View is the seventh most popular economics blog on the Internet, according to the blog search engine Technorati. Unlike other blogs, such as The New York Times’ Freakonomics or the University of Oxford’s Overcoming Bias, The Economist’s View is a solo act.
With the U.S. economy falling into a possible recession, news junkies have taken a newfound interest in economics news. More than 10,000 readers log on daily to read Thoma’s blog.
Thoma said he uses the blog to educate people about economics, particularly monetary policy and macroeconomics.
“It’s predominantly economics, but you can fit mostly anything into economics. There’s a lot of things I can make economic statements about,” Thoma said, adding he finds himself sometimes posting links to science stories on the blog. “If I think it’s interesting, it’ll go up.”
Thoma started the blog in March 2005, shortly after the 2004 presidential elections. He said he became fed up with what he saw on TV.
“The news coming out about tax cuts, social security – all the big economics issues – I was really disappointed in what I was seeing in the media on these issues,” Thoma said. “There seemed to be lots of voices who didn’t know what they were talking about.”
Thoma started writing letters to the editor and guest opinion pieces in a local newspaper. He came across a blog when researching a piece about social security.
“I thought, ‘This is cool. Maybe I should try this,’” Thoma said, adding that he started his blog right after he found out about the medium. “Somehow people noticed, and my blog grew. It was so surprising.”
Although Thoma doesn’t do any original reporting, he says he serves as a filter to point people to credible sources. Thoma does sometimes add his own commentary. Fellow economics professor Tim Duy, author of his own monthly economic index in Oregon, sometimes writes pieces on the blog.
“People get a lot of he said, she said from CNN and other places that doesn’t really do a lot of good,” Thoma said. “There’s not a lot of journalism there, and whole lot of talking heads who tend to yell at each other.”
When Thoma adds his opinion to an article, he says his commentary helps discipline reporters.
“It gives us a way of checking on the reporters, and I think it’s made a big difference,” Thoma said. “They listen to our messages and hear what we’re saying. It helps shape their story.”
Thoma said he has a hard time reaching students, though. He said he mentions the blog on the first day of class, but he doesn’t assign any homework from the blog.
“They really aren’t that interested yet,” Thoma said. “Maybe they’re not old enough, so these issues don’t grab them.”
Some students, however, have kept up with the blog.
William Countner, who took a class with Thoma last fall, still reads the blog at least once a week, he said. During the class, Countner read the blog daily.
“It was interesting to see how what we did in class applied to real life, as opposed to other classes where you don’t always get that,” Countner said.
More people are taking an interest in business news, especially with the decline of the U.S. housing market, said Andrew Leckey, director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism in Tempe, Ariz.
“I think right now there’s a particular interest worldwide in what is going on with the U.S. economy,” Leckey said. “It’s typically considered a dry subject when not much is happening, but when you have these issues, such as the subprime market, there’s a real hunger for it.”
News organizations are also looking to blogs in large part to reach out to more people, Leckey said.
The Economist’s View looked as if it provided a guide to other stories, said Leckey, who had never read Thoma’s blog before this week.
“If he’s able to find worthwhile stories and direct people toward them, it gives them navigation,” Leckey said.
Although Thoma wants to educate people about economics, he has become somewhat of a star in the economics world. He receives hundreds of comments daily.
“Partly, it’s kind of an ego trip to have that,” Thoma said. “I feel like people like me and want to know what I have to say.”
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