A brilliant blog

What do you expect from a blog about business and economics?

I'm not talking about this blog, though I would, of course, be very interested in knowing your views. What got me thinking about this question was an explanation by my favourite business blogger of why he writes.

More of that in a minute. But first, let me tell you seven things that I expect from a blog:

• I expect the person to know what he or she is talking about.
• I expect her or him to write clearly.
• I expect to learn something.
• I expect to be provoked into thinking differently about an issue.
  
• I expect some useful links to other websites and information.
  
• I expect the person to write often. Not necessarily every day. But often.
• I expect to be entertained and to be made to laugh sometimes.

I don't necessarily expect all of these things every time. But if a blogger can do most of these things most of the time, I'm going to be happy. If some of these things are never done, I won't be happy.

In fact, my favourite business blog meets all these criteria almost every time (sometimes, the links are missing).

But this blog is also, in the words of its author, "excessively lengthy, long-winded, demanding, abstruse, complicated and confusing [where necessary]". What's more, the author is proud of these things and plans to continue this way.

So who is the author? His name is Willem Buiter, and he is a professor at the London School of Economics.

Buiter was formerly chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and a member of Britain's Monetary Policy Committee, the independent body at the Bank of England that decides what the level of interest rates should be.

Buiter's blog, Maverecon — maverick economist, I assume — is, like the man himself, simply brilliant.

Recent topics include: why Britain is similar to Iceland, might be heading for a currency crisis and should join the eurozone; and why there is no danger of Italian euros becoming worth less than German ones.

Buiter's most entertaining comment was on 16 November. Here, he explained why he writes:

• "I write this blog for me, not for my readers...The readers I lose or miss as a result of writing the way I do are the readers I don’t want in the first place."

Buiter ends with this (half) humourous insight: "PS Some people say I’m arrogant. No idea where they get that notion." More of the same, please, Willem!