Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Examining Resources(1)

During the course of creating this blog I have found some helpful and interesting resources. I have also found that some resources are less useful than I had originally believed. Blogs and websites can provide useful information and an insider's view of the economics field. Websites have been the most helpful resources for me. They provide scholarly and accurate information. Most of the resources that I have used are updated daily with the most current information. The following is a list of my resources and a description of the type of information that they provide. These are not all of my resources, but they are the ones that differ most substantially from the others.

-Bloomberg
This website is constantly referenced by professionals in the economics, finance, and investing fields. Bloomberg is the leading provider of data and news. They provide current and historical financial data, market data, and pricing. One of the most useful resources that they provide is an economic calendar. This calendar announces when reports, indexes, and announcements are released. They also give links to all of the information on the calendar. The main function of this website is to provide news that is related to finance and the economy. This is a great tool for people who want to focus only on this type of news. Bloomberg is frequently used by professionals in the field. This is often the source where bloggers find information that fuels their discussions.

-CNN
CNN is another useful resource. They provide almost the same information as Bloomberg. CNN is a reliable news source. The only shortcoming of CNN is that they provide a wide variety of news. They cover everything from sports to weather. It is for this reason that economists do not use CNN as their primary source. The economic information that they provide is useful, but it is designed to appeal to a wide variety of viewers.

-Economist.com
I have found that this website is not as helpful as some of the others that I have referenced. The focus of economist.com seems to be more global than any of the others. From what I have read it appears that the content focuses on political issues. There is a lot of coverage of current events and the war in Iraq. This website is not intended for those who have extensively studied economics. The function of this site is mainly to provide commentary on social and political issues. Most bloggers would be unlikely to reference this site because it does not deliver very important news.

Blogs have provided a different type of information. Bloggers do not attempt to deliver the latest news. They realize that the large networks are capable of performing more quickly and more accurately. However, blogs do provide something that the news networks cannot compete with. Blogs allow many people to share their individual views with the whole world. The following are some of the blogs that I have linked to my blog as resources.

-Economist's View
This is the most interesting blog that I have read to date. This blog offers current economic issues and commentary on those issues. The content of this blog is relevant to the economics field. The two authors are economics professors, which gives a sense of credibility to everything that they post. The blog is academic and written in a professional manner. The authors appear to be in touch with their colleagues in the field of economics. They have a very long blog roll and many people have linked their own blogs to this one. Economist's view effectively uses portions of online resources and analyzes the information.

-Mises Economics Blog
I expected more economics related material from this blog than what I have seen. The title would suggest that economics is the primary topic of this blog. The reality is that only about 30 percent of the posts that I have read are related to economics. This blog does not report on the latest findings in the field. It appears that this blog is of a more personal nature than most others. The posts that are related to economics are engaging, but the rest of the posts are rants about the war and government. The content of this blog attempts to be academic, but I have a hard time believing everything that is posted. The most important purpose of this blog is to provoke thought. A few topics have caught my interest because of this blog.

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