Daniel Akst to Guest Blog!

Dan Akst is that rarest of breeds, the man of letters who also knows something of business and economics.  His first novel, St. Burl's Obituary was called "outrageous", "superb", "masterful" and was short-listed for a Pen/Faulkner award.  His second novel, The Webster Chronicle also earned great reviews.  Publishers Weekly called Terry Mathers, the "memorable protoganist" of The Webster Chronicle, "wise, flawed, and all too deeply human." 

Now ordinarily you wouldn't expect anyone capable of writing a deeply human character to be at all good at economics.  Dan, however, also writes an excellent economics column for the New York Times and periodically writes for also The Wall Street Journal, Slate, and NPR's Marketplace.  Dan's economic journalism combines economics, politics and history with great writing.  Here, for example, is one of Dan's recent pieces from the Wilson Quarterly.  Called Buyer's Remorse it begins, "There are two things at which Americans have always excelled: One is generating almost unimaginable material wealth, and the other is feeling bad about it."  I am also fond of an older piece of Dan's on digital cash, called The Soul of a New Currency.

We are delighted to have Dan guest blogging with us beginning on Monday.