I love to read. It keeps me informed, keeps my mind sharp and widens my horizons. In addition, it’s important for me to stay up on news and events concerning the economy, taxes, investment markets and other issues that clients face related to their personal finances. These factors mean that I try to consume a great deal of information, and I’ve spent some time coming up with a consistent list of quality sources of information, which I’ll share with you below. It should go without saying that I never agree with everything that any one person writes or says, or I would never learn anything at all!
Blogs
You can knock blogs if you want to, but the fact is that there are many intelligent and well written blogs concerning practically any topic you can dream up. Below are the blogs I read on a regular basis.
- The Big Picture (Barry Ritholtz): TBP is widely read for a reason. Barry is a great aggregator and a wonderful source of articles I may have missed elsewhere. He is a money manager so much of the content is related to investing, economics and tax.
- Pragmatic Capitalism (Cullen Roche): Cullen is also a money manager, and has an overwhelmingly practical approach to his writing and investment philosophy. Cullen likes to point out errant investing myths and do so with a steady combination of reason and supporting evidence .
- Nerd’s Eye View (Michael Kitces): Michael is a CFP professional and well regarded in the industry for digging into great technical detail on many topics faced by investors and their advisors. He asks challenging questions and is regularly a thought-provoking read for advisors.
- I also regularly read the columns of Allan Roth, Larry Swedroe, Carolyn McClanahan and Carl Richards at various publications.
Publications
I also make sure to read “more traditional” publications, an always-evolving list that currently includes The Economist, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek.
Podcasts
Cutting the grass, washing dishes, shoveling snow, folding laundry, bookkeeping, cleaning the house. All tasks I don’t mind because they give me an opportunity to get caught up on my podcast list. In no particular order, they are:
- EconTalk. Russ Roberts of Stanford’s Hoover Institute and George Mason University hosts this interview-style economics podcast. Russ is a libertarian (Hayekian) economist who hosts intelligent and fascinating guests for a one-hour interview once a week. I love macroeconomics and this podcast is among the most thought provoking I have found.
- NPR’s Planet Money. Less academic and more accessible than EconTalk, Planet Money addresses popular contemporary issues from and economic perspective. Usually very fun and educational.
- Demand Side Economics. A stark juxtaposition to the economic school of Econtalk, DSE is a podcast that takes a liberal/Keynesian view on most matters. (It’s good to have balance!).
- WYNC’s Radiolab. Usually unrelated to investing or economics, Radiolab is just a phenomenal podcast. Amazing production quality, fascinating stories, if you enjoy podcasts but don’t listen to Radiolab, you are missing out.
While this isn’t an exhaustive list of what I am consuming, it’s a good start. What about you? Is there something I should be reading that I’m missing out on?
Bason Asset Management 