Blogging the crisis

Already the best known economic commentator since Keynes, New York Times columnist Professor Paul Krugman had recently taken to blogging making him even more of a focal point. He denounced the plan as “Cash for Trash”. He documented how Hank Paulson’s self-justifications kept changing in contradictory ways, and likened Paulson’s proposal that his execution of the US$700 billion plan be immune from all legal scrutiny to Louis XIV: “L’etat, c’est Hank”.

Heavyweight academic and former chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors and now regular blogger Greg Mankiw weighed in against Paulson’s preference for debate behind closed doors:

If the Washington crowd cannot bring along the intellectual elite as a first step toward convincing a broader audience, they will end up pretty much alone.

And so it was that Congress insisted on improving Paulson’s plan to make it more like what the bloggers were calling for. Indeed Paulson has used the plan to acquire equity from the firms it’s bailed out, though on remarkably, (though still somehow unsurprisingly) favourable terms for Wall St. Of course the bloggers and columnists weren’t the only voices. Gordon Brown’s decisive temporary nationalisation of several British banks set an obvious example (though the blogosphere immediately broadcast its significance). And people like Steve Waldman and Tanta got a real voice, and made a real difference.

Then things were capped off by two events. Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize, though not for his work on financial crises (his immediate reaction was “I don’t have time for this”).

And Tanta’s identity was revealed as 47-year-old Doris Dungey.

The illness that had driven her from the workforce was ovarian cancer which had now claimed her. Of course the “family” that called her Tanta had grown by then through a process beautifully laid out by Steve Waldman on Interfluidity.

I am struck ... by the odd intimacy of this medium …

When Paul Krugman won his Nobel, I was oddly euphoric. I’ve never met the man, or even corresponded with him, but he felt like somebody I know ... because he participates so actively in this endless sprawled-out conversation ... . When Krugman won a Nobel, it felt like a kid from my neighborhood had hit the big time ... .

I’ve never met or corresponded with Tanta, though I’ve long been a fan. But this doesn’t feel like the death of a distant celebrity. ... Tanta came out of nowhere and contributed greatly ... . She described the mortgage industry in amazing detail, without ever being dry or dull. (Is that even possible?) A quirky, brilliant voice has disappeared.

Her silence will be loud in the cacophony.

Indeed it will. She died a pioneer of a medium that was just coming into its own and that was already doing us a power of good.