Thank You

I first set up this blog because one of the public relations people at Cato said it was "the thing to do," whatever that means. I was a bit dubious. I didn't need a platform to pontificate, because that was part of my job already. But I'm a go-along-to-get-along person (in limited cases), so I figured there was no significant downside to giving it a try. But since this blog chews up about one hour each day, I frequently wonder whether it is the best use of my time. Would I better advance the cause of liberty, for instance, by doing another video instead? Writing an oped? Doing meetings on Capitol Hill?

The only objective test is whether I attracted enough readers, and I decided to make this a one-year experiment and then decide whether to keep going. As you can see from the chart below, it did not seem like the blog was catching on for the first several months. But in the past few months, the numbers have jumped significantly. By blogosphere standards, we're still an infant, but if I extrapolate recent trends, we'll have the entire world reading in just a few years. Since I don't work for the Congressional Budget Office or Joint Committee on Taxation, I won't actually make that kind of ridiculous assumption, but I will say thank you to all of you - especially those of you who are sharing this blog with friends and colleagues. Let's see how the second year works out.