Most Useful Articles Week Ending 22 February

Written by Econintersect

We publish a report each week presenting a list of the articles Google Analytics reports as being the most read. Last week’s report is here. We think that does not necessarily reflect how much “value” readers have obtained from what we publish. So we are offering a second listing which combines the number of readers for each article with the average amount of time spent reading by each.

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Before presenting this new ranking, let us explain our thinking. If one article has 500 page reads with an average time for each of one minute we suggest that another article with 100 page reads and an average time for each of 5 minutes might have an equivalent “value”: 500 page read minutes.

This measurement does not attempt to quantify the value readers received. The 500 reading an average of 1 minute each may perceive much more personal value for their individual minutes than do the 100 who each spent 5 minutes. What this measurement of ‘page read minutes’ directly measures is the effective reader engagement by each article. Rather than “value” we might better say “engagement” or “used”.

After some consideration we have elected to try the term “usefulness” and selected the term “useful” for the title of the list.

The Most Useful Articles Week Ending 15 February

The number following each article is the number of ‘page read hours’ for that article.

1. Alternative Measures of Inflation (Part 3): The Challenge of Communicating Price Stability (53.5)

2. Presidential Politics And Monetary Policy: Lessons From The 1896 Election (41.8)

3. Documentary Of The Week: Modern Monetary Theory – A New Outlook (41.2)

4. Household Spending Expectations Decline in December 2019 Household Spending Survey (12.6)

5. LIVE: Current Weather And Forecasts Up To 7 Days – Wednesday February 19 2020 (11.2)

6. Depending On The Undependable (10.6)

7. How Deep Is The Valley? (10.4)

8. Documentary Of The Week: The Sixth Mass Extinction (10.0)

9. Some Advice for “Bloomberg 2020” (9.7)

10. The Wolfowitz Doctrine (9.6)

11. Think The US Is More Polarized Than Ever? You Don’t Know History (8.2)

12. LIVE: Current Weather And Forecasts Up To 7 Days – Tuesday February 18 2020 (7.6)

13. Documentary Of The Week: The Insider Trading Scandal That Nearly Destroyed Wall Street (7.0)

14. Risk Of Correction Still High (6.7)

15. What We Read Today 19 February 2020 – Special Public Edition (6.6)

16. February 14, 2020 Weather Impacts On Economic Activity – Complicated Economic Impacts (6.5)

17. Coronavirus News 15 February 2020 (5.9)

18. Decade Of Doom On The Internet (5.8)

19. Democratic Socialism (Version II) (4.9)

20. What Caused The ‘Great Moderation’ And How Is It Related To The 2008 Crisis? (4.8)

Obviously the above list penalizes articles which are quickly read and include videos that are watched on YouTube. The introduction and link to YouTube may take 30 seconds or less and then our reader may stay 5, 10, 20 minutes or longer with the video – this measurement gives no credit for that video time.

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