PRIV Е12 Best Alternative Blogs

It has grown a lot since the days when it was just a finance and technology site. Still central to Business Insider’ssuccess is the tireless warp-speed blogging of Joe Weisenthal.

When I first started blogging about Wall Street, a wise sage once said that you would have to be a paranoid Russian poet to understand global finance. ZeroHedgeproves the truth of this every day. It’s the first and last stop of the day for many traders.

austrian.economicblogs.org

macro.economicblogs.org

Economics professor Scott Sumner claims he’s “not a natural blogger,” yet his blogalmost single-handedly pushed the idea of basing monetary policy around nominal gross domestic product — that is, economic growth without stripping out inflation — right to the center of the economic debate. Even U.S. Federal Reserve governors are talking about the idea these days.

leaders.economicblogs.org

For as long as anyone can remember, Michael Shedlock’s websitehas been a must-read. When many people were predicting runaway inflation and a declining dollar, “Mish” correctly called deflation and the end to the long “flight from the dollar.”

macro.economicblogs.org

Edward Harrison’s “Credit Writedowns”boasts one of the best stables of columnists around. Harrison’s unconventional approach to economics — one part Austrian, one part Modern Monetary Theory, and four parts original Harrisonism — makes it a real standout. I won’t bother trying to explain it all right here. Just go check out the site.

heterodox.economicblogs.org

Charles Hugh Smith isn’t a household name…yet. Even a lot of avid blog readers I talk to haven’t heard of him. I suspect that’s about the change. Smith says the “end game” of “extend-and-pretend” will play out in 2012 and 2013. Watch out!

Yves Smith is another of the old stalwarts of financial blogging. A harsh critic of Wall Street who believes that fraud was at the center of the financial crisis, Smith is always a provocative read.

Barry Ritholtz is another “old school” financial blogger. Often cranky, often funny, and always informative. Stop by dailyfor the 10 a.m. ET read.

macro.economicblogs.org

The best place to go for the latest U.S. economic developments,particularly in the mortgage and real-estate market. It warned early and often how badly mortgage standards had become.

macro.economicblogs.org

Josh Brown has taken the Internet by storm with his insightful and often hilarioustake on markets and the people who make them.

Do you want your global finance commentary mixed in with deep philosophical reflection? This is your spot.

Cullen Roche has done more than anyone to inform the Internet about Modern Monetary Theory, but he’s much more than a publicist for MMT.

His daily takeon the markets is highly informative and infused with a burning enthusiasm for figuring out that all-important question: What’s next?

heterodox.economicblogs.org

This is where we go to figure out what’s going on in Europe.

leaders.economicblogs.org

The one stop shop for everything Austrian, free-market and Ludwig von Mises related.

austrian.economicblogs.org

Todd Harrison’s powerhouse sitefirst came to our attention years ago because of the Bull and Bear cartoons, but it has developed into a powerhouse of market info perfectly suited to the retail investor.

Another of the “old school” financial blogs. Abnormal Returnsmade its name as the best link blog in finance. If you need a quick guide to the smartest things on the web each day, Abnormal Returns will point you there.

This one is not on most people’s reading list yet. Its name is pretty self-explanatory. In these days of sovereign debt crises and record-setting bankruptcies, you really do need a guide to the world of distressed debt.