Other forums

[Tycho?]

I am looking for other forums. Namely, I'm looking for forums that focus on two topics:

1) Economics: More specifically, macro-economics. Things like inflation in China, or the credit crisis in the US, or the rise of the euro. I know very little about this, and forums are a great place to learn, but I've been unable to find one.

2) International Relations: Discussion and analysis of world politics. Iranian nuclear crisis. Iraq. The "war on terror". Nationalism in China. Resurgent Russia. Wars, border disputes, coups, revolutions, etc etc.

Debate and Discourse does discuss these things a bit, more so point #2. But I'm looking for decent discussion boards that focus on these two topics, either separately or combined. The whole site doesn't have to be devoted to it, even a small sub forum on some random site would be good. But its so hard to find these things, since the quality of a forum depends totally on the people who post there. A lot of official sounding forums end up being total shit, where as somewhere like D/D is great, even though its a sub-forum on a site that hosts a comic about video games. I just want a bit more focus on these two topics.

Thanks.

SammyF

Start one. There are a lot of blogs out there (The Economist and Foreign Policy Magazine both have blogs) but I don't think I've ever seen an actual forum dedicated to these topics. I'd be interested if there was one, however.

Sakebomb

[Tycho?] wrote: »

2) International Relations: Discussion and analysis of world politics. Iranian nuclear crisis. Iraq. The "war on terror". Nationalism in China. Resurgent Russia. Wars, border disputes, coups, revolutions, etc etc.

One thing i have noticed: It is human nature to group together with like minded people. Its very apparent on forums. Its also human nature to be righteously indignant rather than admit to being proven wrong; this reaction is multiplied exponentially when in a group. Add the internet and viola!

That being said, www.worldaffairsboard.com is pretty decent. I post there occasionally. Its probably the only forum Ive found where you can have a discussion about serious topics like politics without getting a bunch of "Youre a faggot for thinking that, anyone else who thinks like you is a fucking idiot faggy faggot" responses.

[Tycho?]

Thanks Sakebomb, that worldaffairsboard looks pretty good.

Internet communities are such odd things. I agree that people tend to congregate in groups that agree, but then every board also has a small group of dissenters. They often spew rhetoric and insults at each other, yet continue to post on the same board. I go to a tiny version of D/D on another site, its like 15 or so regulars who have been there for like 8 years. Its a strange place, yet something compels me to keep going there.

[Tycho?]

I dont think I could recommend this forum to anyone, I just came upon it a few hours ago:

http://www.democracyforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31

There is a super nationalist russian guy on there, its pretty amusing actually.

Iceman.USAF

www.dynaverse.net

Seriously.

Actually it's a star trek gaming/news/general forum, but once you register request access to the "Hot&Spicy" forum. Lots of political/economic banter on both a national and international level.

Limp moose

I am pretty sure the motley fool has forums. And while they deal heavily with investing. I am sure there are sub sections that focus more specific areas of the economy.

I can tell you that I learned more from reading the fool than from 2 years of college econ.

kaliyama

For economics, anyway, I would recommend not using forums, because the smartest observers are likely to be writing blogs themselvses, and maybe engaging others with that medium, or with peer-reviewed papers. I'm a big fan of J. Brad Delong's blog - he's a good place to start as any, as are the Atlantic Monthly's people, like Megan McArdle or Matt Yglesias - I don't often LIKE either of them, but i still read them.

PirateJon

I read the blog http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/ blog. It's more of a foreign-policy-as-applies-to-nukes, but it can be pretty interesting, especially the comments.

[Tycho?]

kaliyama wrote: »

For economics, anyway, I would recommend not using forums, because the smartest observers are likely to be writing blogs themselvses, and maybe engaging others with that medium, or with peer-reviewed papers. I'm a big fan of J. Brad Delong's blog - he's a good place to start as any, as are the Atlantic Monthly's people, like Megan McArdle or Matt Yglesias - I don't often LIKE either of them, but i still read them.

Just from trolling around this is what I generally find to. Which is ok I suppose, and it makes sense, but I do perfer forums. With an economics blog I really have no idea if the person knows what he/she is talking about. And since the economy can be so unpredictable, I want to make extra sure that I'm getting information that is actually useful. At least on a forum the poor (or just unpopular) ideas tend to get made fun of, which gives me a starting point anyway.

grungebox

I often go to www.bogleheads.org. It's not really macroeconomics, though there are occasional discussions of such things. It's focused on investments/portfolio management through the lens of passive/index investment and efficient market theory. The side effect is that many topics with titles such as "Which Bond fund do I buy?" end up digressing into discussions on how TIPs work, why mortgage-backed bonds fail, things of that nature.

Aside from just forums, you should also read some general policy journals if you are interested. Foreign Affairs, National Interest, Washington Quarterly, that sort of thing. You can also try think tanks like www.Cato.org, www.brookings.org. Note that some of those have different political views (National Interest is generally conservative, Cato is Libertarian).

Djeet

Reading a bunch of armchair economists duking it out on the Internet may not give you what you're looking for (then again, it might?).

This place: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/
is a pretty cool read; it may not be exactly what you're looking for but it immediately leapt to mind.

PirateJon

I for one wouldn't mind the OP posting the blogs/sites he does find.

4U2NV

Not to hijack this thread but I kinda of had a similar question.

I am looking for a forum or maybe a website even where people share their input on new album releases. I am always interested in hearing some new music and usually look through Rolling Stone once in a while to check out their album reviews.

I would be open to a site that explores all different types of music also.