Bloomberg Profile and My Plans

For those of my readers who have missed the media spectacle, Bloomberg published a very generous profile of me Thursday which is attracting an unbelievable amount of attention. Things have gone so far that I was recognized on the street twice within 8 minutes. I’ve been totally overwhelmed by the response, and while grateful for it, I’ve been unable to write since the article was published. I’m hoping to get a piece out tomorrow on the potential expiration of expanded unemployment benefits in the United States at the end of the month and the urgency of their renewal. In the meantime, I’m writing this to update those who are following me, especially paid subscribers, on what is going on with me.

At a certain point over this weekend when the focus on me entered a fever pitch I began to panic and think “I need to make this even bigger and see if I can bring support to others who are doing good work”. These kinds of thoughts only stressed me out further. After talking it over with many friends, I’ve decided that the best thing for me to do is to provide what people are paying for- the commentary on the coronavirus depression the article describes on a regular and sustained basis. At some point I may start a podcast associated with this substack, but I will not be making the decision to do that in the next few weeks. Instead, I’m going to write.

That doesn’t mean the writing won’t improve. I’m bringing on a professional freelance editor to edit future posts and make my writing sharper (as well as eliminating typos) and I may get some help with administration. My email is overwhelmed with opportunities and people reaching out in all sorts of ways and I need help sorting through all of it. I will be making 2 free posts a week (though they’ll come at any point in the weekday and won’t be tuesday-thursday for the rest of the summer) but I’ll be taking the premium posts weekends off for the next 4 (and maybe 6?) weeks to figure out what I want to do with my new found economic security and what other projects I want to take on. In the meantime, I’m going to post some of my writing from past years that readers are likely not familiar with so that subscribers get a chance to learn about my point of view which informs my Coronavirus Depression coverage. New written projects that I take on (reports/papers etc), or for that matter the ones that I already have in the works, may be shared in partial forms as premium posts so readers get an advance look at what I’m working on (and get a chance to provide feedback). However, it’s very important that that material not be widely circulated.

Thanks again for all your attention and support. It truly means the world to me. You’ll be hearing from me very soon.

Regards,

Nathan Tankus