Intro

Background: as most of you who currently read this thing know, I'm absolutely not an economist. All I really have going for me are some undergraduate introductory courses and a hobby of investing and tracking markets.
That hobby is what I'd like to expand on with this blog. The recent financial meltdown has generated a great deal of interest in understanding economies and markets of all scales. This has become one of my pastimes recently: I spend a couple hours daily, if not more, trying to educate myself on what's going on in the world of money.
I'm hoping to use this blog to post the articles I find interesting, along with my thoughts on them. I would very much hope for comments and feedback; if any of you who actually bother to read this have suggestions on topics to research and write about, please do let me know: this would be of great help! You know how to contact me. I would prefer this *not* become too political a blog, but I do realize that politics and economics are pretty closely tied together, and one cannot easily be discussed without the other.
I tried posting a little bit on a blog owned by a friend I met in Chicago, but I would prefer to control my own now so as to give me more flexibility with content. I hope this effort turns out to be useful, both for myself and anyone interested.