I don't have a clue about how one gets a journalist steady gig. The part I do know is that many of these topics were rather heatedly under "debate" when I returned to the university in 1993. I was a maths, stats, and comp. sci. guy the first time around, spent a career in the Navy mostly as a field engineer, and somehow drifted off in the dismal science. Econometrics but also every other field as I ran through them all (skipped Marxism, could have taught it). I had more than a few "debates" with my instructors which involved numerous appeals to authority (their side) vs. data analyses of historical events (my side).
Just background for the point that twenty-two years later, the same brigades in the mainstream press, more than five, regularly have a go at one another. I find Tim's "chalk talk" more interesting and often relevant to the tech sector which is interesting in another way. "Silicon Valley" is right next door and bizaare in more dimensions than I can manipulate mentally describes the political-economy.
As for letters to "The Economist", they've been disappointing since the late '90's. One more impact from the WWW I expect.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
