Well, don't get all mushy on me. So long, Princess.

This may not come as a surprise to many of you since I haven't written anything in a month, but this will be my last post on Accrued Interest.

The reasons why I'm shutting it down are several. First, I have taken a much more expanded role at TheStreet.com. This is taking up some of the time and mental energy I had been using on Accrued Interest. Second, I will be starting a completely new professional endeavour within my firm. I expect this to take up vast amounts of my time in the next couple years.

The bottom line is that I don't want to be doing anything that doesn't live up to my own standards of quality. I have come to the conclusion that if I kept this blog going I'd only be writing once a week, if that, and I'm not sure the quality of even infrequent posts would be at the level I've achieved in the past.

I'd like to thank every one who ever read the blog, particularly those that I've corresponded with and gotten to know a bit. The blog covered one of the most wild times in my career, where at times I wasn't sure what the finance world would look like. I was very glad to have the outlet to express my thoughts on the direction banking and finance should take, even getting invited to the Treasury Department to discuss it with people who were shaping that direction.

I was also humbled by the level of discourse that often accompanied my own posts. While I think I'm a pretty smart guy and a half-way decent writer, nothing pleased me more than that the blog attracted people who were just as intelligent and well-spoken and who were willing to marshall a logical argument. If I could change one thing about the world, it would be to temper the hyperbole-laden and sound byte driven debate that persists in this world. To get to a place where a guy like Russ Roberts gets more attention than a guy like Marc Faber. A world where people are willing to acknowledge the opposition's argument and where we're open minded to new evidence that contrasts our own thinking. Instead we live in a world of instant analysis and where fame is equated with legitimacy.

If you'd like to keep in touch with me, please e-mail me sometime in the next few weeks and I'll give you a new e-mail address to use. After about a month I'll stop checking the accruedint e-mail.

Thanks again to all those that have supported the blog over the years.

Oh, and I just can't resist. One last surge of Star Wars geekery.


"Master Yoda, you can't die."

"Strong am I with the Force, but not that strong."

"Guards, leave us."

"Afraid I was going to leave without giving you a goodbye kiss?"

"So...you got your reward and you're just leaving then?"

"All right. Well, take care of yourself, Han. I guess that's what you're best at, isn't it?"

"What are you looking at? I know what I'm doing."

"I can't believe he's gone."