Explaining my absence

OK, many of you have asked but I knew that I had to put in an explanation for my continued absence here when my mother in Turkey complained that she missed the "postcards" from me on the blog. 

I am alive and well.  But here are two reasons why this space will not be updated frequently over the coming months:

1. I am writing a book (on globalization, what else?), and I find the blog really competes with it for my energies and ideas.  I hope there will be a reason for people to want to read the book even if they have been devout followers of this blog.
2. All kind of spammers have taken over the comments section of this blog, and I don't know (or have the time) to clean it up.

In the meantime, my monthly series with Project Syndicate continues, so you can always turn there for my periodic column-sized bursts.