Dear faithful readers,
I’ve been giving some thought to what to do to make Naked Capitalism a more effective and appealing voice. The big constraint is me. There are things big and small (such as going to conferences and meetings, or doing fieldwork, like going down to visit OccupyWallStreet, or doing anything on various tech questions or suggestions that involve more than a copy and paste and forward to my tech guy) that don’t happen because I give priority to getting a certain level of posts out a day. It hard even when I don’t have competing responsibilities, like consulting work or speaking gigs, and a backbreaker when I do (one symptom: my inbox is totally out of control. I regularly find messages that are days or even weeks old that I missed. And it might be nice to work my way off my night creature hours).
So I either need more time or more resources. Since I don’t know how to add more hours to the day, more time does not seem to be the answer. More resources would allow me to get more leverage. I already have people who have been very generous with their support (in particular Richard Smith). But they do this on an ad hoc basis, which means I can’t ask them to synch their schedules with mine, or drop things if too many big news stories are hitting at once.
I could try to steer the blog in a more crassly commercial direction to increase traffic and go more into market commentary. Yet having yet another site doing market commentary seems less valuable than having NC continue in the direction of focusing on deeper political and economic undercurrents, as well as debunking financial services industry and political propaganda. I like interacting with a readership that demands and frequently provides high quality information and analysis and doesn’t want neatly packaged, largely orthodox thinking.
So that’s a long-winded way of saying I’m thinking of having a fundraiser and wondered if NC readers would support the idea. Other bloggers like Glenn Greenwald do fundraisers, and I think there is a way I could do it so it would be engaging rather than a drag (I have less than fond memories of telethons from my childhood). Keeping this community vibrant and relevant has become more challenging in the wake of the crisis, as there are even more news threads to follow and the officialdom is devoting even more resources to preserve a broken status quo. I welcome your input.
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A brilliant idea. I would absolutely support as you and your reader’s comments have been one of the few voices of reason that I have been reading the last few years. Beyond money what can I give to help?
Do you take checks?
Absolutely agree. I am devoted to your site and would be happy to help support the work you do here.
I’m in! I read your site every day, usually the first one I hit while getting dressed here on the West Coast. :) I’d be happy to support the site.
I support it wholeheartedly. Not a day goes by that I don’t read this blog.
I’ve seen 3 “would”s here in the first 3 responses, and I know I’ll never get through hundreds of others, so let me just suggest that more people do what I just did and hit the contribute button so you can say “I *have* instead of “I would”.
I don’t know what Yves can do that would be better – there is already more good information here than I can consume, both from her and from commenters. Many thanks!
So my contribution is for performance already accomplished, with the hope that it can continue. Morphing into something larger – we’ll she’s earned it if that’s what she wants to do. Like Josh Marshall – but I somehow find much less of interest at Talking Points Memo now that it is bigger and less personal, and I hope that won’t happen here. Better she should take breaks as needed and maintain the personal fire that has made NakedCapitalism so great.
“NAKED CAPITALISM” sign made an appearance on “Occupy Seattle” today..I carried it. I didn’t speak to anyone who had heard of it. We need to break the grip (yet again) of mainstream media, and we all need to do all we can..
Perhaps you need regional “reporters”, not that anyone could
do the job you and the few others who regularly report here, do..
How about posting on Zerohedge occasionally? I am optimistically guessing that most of your readers who comment here will just continue commenting here because they wouldn’t want to mess with the crowd at ZH, while some ZH readers might find your blog interesting.
I think its worth giving it a try because it doesn’t take any time. And if it didn’t work, you can always quit.
I don’t know that Zero Hedge is the right venue for Yves. If you are looking for reach, you need to get beyond the hysteria prone ZH that the media has stopped paying attention to. There are better venue’s for the needed work that Yves does than blogs that segue too often into wackadoodle territory. Credibility comes from association with credible organizations and people. Yves has been doing an outstanding job building crediblity, she shouldn’t blow it by the wrong venue.
…”credibility” comes from a credible message, with links
and historical documentation…
You are, by far, my favorite commentator/analyst. Unlike most of the pundits you have actual experience and functional knowledge of the markets/biz and unlike most of the industry pros you have risen above crass self interest and don’t sit around talking your book.
I deeply appreciate the time and effort you put into your writing and this site in general. I am in the learning rather than earning stage of my career, but I would absolutely support you. I am in your debt.
I agree completely.
Yves Smith is the best journalist around. I don’t know what I’d do with her!!
Keep it up Yves! :)
I meant “without her”.
Oh dear
That was some Freudian slip you made
there Albert W …
Absolutely. Go for it.
I am sure you would have plenty of support if you do a fundraiser and your work is excellent so you should have the funding you need to keep up the good work. Who knows what lies ahead with the banksters etc, unless they get the free pass they are angling for of course, but we need intelligent people with years of experience to cut through the crap and keep the public aware of the abuses. Glad you are considering the fundraiser.
I think you could leverage you skill here more once you get breathing room that will give you time to incorporate all content and material you have into income but I am sure you have so much going on it is a chore to get out all the posts even though you seem to love it.
You have loyal readers and I for one respect you tremendously. I continually learn things here.
thanks again for all the good work.
Fundraiser, yes. Selling yourself to anything less “you”, no. The important thing is to not burn out. Most of us read this blog because you have something original and interesting to say. You have very good collaborators, and the comments are likewise interesting and informative. If you need funds to pay the people who have been contributing pro bono, count me in. I’ll be happy to send some funds your way. Particularly now, we need to hear an honest, no bullshit take on what’s going on. Do not burn out.
Michael, the stewards of independent media are growing weary so burn out is real possibility. I spent four years doing this double duty to raise funds for an amplifier for these new voices. I hear ‘May you do well!’ all the time. But ask somebody to open there wallet out of the liberal base and watch the abrupt departure of dialogue. Yves will never sell out. I know her rare kind of people.
She will just have no choice but to direct more time working in her career to pay bills based on the up and down nature of the economy, accelerating NC during up cycles and working outsidemof NC during down cycles. This is the best blog on the Internet for intellctual content.
The market problem folks is their is no digital verson of Random House. Offline publishers that supporter the author community did not make a smooth transition to digital. Google and other blog platforms are engines producing watet down content because they don’t pay authors squat. I actually have a plan I for this and now some initial commitments for funding. Poor Yves has no time to engage me, you folks here come first to her. Open the wallet and create raft of funding for her so she doesn’t have to beg. Then she can make a decent living giving us all even more investigative journalism, event-baser news and fantastic analysis.
..the larger problem is that Bush family friends McGraw-Hill
not only publish, they own S & P…which tells an even larger story…
Yes, I would be happy to support the site too.
Please continue to steer clear of the crass commercialism and market commentary you speak of. There’s plenty of that available already for those who are seeking that kind of content. I’ve seen how fast the comments section can go down hill when certain blogs become ‘too popular’ and I would hate to see that happen here.
I vote for raising some money and hiring some full-timers, let me know where to send the check.
Also please give some thought to a meet-up event for Naked Capitalism readers or a speaking engagement at Zucotti park. I think the Naked Capitalism community has a lot to offer the protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement and vice versa.
Thanks for all of your hard work over the years,
You’ve accomplished a great deal with your blog and should be very proud.
Exactly Jerry, you get it. Funding Yves means more brilliant commentary. Making a servant starve is beyond travesty. Sorry I am not quite as eloquent with my words.
as a poor college student money isn’t an option. however, i have plenty of time and academic resources. i would be happy to do any time consuming rather then money consuming tasks you might have.
Good man and good point. Yves mentioned needing sweat equity. I have a great web survey and means of collecting lots of quality data sample. Could you help her be a researcher for her content, gathering facts? I am not here to drive the process, these are the kinds of suggestions that Yves may need, but I imagine she will get more specific when you engage her Nathan.
i’m pretty sure that i’m qualified to be a google monkey. give me a theme and away we go. that could help. i could do it as a break between edits at work.
update, i’m in email contact with Yves. they need some time figuring out how to get me involved productively
I am the opposite: no time but some money. I find that shame works well with me. So if you could compute A = D/(N*f), I’ll try to fork over at least that. Here, D is the total amount you would like to raise for some time period, N is the number of readers, say, per day, and f is the fraction of readers you realistically expect to contribute. For f you can use the value Greenwald got. It’s oh so scientific!
Ask away.
I’m in!
I’m in as well!
Actually, I’m relieved Yves finally posed the question because I’ve been starting to feel guilty about reading such phenomenal content ‘for free’. I simply hadn’t got round to feeding the Donate button.
But I think an earlier comment makes a great point that there are many ways to contribute, including offering research time, or other tasks as needed.
I regard Yves’ problem as a sign of NC’s value and success, so I think it’s wonderful this issue is finally up for reader feedback.
Yves,
>> There are things big and small (such as going to conferences and meetings, or doing fieldwork, like going down to visit OccupyWallStreet, or doing anything on various tech questions or suggestions that involve more than a copy and paste and forward to my tech guy) that don’t happen because I give priority to getting a certain level of posts out a day.
Do you *want* to do those other things personally? Would you prefer skipping a few days of writing in-depth posts in order to, for instance, attend (or speak at) an OWS rally? Then, I say “go ahead”, because I believe your readers will keep coming back even if you flat-out skipped a full month (or more).
Or are you contemplating hiring an assistant to perform some of that legwork?
…
>> as well as debunking financial services industry and political propaganda.
I LOVE the way you shred propaganda. (It’s time-consuming to do *well*. It’s often hard to “know where to begin”. And you have to pull from so many sources or experiences to do it.)
…
A fundraiser is probably a good idea.
I’m glad you asked that question.
I used to do LOTS of fieldwork when I was at McKinsey. The joke was you needed to do 75 interviews to make partner, and I must have done something wrong, because I did about 200 in three years. “Interviews” were basically structured conversations with people like salesmen, customers, competitors, internal experts, people in the trenches in certain operations, executives (I was awfully good at getting competitors to talk to me without lying about why I wanted to see them. It’s remarkable what you can get people to agree to if you appeal to their egos). I continue to get assignments where there is no way to really understand what is going on adequately from data and secondary sources alone, and I really enjoy that sort of investigation.
So my experience is there is a lot to be gained by doing it yourself. So, for instance, going to OWS is a high priority and that has’t happened yet and I’m frustrated about that (I’ve been in Alabama the better part of a week and am flying back tomorrow, so I do have an excuse of sorts).
But I have also found that a lot of events that ought to be productive aren’t. For instance I find conferences to be a mixed bag at best, the formality and preparation takes away a lot of the advantages of an in person interaction. But there is one I’m going to this week that should be, erm, instructive (you’ll hear more about that in due course), and there is another one I’m gong to in November that is mortgage related (AmeriCatalyst) where I’m on a panel and I’m told by people who are discriminating that it’s terrific.
So in an ideal world I’d do more myself, there might be some selective cases where I’d send someone if I had a someone (particularly in other cities, travel is a huge time sink) who’d either post or we’d do a joint piece.
Is there such a thing as “succession planning” in this environment?
What do you want your legacy to be as a blogger?
I’m just flat-out curious: can you comment on how much the blog has grossed, between tip jar, ad revenue, and the boost to sales of Econned? You’re consistently listed in top ## lists of financial blogs and your visits must be in the millions at this point. What’s the scale of things as they stand now?
Assuming you don’t, why don’t you teach upper-level seminars/grad courses?
Yves,
I would be more than glad to support the blog with some funds.
Naked Cap is the first thing I read every day.
As I live and work in the DC area, if there is some leg work I could do for you in the area then I am more than glad to do it.
I do think the assistant (major domo, factotum, psychopomp) idea will eventually be the best course of action, if only for the other tasks that must be done (email, site maintenance/troll watching, etc.).
Keeping your hands/mind on the information flow is critical to what you are doing, and if you lose touch with that you risk losing the insights gained in that personal review. However, not knowing the structure you have from your business, the assistant opens up some of the time tasked to other items to allow more involved projects (such as your next book?). [Though I recall a cautionary tale for Asimov some years back about the busy man who suddenly avoided the trivial delays and tie-ups in his life.]
Donations can help there, unless, somehow, you can earn enough from those to supplant your day job, though I fear losing that would lose you other intangibles that you bring to the table.
i agree that if you have the desire to allocate some time to participating in/reporting about/teaching in the OWS movement, please do so and cut back on other nc work as needed for a time.
your questions have prompted for this reader the following thoughts, some perhaps contradictory, some perhaps irrelevant, which i offer just as grist for the nc mill.
nc and your insights, yves, are priceless. there is nothing like nc anywhere else. i will say i probably would (somewhat sadly) be able to do without some of the non-financial/economic links. your forte has been economic/financial reporting and insider information on the ripping off of the 99% and what remedies might be possible (or not). plus some important insider insights into some of the machinations behind the political scenes (e.g. warren, obama team thinking, etc.). if you chose to focus more narrowly on these issues i would not complain, although i would miss the elements further afield that you also provide–with the links, mainly.
i have no sense of what a fundraiser would actually look like (my internet ignorance i guess). but in response to your query, i’ve thought over what nc is really worth to me in comparison to other sources i regularly consult, and have got clear that i would happily right now offer a minimum $10 per month to “subscribe” for a year. (unless, of course, i get a bad hit to my livelihood from the next recession and/or increase in offshoring of intellectual work and have to cut back to an absolute bare-bones budget for the duration–for who knows how long/for the rest of my life(?). anyway…)
to second others’ pleas, please do not go with the commercial/market reports option you mention; it’s inconceivable to me that nc would shift to that direction; stick with where your instincts have led you so unerringly to date. i wonder if you fully realize what an important, unique resource you and nc are and what a big hole would open up in the public awareness of the ins and outs of the great ripoff if we were to have to get by without what nc basically offers.
i have the impression that nc is getting cited more and more often. and i’ve seen nc recommended by OWS participants on OWS comment streams. now does seem an appropriate time to consider nc’s direction, given what seems to be a shift in the prevailing wind direction, but i would not want this to mean a downsizing (for want of a better term) just when a much wider, new audience may be about to show up who could make constructive use of nc and yves smith as resources.
i think if you need to invest less time in the blog to avoid burning out, and you could be ruthless, you could post fewer pieces per day, perhaps one or two fewer. some of your comments at times seem to indicate that you feel an obligation to keep up quite thoroughly with various fronts. but on any given day certain stories are going to be more important for the application of the nc perspective than others. it is always possible to prioritize, however painful it can be at times.
you have raised, too, that big question of how journalism can get done now that the traditional system of compensation that supported it has been shredded. how can people continue to inform themselves to the level needed to sustain a fair, democratic society if no one wants to pay for the needed investigation and research to get done? as a blogger, you are a pioneer of the solution to that problem, so the blogging experiment itself as a work in progress would be a quite constructive topic to look at as nc evolves. it does seem like some kind of support is going to have to be reinvented for journalism, along with a bunch of other societally useful activities that are currently on life support, like teaching and taking care of the poor, to give just 2 examples.
and i’ll also throw out here that now may be a good moment for a deeper examination, and for all of us who are inspired by #OWS in a way we may not have anticipated, of just how one wants to enter and contribute to the dialogue about and construction of new forms, systems, remedies that OWS seems to be inviting.
at the risk of sounding presumptuous: go forward as your conscience, your joy, and your well-being, in equilibrium, lead you, yves, and you can’t possibly fail us here at nc, yourself, or the world. you are an extraordinary human being making a crucial contribution to the future of our society. forgive me if i presume too much in offering these sentiments. remember that love is inexhaustible and all action that flows therefrom can be trusted; and also make sure to always get enough sleep!
Yves, I for one would never want to “be able to do without some of the non-financial/economic links.” These non-related links to the financial crisis is another fine antidote to the blog to remind us that the world does not revolve around the financial crisis.
The financial crisis did not cause the world axes to shift so that that the earth no longer revolves around the sun. To submit to such a myopic world-view would be to commit a Copernican transgression.
Dear Yves,
what Siobhan said. reading your links & posts (and those of your guest-posters & commentariat) increases my literacy! i enjoy your (sometimes pithy) tone, appreciate your hard work, & promise to contribute to an NC fundraiser.
I’d just like to say that I love this blog and I think you have the best Links section in all of the internets.
i read this blog more than any other place
i would def support you if you need help, money or time wise
im up at night and have way to much time on my hands!!
I read this blog several times a day, and the insights are invaluable. I would gladly support any fundraiser, and would be willing to help both in money and time.
Can I buy a t-shirt?
I love the blog, and will contribute to the fundraiser.
I’m a retired magazine editor. I’d be happy to donate editorial/copy-editing skills at any level.
I would love to buy a T-Shirt too.
AS for this blog, it too is my go to place as soon as I log in each morning. The links take me places and I learn things that have increased my knowledge 100 fold. If Yves says “must read” then 99.999% of the time I find that it is a MUST READ.
With so many pleas for money to support blogs, investigative reporting it is hard to choose where to send my meager resources but as this blog is so important to me, I would gladly donate.
Thank you Yves for everything.
T-shirts — Yeah! Please consider black shirts with white print.
How about annual subscriptions for those of us who can afford to pay?
T-shirt costs X, comes “free” with a subscription.
A day without Yves is a dull day, indeed.
This is such an amazing site, and your commentary is so far above everything else I have encountered on the internet that I truly lack the words to properly convey my respect and admiration.
I hope that you are able to continue your output and provide all of us an outlet for our thoughts and concerns about the economy and the world at large.
I am truly indebted to you for providing this forum and for fighting the battles that you do on a daily basis.
I would support anything that would allow you to continue to maintain this site as it is. The strength of this site is you and your seemingly tireless efforts. A fundraiser is a great idea.
Thank you, and let us know how we can help. I cannot imagine how I could possibly provide equivalent value in exchange for what you have provided me, but I would try.
Good Idea!
Yves you have my support read your blog regularly think you do and astonding job!Keep the commentaries going Lady.You definitly have a sharp mind!
Yes, I would send some money as either a check or postal money order or cash or whatever other non-digital payments system were offered. I simply am not yet personally used to the concept of on-line digital payments.
I wonder if people would buy the past output of this blog
including the comments threads if it were published as an ink-on-paper book? It could perhaps be called The Naked Capitalism Papers or something similar. Would that make enough money to matter?
Money and/or time – I will gladly give what I have of both.
Ditto. I am a bankruptcy attorney in NYC (Brooklyn) on hiatus, seeking something more and better than how I’ve spent my 15-year career. I would be thrilled and honored to be able to contribute, work-wise, to this blog. wendyNJ at gmail.
I will also happily donate money. Like so many others, I read this blog first every day, and when I can read only one, this is it. Yves’ perspective is unique and important. And it is also important that she is a woman in this sort of role. Count me in.
Yves! Keep doing what you do so well! I am an econ prof (boo hiss…!) and I hit your site every day. I teach a course on Global Finance and you are a regular (and you text is required). I would be happy to support the site. Tell us what you need and I can rally some folks. Your no-bullshit take on econ and finance is priceless.
Cheers, p
The content of NC is of such a high level that rather than change it, you might try to more closely ally NC with sites whose intent is to have a more immediate, large-scale impact. Alliances of a collaborative nature, deeper than cross-links.
Completely agree!
If there is any way to set up a special projects fund for Yves to do something with the Real News Network, I’d be thrilled to contribute. Her previous interviews with them have been excellent, and they have the global perspective and Big Picture view to synch with some of the topics Yves covers.
I’m able to donate free labor until my next gig. Not planning to start the job hunt until January.
Happy to help on tech and some funds. Do it up. We all need to do our part to crank up the volume.
I’d like to see you team up with somebody or some group providing nation-wide voting tips supporting your discoveries.
I recently gave some money to FDL and don’t even comment there so I guess I owe you more than just buying and promoting your book and offering to help.
Just not PayPal, please.
Ack, no Paypal please. (Nevertheless the current link does not work or I don’t understand it.)
The question is, how much of a difference the fundraiser can make to you. I assume the first time it might work out reasonably but I also assume there would be a strong falloff.
Also, living in the center of the universe might make your cash burnrate pretty high. I remember private lakes and Chinese furniture listed on this site. Not sure what the answer should be.
Just out of curiousity, why the anti-PayPal?
My two cents: Do what you gotta do to make money. By all means, load the place up with adds, fund raise, have wine and cheese parties, and charge a cover (I’d come. I love cheese ;); but please, don’t radically alter the format, and definitely, pretty please, don’t change the content, not one iota.
This is the best site up the web (I blow no smoke), which means, this is one of the most important places for the dissemination of truth in the history of truth dissemination (which goes way back, btw, think, long before Socrates).
More importantly (to me, at least), this is one of the few islands of lucidity left on planet that is rapidly losing the last of it’s remaining facilities.
I tell people I go to Naked Capitalism to “learn up” on what’s going on. This is a lie. The truth is, I spend each long day interacting with mostly mad, oblivious citizens, so I like to spend my evenings here, as a kind of gentle reminder; there is such a thing as sanity.
I’ll throw in some cash. I love this site. I’m also looking forward to the kindle release of Econned.
I have just been thinking that a big reason for our current predicament is that we left the door open. We allowed ourselves to get distracted by hockey and Hollywood. We went shopping instead of studying. We left ourselves open to abuse and were abused.
It made me think of this (from Wikipedia):
… John Philpot Curran in 1790: “It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.”
Democracy requires eternal maintenance, I want to paraphrase.
Then I saw the ‘Donate’ button and wondered whether to put faith in the digital dollars. And when I read the 5 things that you can do now (OWSJ), the one that caught my attention in the light of the quote above was “Educate yourself.” This site has been an incredible source of information and enlightenment.
Your ‘Question’ made me realize that the maintenance, educate, and donate streams merge for me here.
Your community is relevant and vibrant, a testimony to the excellent work you have been doing. Keep it up. Whether you decide on a fundraiser or some other approach, you will get plenty of support.
I would support your fund raiser.
About collaboration: for me, Marcy Wheeler at emptywheel.net (formerly of firedoglake) is your mirror image in left politics rather than economics. Both of you are ferociously incisive and post about 5 times the prose as I can read in as much time.
collaborating with a Marcy Wheeler or David Dayen is not a bad idea at all
Would be happy to support you financially Yves. Yours is one of, if not the best blog covering the dismal science.
Love your blog and kindly ask you not to burn out. It’s a miracle you could manage to produce such volume and quality for years.
Most of the guest bloggers and some commenters provide high quality too. Probably you can improve sharing work with able and willing heads, hands, and legs.
The ongoing global mess is asking for new answers though, and OWS is one sign of that. We all have to answer with heart, mind and intuition.
Do it. Would love to help in any way possible, including donation, etc.
Love the site, it’s been life changing.
yes have a fund razor – good idea – i’m always in favour of funding for a good read about the other side – sanity is so sensible
in fact i vaguely remember giving a little last year, and to the lovely gg too, so it’s about time again – go for it i say, we’d all be lost without you
– ta Y
you appealed to my ego :-), yes, I’m ready to pay.
I’d be happy to chip in with a few mobile site layouts.
NC is a great read on the go, but you need good fortunes to have the site load on some devices. I could make a few easy-to-integrate-templates based on Jquery Mobile and you have readers decide on them.
Brilliant. Also, timely.
Love your website and would fully support your fund raiser.
Would it be an idea to do a partnership with, say, Edward Harrison ie get him to be on the Naked Capitalism platform and close down Credit Writedowns. I enjoy both sites but it seems that NC has quite a bit more traction (judging by number of comments). Only one website to maintain and would free up time for both of you while making sure that there is new content uploaded frequently.
Edward H. is good.
just a minor moan, though – your daily links often pointer to pay-walled sites, notably Financial Times’ ft.com – clicking your link gives me the 1st graf of the FT article & a ‘pay for me’ notice.
in an optimal world, ft.com should open their site to click-thru from NC, otherwise i have no interest in their content.
Just copy the headline into google and the article will come up in several references without the pay wall.
1) Please “continue in the direction of focusing on deeper political and economic undercurrents, as well as debunking financial services industry and political propaganda.”
2) Take a break!! Make it a Monday-Friday blog, otherwise your frantic pace will kill you. Mind you, I would miss you at weekends.
i completely second that.
So do I . “Monday to Friday blog” Don’t burn out Yves. You ae needed!
I would absolutely contribute to the tip jar!
I concur with the many enthusiastic readers who would contribute to an NC fundraiser with pleasure. However, the offers and suggestions of collaboration are even more interesting, and I am sure there are models for how this is being done elsewhere. If you find a way to tap into your many skilled readers’ intangible resources and thereby sustain or even increase the excellent flow of news and commentary, perhaps we can have the best of all worlds. I vote for trial and error in this direction.
Cool. I am pleased to have already built such a system and plan. I sent Yves a copy. Outside of the market problems mentioned on the revenue side of digital publishing, the audience should be aware of why it tooks so long for us Gen Xer’s to consider collaboration.
We’re the orphan generation and used to doing it all on our own. We are used to ravenously competing for scraps from the WW2 and Boomer generation. It is now debatable if I should have ignored raising funds completely and used my sales skills to sign up corporate sponsors instead.
I sent Yves my business plan for a digital Random House. She can copy any and all ideas she finds relevant on the revenue or content side.
of course i would contribute
Most sites evolve differently after your ‘Question’ is addressed. It
saddens me because if you did not exist, it would become necessary
to invent you. Without doubt, once expansion and the associated shill
features emerge, luster like yours is lost. Do what you have to.
Damnable marsupial condition…
Madeleine Peyroux…Careless Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhgQW7MGW6U
Skippy…Tits, Ass, Grass or Gas…Eh…name your poison Lady…I’m bloody in! 1…2…3…PULL!
Nothing wrong with a fundraiser, what isn’t clear is how the money raised would change the site.
Personally I don’t want anything changed and if it is too much for you right now Yves I would prefer it to be slimmed down rather than expanded with others doing what you do now. What interests me is your viewpoint about the stories you cover, that’s the only reason I come to the site. Don’t dilute that. Reduce the links and maybe even the main stories.
It seems to me that you are getting more exposure in other ways these days, TV interviews etc, which is great and well deserved. You are reaching a wider audience that way. To change the site to make it more “appealing” would be a mistake in my opinion.
By the way, if ever there’s a committee to create an OWS manifesto please be on it.
well put. i agree.
So Yves,
As an avid reader, I frequently think of you and your blog’s relevance. Tonight I am thinking of you in the context of how this blog best serves you, not how well you serve it. As captain of this blog, you have always served this blog and its community above and beyond exceedingly well.
One of the hats I wear is that of being a being a daily newsletter writer on the financial markets. I understand the devotion and passion that that entails. More importantly, I understand how energizing it can be to generate stories of interest to my readership and clients.
Then you made the following observation, ” Keeping this community vibrant and relevant has become more challenging in the wake of the crisis.”
Yves, it may well be that in the natural course of events as any wake disperses further from the center of its crisis, the crisis itself becomes less “directly” relevant. That seems to be happening now with respect to the financial crisis. The unresolved financial crisis is undergoing its own ripple effect, this in spite of the fact that the epicenter of the crisis remains fully intact, preserved by the powers that be, and a giant source of great irritation to the rest of the world.
The trajectory of this blog would appear to be migrating towards the outer rings of the financial crises epicenter. And as far as that goes, I agree with you that the blog ought to “continue in the direction of focusing on deeper political and economic undercurrents, as well as debunking financial services industry and political propaganda.”
And of course, I would certainly be supportive of any NC fundraiser. Can you do that in fun way? I see firedoglake has embraced the fundraiser model, but do not see their organic fundraiser efforts yielding as much fruit as they had hoped for their efforts.
Which brings me full circle to what is best for you and how this blog can best serve you and your needs. The demands of this blogsite can lead to temporary burnout no matter how much passion and energy you personally derive from this beautiful creation of yours. To this point, the blog has served you well as a mktg tool and has even been intrinsically rewarding up to this point. Even more importantly, your blogsite has had to have intangibly enriched the lives of many who are part of its community. Some of those intangibles are easy to articulate, others not so much. But where does the giving end and you begin?
Maternally, you have been a wonderfully faithful soccer mom to this blog. You have driven it to ever single game. In fact, you have never missed a game yourself. Question is, has this blogsite now in its adolescence matured enough to acquire its own driving license so it can drive itself to a game every now and then and allow you a night off? That is a risk I think you will soon be taking of necessity.
God willing and the creek don’t rise, you and I and many others of our generation will have another 30 good years to go. I would love to know that you can find further fulfillment on this blog and meet the needs of your community devoting only 2-3 hours a day to it. If for no other selfish reason than to know you have adequate time to spend with the ones you love most.
Cheers
Traffic…old friend is…one way…yours is missed.
Skippy…sorry for being defective.
I’ll sent what I can – not much I’m afraid –
So please set up the details – address, 501 C3 and so on.
And one question would it be possible to have a regular post from your readers accross the country to comment on local economic conditions ? That is local business conditions ? While this would be annecdotal and thus perhaps not rigorous reporting it could engage your readers and allow for a regular report from the field.
sleeper has a good idea here, anecdotals offer benefit of a storytelling narrative and concreteness and not abstractions.
Not sure how the admin would monitor a daily open thread as such, but worth trying
Try it! We will see. Good luck anycase.
I’m in.
I love this blog and would happily pay. I like a volunteer “subscription model” — an optional yearly fee, perhaps. I pay 30 dollars a year to Ted Rall on his subscription model; I bet if you set an appropriate range for this blog some people would voluntarily pay at the higher end.
I would much rather see less posting and days with no posting than have the blog change substantially in content. It is so great the way it is!
I’d be happy to support. This is the first thing I read every day.
Just to chip in my €2c:
I also greatly appreciate what you have created here, as it is a fairly unique setting. More or less for this reason, I would also be wary of changing the content (or even collaborating too much). I find your perspective more interesting than, say, Ed’s, and I can’t really think of many regular bloggers who really complement what it is you offer here.
Having said that, a fundraiser (and distribution/delegation some of the more administrative tasks seem like good options). I can’t contribute much financially (also a student who has to live fairly modestly), so I’ll do what I can there, but would love to contribute in other ways if you deem it appropriate.
I wish you would team up with others, hunker down for a bit, and come out with a report of all things wrong and send it to every CONgress Member, Lobbyist, Newspaper and the institutions involved in the fraud upon The People.
The kind of people I’m thinking of would be the likes of Kyle Bass, Chris Whalen, Tyler D., Barry R., Mish, (maybe even Karl D.) etc. Everyone that reads here, as well as other sites fully understand what’s going on, but individually, I just don’t see any real impact. Maybe if the “who’s who” of the economic blogosphere and people actually in the business teamed up together, you might make some headway.
To make a point of what it’s like out there, I asked my neighbor last year what The Federal Reserve was, they stated they never heard of it or what they do. The message just isn’t getting through to the masses. My guess is their individual lives are so consumed with immediate needs, personal prejudices, wondering if they’ll still have a job, etc.
*two-cents
I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times web editions, and I get more value (and far more fun :) ) from Naked Capitalism.
I have donated a few times in the past using the button on the top right, but a more formal fundraising — perhaps with a stated goal and some indication of use of proceeds — would I think bring some money in. I’d donate again, for sure.
At the risk of brownnosing, which I never ever do in real life — I think you deserve a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the mortgage chicanery. And I’m not being funny. I’m being serious.
You are right.
And I’m in.
Like the poster below, I think it’s critical that money orders to a PO Box or something be accepted. Personally do not want to be on _any_ list.
There are not many web-based entities that I would give funds to but this blog is one. Hopefully it would be done in such a way as to not get us on a list, though. I’ve found if one gives to a political crusade, it tends to start a stream of email appeals for this guy or that guy or this issue, etc. I’d prefer any appeals to stay close to Naked Capitalism.
In principle I think it would be great if you can find time to do more. I am constantly amazed at what you are now able to do all the time here. Even the list of links is something that you do a remarkable job with and the short blurbs on some of the links are quite helpful.
Without trying to say anything negative about those who help while you are away, I do think there is a noticeable difference when you are not able to do what you normally do on the blog. If you can find people to assist you more regularly, maybe you can implement some kind of training program to keep things even more consistent or somehow delegate regular tasks. I can think of several regular commentators here that I respect and would nominate to help, though I have no reason to know if they would volunteer. Maybe physical proximity is something that would help things run efficiently, though.
So thanks for the great work you are sharing. It is much appreciated. I’m sure you will find lots of support, whatever you decide.
Maam;
Mr Bougearel used the apt image of the financial crisis as a “giant source of great irritation to the … world.” Hence, it follows ‘organically’ that you and your child NC are the shining Pearl growing out of the turmoil.
The other more able commentators have iterated the reasons for your continued prescence here. Most have rightly observed that you should avoid ‘burn out’ at all costs. Trying not to be obnoxious but, you do have a ‘Real Life.’ Live that first, and let your baby, sweet little NC, take care of herself from time to time. Please don’t harm yourself through overwork. We would much rather have a small amount of your excellence than a great heaping gob of hurried content. We can find the latter all over the place, and, quelle surprise!, eschew it for the sane and reasoned harbour of NC.
The idea of collaberative relationships with other like minded bloggers has its merits. Is there a “Progressive Bloggers Club?” A place, virtual or real where people engaged in the persuit congregate to swap tales and pass on discoveries? Such would be a good idea. Sort of like a liberal Annenberg Foundation. Would anyone be willing to be the liberal version of the Petersons? And, being truly liberal, have a greater tolerance for dissent and divergence? I hope so. Utilizing this idea, are there any other bloggers you can consult as to what ideas work and which do not? It would be a starting place.
I’ll send what I can, and would love to see a NuYawk style NC tee shirt. “I’ll buy that for a dollar! (or two.)” (Imagine the fun I can have wearing it around central Mississippi!)
Hi Yves,
Yes, I agree, you need support, maybe even permanent staff.
I can’t get enough NC, so I will be chipping in. It’s only fair.
Count me in. This blog is incredibly valuable in this day and age.
Sure I would be pleased to make a contribution on an annual basis. Great blog – thanks so much for all your work.
Sure, I’d kick in some $$ for a fundraiser. You could just post a paypal link on a posting – as simple as that. I’d prefer the blog stays as it is, rather than go more crassly commercial. I like that it has an outsider perspective that is not compromised by interests of corporate sponsors. We just need to tune in to the mainstream media for that.
1. Get a couple of motivated undergrads as interns/assistants. They will produce lots of excellent work in exchange for some mentoring, a grad school recommendation and occasional free food.
2. post some affiliate links from amazon, ebay, etc. I’d bet lots of NC readers shop at amazon and whatever pittance each transaction is, cumulatively they may have a big impact.
CafePress is waiting! (You aren’t claiming that the blog is somehow lacking, are you? The response here should disabuse you of that notion…)
So that’s a long-winded way of saying I’m thinking of having a fundraiser and wondered if NC readers would support the idea. Yves Smith
Sure thing! Do it. We love you.
I would gladly support a fundraiser. This blog is valuable reading.
Thank you Yves, for giving so much of your time and efforts! I will contribute to a fundraiser.
Read you every day. Would support a fund raiser.
Adding my thanks also for your exceptional blog. And I would contribute to a fundraiser.
Yves, for me, a day without “naked capitalism” is a like a day without caffeine!
I have learned so much from you and from your superb commenters.
But don’t burn out. As many have suggested, you might want to take weekends off. Or, start a “Diary” section that could be featured on weekends.
And, an intern to handle the tech stuff on the blog might give you some time to breathe.
And, I’ll contribute money – have a fund-raiser!
I’ll contribute! This blog is too important.
Yes, you could count on me in a fundraiser. Although I am just a lay person, I am one of those who check in with your site first thing in the morning…The sparkling analysis gets me going.
I like the idea of a subscription, though a fundraiser might get more attention and money. A simple one — a goal and a rising red line — would not be difficult to put on, it seems to me. NC is the second thing I read in the morning, after Dean Baker. It is probably my favorite blog. I will contribute.
NC Fundraiser rocks! I’m in, and can guarantee a full house. Let’s plan a blowout to mark these days!
Dan
I may not be able to attend a rent party in NYC, but I would give a donation. You already have a donation widget on yr blog. I will give that a try to see how it works. I think you can set up paypal pretty easy. You may want to look into adding that to the site. I use paypal a lot on line for convenience and safety.
It looks like you have paypal as an option, and I used it to make a donation. So, in addition to the usual suspects, you should be able to accept USD electronic payments from almost anyone except those rigorously respecting the sanctity of gold backed currency. I can’t help them with that.
Yves,
Your site is invaluable to me because it one of the few (the only?) blog that does political economy at a high level instead of just marketwatching or straight politics.
The main reason I have not contributed is that you see “better-heeled” than most of the independent blog writers and given a limited budget of supporting several different blogs (and political movements like OWS), I have prioritized contributing to them and free-rode on Naked Capitalism (the same is true for Barry Ritholtz as well, for similar reasons). Some of them, like TRNN, are one’s that you frequently link to and provide some of what you suggest expanding this site to do.
I will certainly contribute because you score high on integrity even when I disagree with you and you, more than any other blogwriter, seem to value keeping a personal relationship with readers.
Just as a guide to how much to contribute, it would help if you provided an estimate of how many readers, plus the total estimated cost of running/expanding the blog or a target contribution (ex., we need about $X from Y number of people) to support different future features.
I’ll be away for awhile where internet access may be scarce so i’ll miss my morning coffee and NC (sniff), so I left a tip in the jar above.
Maybe you could take an alternative approach to fund raising. For example, instead of setting an apparently arbitrary monetary target, like most fundraisers do, you could assign a value to each article and have a chart displaying how many articles are funded (think kickstarter.com). Blogger will not do this for you, so there would be technical challenges to this idea.
I, like everyone else who posted a comment, like your alternative perspective and I am only suggesting that the same alternative lens be applied to this issue.
count me in
I stopped giving to NPR during the second Iraq war because I was so disappointed in their coverage. YOU are my NPR! I would be delighted to contribute or help out in some way.
Yves,
As an academic (in a totally unrelated field, though the activities of financial services firms certainly impact it), I value this blog for the perspective that it provides on underlying issues in the global financial markets, not for breaking market news.
So speaking purely for myself, I would much rather see you stick to a level activity that *you* feel is sustainable. If that means one post every two days then so be it! I’ll miss the more frequent updates, but given the number of times in which I get sucked into reading all sorts of information when I only came to Naked Capitalism for a ‘quick hit’ this might actually help me stay focussed on my own work. :-)
Of course, if there’s a fundraiser then I’ll do my bit.
I just PayPal-ed a early $50 fund-raiser donation. I love NC’s current scope and focus – please stay true to your instincts and interests.
Please do not change this blog in any way. You do not describe how you envision a fundraiser (i.e., more resources) will alleviate your problem (i.e., not enough time) but I assume it will be a combination of having funds to hire an assistant and having money coming in that allows you to decline other money opportunities so that you may devote time to this blog. I would gladly donate some of my limited funds to keep this blog the vibrant place it is. Perhaps a successful fundraiser would also allow you to take down some of the advertising, which runs counter to much of the content (for profit colleges, GOP campaigners, etc.)?
This blog is the most important source of information.
Thanks.
You are doing a great job and I will support you with what little $$ I have.
Embed Wolfram’s CDF functionality into your site.
Then, get Richard to make contact with some folks at Wolfram to hook up with some contributors. There are many incredibly bright mathematicians, economists, traders and other scientists who would love to have the NC platform.
There’s so much you could do with this…No other financial blogger has anything like it.
The CDF player will allow the reader to interact directly with the blog post.
It’s hard to describe unless you’re familiar with Mathematica. [I don’t think Matlab has anything like this.]
Take this Wolfram post after the Japan earthquake. The author does a great job in explaining the earthquake engineering:
http://www.wolfram.com/cdf/uses-examples/infographics-full-example.html
Download the free CDF player and you’ll see…The ability to interact with the presentation makes it much more interesting. Unlike most passive interactions with web content, this actually sticks in the mid of the reader.
The reason why this hasn’t caught on yet, IMO, is that most of the Wolfram posts focus on the code for the Mathematica wonks. Once Wolfram–or bloggers– focus more on the end presentation, the appreciation for this will grow.
If you do try the CDF Player, check out this post on US debt for another example as it relates to your subject matter.
http://blog.wolfram.com/2011/08/24/exploring-americas-debt-problem/
Here, you’ll see the over-emphasis on code, which you’d obviously eschew. But at the end you’ll see an interaction between 3 month T-Bill yield and Velocity of $ over time. It really is interesting to watch the data points cluster over the years…until 2009 and 2010.
These kinds of interactive presentations would be interesting, unique and could be thoughtfully applied to a wide variety of subjects.
I would support a fundraiser. I have no economics background and find your blog very educational and the one I trust on the current issues.
Yves,
I really appreciate everything you have done. As a teacher with 9 month old twins, who struggling to survive a tyrannically run charter school, I can not contribute anything in the way of time, but I can contribute the meager monetary resources I can afford.
But I also think that it would be very useful for the movement if you reallocated a bit of your writing time to contribute a weekly article to the Occupy Wall Street Journal. I don’t know the process by which that would happen. However, it would undoubtedly expand your readership while giving the large swath of activists a more detailed exposure to the crimes of the financiers.
You can delegate the work. Just don’t delegate the ethics!!
My first missive to this site, a hearty thanks, astounding that you can keep it up day after day. A real pleasure, my morning news
First, never again apologize for “thin posts” please.
Second, this the most widely read economics blog short of cash!!! stunning
Third, I’ll send another 100 bucks but out of allllll these readers, we’d think you could find a sugar-daddy or -mom
Finally what i love most about this site is that it does not reduce left-wing analysis to caricature but allows it space to be revealed as Lo! mostly common sense…..
Third, I’ll send another 100 bucks but out of allllll these readers, we’d think you could find a sugar-daddy or -mom
Remember the Golden Rule — the guy with the gold makes the rules. I think we’d all be happier with a crowdsourced model of gold ownership.
NC is an Excellent Blog
Don’t change the content. Your analysis and subject matter are outstanding, especially your debunking of TBTF distortions.
Ask the readers to pony up a little. A lot of quality blogs have fund raisers posted several times a year. I will chip in for this level of analysis…
I don’t have much money, but I can give something. This is a great blog that provides probably the best economic and political analysis available on the web. I go here several times a day. Thank you Yves for everything that you do.
I had mentioned this a while back before the FCIC fiasco.
Yves – certainly you have very trusted, knowledgeable people you can, ahem, “put in charge” of certain things.
The public does not understand how our financial system is screwed, nor how to fix it.
So:
1. Create a Wiki – with trusted people “in charge” of various parts to ensure high quality discussion, hammering out of ideas, and action steps.
2. The intention of this Naked Capitalism Wiki would be to fine tune the ideas of what/how to fix regulations/accounting/etc.
3. Create and fine tune the action steps required to get the changes made.
Note: Wiki = a platform which allows you to delegate, as Dave said above, to trusted people. Maybe a Wiki is not the right format ….
p.s. You have an outstanding website/brand/message that can easily be leveraged into making the change you want to see.
“Here’s to the crazies.” ~ Steve Jobs
Agree,a Wiki or an open Forum with fixed but not limited topics.Let some of the very clever readers do some of the heavy lifting.
Topics could include:How to change Economics Education
How to set up a new political party
Trends in equities,bonds,currencies,
commodities
Eye on politicians
And whatever else takes your fancy.
Yes a CAPITAL IDEA. But really, what you that is special is special analysis from a special perspective. That is your core competence and the true basis for success. So a few additional ideas.
1. Do not try to be so broad as a matter of reflex. Stay in your “grove” zone. :) To sustain effort, it has to be positive for you.
2. Reduce your analysis to sevenpoints or less,post it (your core concerns) and see what else comes in from us through its application.
3. Segment coverage. I personally like the idea of “Technical Tuesdays” and “Fukashima Fridays”. You get the idea.
Lastly, I was discussing your blog and you, existentially, the other day with my brother. It would be oddly inspirational and revelatory for the rest of us slugs if you told us how you guys and YOU get all this done. I find it…beyond imagining to be this efficient. :)
I mean this critique only to be helpful. Stick to covering what you are expert in or what delights you(like the bunny rabbit photos). I usually won’t read your coverage that’s outside finance, and the links are just a quick glance because I’ve probably seen it elsewhere. Lay on the ads like SplatF.com; they don’t interfere and are a visual balance to an all text format. I wish there were highlighted comments rather than searching through for those you reply to.
Fund raiser sounds good to me.
I’d gladly contribute. Skimming the comments, I see people suggesting a $30/year optional “subscription” — that sounds about right for me, although I’d go higher if things were dire.
Your level of commentary is spectacularly on-target. Don’t waste anyone’s time (mostly yours) doing market commentary or other day-to-day inanity; those are the trees, this blog is about the forest.
BTW, thanks for keeping the full-text RSS feed. I bought Econned precisely because I read the RSS feed and wanted to do something nice for you in lieu of visiting the website and adding to your ad impressions. (I hope that the full-text RSS feed serves you better the way it is, but if it became a subscription option, I’d understand and pay for it.)
You run several book reviews, but I don’t recall seeing Amazon, etc., affiliate links. That might scrape in a few pennies as well.
In summary: Excellent blog, take our money! :)
Oh, have you considered swag? T-shirts, mugs, hats. Ferrari’s doing it. Lamborghini will sell you a baseball style hat for 40 US dollars. It’s genius I tell ya.
You don’t make clear what kind(s) of help you need or how much. I can’t tell if that it is because you won’t really know till you try.
Accordingly my only real suggestion is that sustainability is also important, which cuts against reliance on fund-raising. You can guess better than we how much commercial $ you can get for this without compromises that you don’t want to make. I wonder also whether foundation support might be a solution, at least for a period of years.
Absoluely. You are doing a yeoman’s service that deserves to be supported.
Here is my cell number Yves 603-953-3388.
Jason
Note to the group: Finance crowded out opportunities for all of us. Add the headwind of erosion of purchasing power through inflation and you can understand why noble activism is dying fast. Wake up! You folks have stewards with the means to make a huge impact by opening your wallet and funding or do you leave that to the Fascists that fully understand how to perpetuate the theft cycle? That was the reason it was so easy to lead kind minded groups off cliffs.
Donate $10 on the donate button if that is all you can do. Yves and other stewards working 12 hour days, weekends, losing their very selves to give you info to break up the theft. They sould not be begging! This country would be transformed over night all gave $10 to stewards.
Yves, set up a PO box or put a street address on your site so some folks can send you checks. Other commentators mentioned this as well. It is the formal way to fund you beyond $10 credit card funding.
An army cant fight without the sword of spirit and large shield of faith.
Happy to provide some financial assistance. Otherwise my inclination is
1 train an intern/volunteer to do the links.
2.keep content much as it is in substance. If you need to rein back, stay with your core expertise where you are outstandingly good.
3.if you need a break, take it. Your readers will wait for you to come back. I am sure your guest bloggers will happily fill in during any vacation you need.
4 reduce to 5 or 6 days a week if necessary.
Yours is a wonderful site (the only one I visit pretty well daily), greatly appreciated by your readers, which it would be an awful loss to see disappear.
Yes of course. I will give what I can.
I would be willing to help in any way but financial. I value the insights that your site allows, but money is tight (betcha never heard that before).
I’ll add my voice to the courus and say that that is a completely reasonable suggestion and I wholeheartedly support it. I hit this first thing every morning, it’s good at getting the blood up. Please keep this as a primary focus, Yves, you have an important voice that should be heard.
Yours is one of two mandatory sites each day – of course I’d contribute.
Most venerated Yves,
Please keep it small and keep it quality.
The antithesis is the Fluffington Post and her total
sell out.
I would contribute if I could do it anonymously.
p.s. Ask your I.T. guy why “Recent Items” is greyed out and barely visible. Also, why does text go off to the
right of this window leading to blind typing?
(Mac OS X 10.6.8)
You have the window zoomed in.
Hit command-minus key a couple times to zoom out.
(command-plus key to zoom back in).
you people are idiots. Nice, but idiots. Yves just said that she is overwhelmed by work and all you can do is come up with nutty ideas that require her to work more. Coordinating volunteers to do whatever is like herding cats, nothing gets done. Setting up a wiki? Applying for grants? Selling teeshirts and hats? Are you all crazy? I want Yves doing just exactly what she is doing now, not all this other BS. So, go to the top righthand corner of this page, find the tip jar, and contribute $100 minimum. Do it right now, this very minute, and then send $50 every quarter or so from now on. Don’t worry if it’s tax deductible or not, just do it. NOW!
… just do it. NOW! ted
No. But I will donate as soon as Yves says “Go!”
Waiting on you, Yves …
She just asked. Obliquely, perhaps, focusing on a future fundraiser. But it was clear she wants to raise funds. So I think you can safely consider that the word is “Go.”
My PayPal balance has been $zero for a few months but I will replenish it and send something small within 10 days. It’s a good idea to publish a mailing address for checks as well, both on the general principle of providing more options and especially because NC readers are probably more conservative than most about using credit cards.
A fundraiser is a great idea if it can be fun. Or maybe a series of fundraisers in different regions. Maybe simultaneously with some kind of video connection. “Many hands make light work.”
Make people (groups) pay $2,500 for the privilege of showing you around their home town and buying you lunch when you’re in the area anyway.
Consider the fundraising pyramid: for every 100 contributions of $100 or less, you want maybe 20 of $500 or more and a few whoppers. Keep it light, keep it optional, and keep asking.
OK, I just donated.
Still, I would have preferred an official “Ready, set, donate!” so Yves could see very dramatically how much we love her.
I will contribute what I can. However, I have destroyed my credit cards and as Jason says, please post a P.O. Box or Street address so that I can contribute.
Hi Yves,
I’m a fan and long time reader.
Two suggestions:
First, add ads to your rss feed. A lot of people (me for example) almost never go to the website and instead read your blog trough an RSS reader. You are one of the few blogs that does not monetize this channel at all. The alternative is to only include the first few paragraphs in the rss feed and link to the site to read the rest. Don’t do like Krugman and include only titles in the feed. That’s what made me eschew is blog completely.
Concentrate on quality over quantity of posts. There is so much information on the web that in order not to drown in it, we have to choose carefully which blogs to read. One of my main criterion is the quantity of posts. If a blog covers a subject with more than one or two articles per day on average, it has to have exceptional quality of content for me to remain subscribed. Naked Capitalism is one of my favorite blogs so it makes the cut even though it generally tends to have more posts than I like from blogs.
I also tend to dislike blogs aggregating posts from multiple authors (again NC is exceptionally good at picking authors so it doesn’t deter too much) but generally it is better if authors all have their separate blogs (or at least separate rss feeds) and I can choose subscriptions individually. I’d rather you recommend posts in other blogs than include them in your own. If they are good enough they should be able to stand on their own. This is also the reason I never subscribe to mainstream media RSS feeds. The signal to noise ratio is way to low. I prefer reading articles you or other bloggers curated for me.
I cringe a little every time you apologize for not posting enough as this is the opposite of what I want. Most blogs have better signal to noise when they post less than 10 times a week along with some curated links posts. Some of my favorite blogs post only once or twice a week.
Yves,
One simple thing: Slightly longer introductory paragraphs on your main page – like you used to have. Thanks for the blog!
– – Banner
Well, my little business has been putting away some spare change for the Little League baseball team, but I guess the evil little bastards can wear T shirts and jeans for one more season. Just make it clear when and where $it$ is to be sent. Should it be in a brown paper bag? There is definitely something special about this site, and my guess is that this results from being operated on what one might call the Dominatrix Principle. There’s no committee to ‘trap and kill’ good ideas, just a high IQ, driven, creative person pulling all the strings and pushing all the buttons. But if you’re really overworked, perhaps you could troll the university journalism departments in your neighborhood for a hunkish 20 year old lacrosse playing grad student – with views similar to yours, of course – to help relieve all that pent up pressure just a little bit. Just make sure he can type.
Of course I would contribute
Clearly you have a lot of supporters Yves (and deservedly so).
Shouldn’t you update your copyright? 2010 and 2011 are missing (at the bottom of the page).
Do it. Ask – and in your case, I suspect it will be given unto you.
is it all possible to evolve your role into something more like a national/international editor/mentor in chief? This may already have been thought through and considered… the occupy wall street model and its seedlings seem to be an interesting model as of late…
Just bill me (monthly) like a newpaper – I kick some into the can every so often, but I am actively cutting off overprices information sources (NYT for out-of-towners) and believe that getting the good stuff requires an investment. I like monthly so it looks small. I guess I am a pay-for-play type.
This blog is totally unparalled as I see it – going to market commentary is to join the flies.
Fantastic blog and comments. Make great together..
http://jakenickell.com/post/11125855896/heres-my-tedxboulder-talk-never-stop-making-i
Another view:
Sorry, I will not contribute a donation (too complicated and not interesting to explain my reasons).
Yes, I would sign up for a digital subscription a la NYT or an electronic subscription of kindle/ipad/iphone type (but with selected comments only).
(I read the blog selectively, but I am often turned off by less than charitable comments. I also read several other blogs and aggregator sites. I find overlap over all the various sites I read).
Susan, you have the best economics site. I love it. But specifically, what will you do with the money? How will it help you solve the problems you’ve mentioned?
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Either for a fundraiser or even some type of premium subscription model I am in. Mugs and t shirts good (just kidding).
A Salon with your and say Greenwald would likely draw in hundreds if not thousands. I and others I know would happily pay $750-1000.00 to listen to you give a talk–probably a couple of hundred people easily. Two or three one day fundraiser talks in LA/NYC/D.C./ London and I think you can get a capable admin assistant (which you seem to really, need) as well as a capable cub reporter to dig up stories and or do field work.
I’d be happy to donate or buy a shirt.
It’s the first place I look after reading the FT and NYT daily to parse the BS and get the real picture. I would fully support and contribute. Whether – twice a year contributions or monthly. I so appreciate your prespective and gained tremendous insight from Econned, we need your voice more now than ever.
Yes to financially supporting NC and your brilliant work so it may continue. Suggestion: Keep the site “free” and add a “pay what you can,” suggested donation or sliding scale monthly/yearly subscription (with pay options beyond paypal).
Side note: I’ve used paypal for over 6 years (approx. 3-4 times per month) and have never had a problem. However, I understand the desire to avoid the tentacles of e$.
Two words not often uttered on blogs.
THANK YOU!
Readers can show their thanks by supporting your fundraiser.
Whatever decision you make please take the appropriate time off. Your readers will understand. More importantly it is positive for your mental and physical health, will keep you from burning out and keep the quality at the level it is.
offer signed copies of your book?
Mr funkright, or is it funkwright?;
I for one would buy one of those. Although, as I once kibitzed earlier, beware of the Robosigned Versions!
Yes.
Less not more. Quality and substance over volume. Take more time for yourself to look around and reflect it will make your posts and observations more meaningful and create a wider audience. The trend is always for more content but the reality is that what is needed is more timely well thought out observations.
best of luck
Ron
Would the fundraiser get rid of the
in-line adds and sponsored links? If so,
I would contribute.
For a long time now I’ve been dreaming about donating to you generously when my ship comes in. And guilty everyday I cannot yet do it. I take advantage of your generosity and genius and I feel I owe you whatever you ask for. Just please do not spin your own wheels doing the fundraising yourself. Stick to your knitting, please. Either keep it simple with your tip jar, or get creative volunteers to handle it for you. Or even better, start a bank.
What kind of bank, Susan?
Why, a riever bank, of course. And you could hold regular levees too.
I’ve heard this type of thing is effective,
You can easily become the operator of your own IRC channel. You can create your own channel by typing /join #channel-name where the channel name doesn’t already exist on that network, as in:
/join funfunfun
When you create a channel, you are automatically made the operator of the channel. You can then invite friends across the Internet to join the channel, or wait and see if others join of their own accord.
When you create a channel, you should use the /topic command to specify a one sentence description of the channel’s topic. This topic will be displayed to anybody executing a /list command, and may be your best chance to get people to investigate the channel.
http://www.livinginternet.com/r/ra_create.htm
It seems if most of us donated there would be no need of you spending time on a fundraiser.
Additionally, if we had a way to set it up optional subscriptions/donations on an ongoing basis, our good intentions would not get swallowed up by the waves of other tasks next month.
Your work and this site’s other contributors/readers are an extraordinary resource.
Just popping in to add that, for what it’s worth, I think a fundraiser (or just asking more directly for donations) is not only a good idea, but well overdue.
If the gods allowed me to read only one blog, it would be Naked Capitalism. I’m in. Keep up the quality, the commenttary and the Antidote du Jour.Thanks!
I think it’s a very good idea. I guess one reason
I didn’t order the book Econned is that the latest
commentary was available at NC, and that was what
interested me most. With a fund-raiser, I would
contribute what I can to get the same
uncompromising, cutting-edge analysis.
Yves, I’ve interviewed you on Fox Business and linked to you dozens of times from my blog on Marketwatch, the WSJ and elsewhere. I’ve got some ideas and some ways I could probably help get wider distribution and more traffic and even raise some money too, but I’d like to talk to you offline about it. You can reach me at cody at clwillard dot com or on twitter/codywillard. Thanks for all you do.
Best,
Cody Willard
I like the donation / fundraising (whatever structure you tie to this one off event would be good, but a meetup would be awesome!)
Also, I like the idea of a voluntary subscription – charities have all seemed to adopt the “debit your account once a month for $10 or less”, and I guess it’s for a reason? Falling average and no marginal purchase friction.
Ex: Making a $50 donation is hard. Making a $4.99 donation once a month for a year is easier.
Definitely I’ll contribute. You have the best mix of Knowledge, pragmatism and compassion on the web.
I spend more time on NC than any other site. Thank you for all you do. NC is an important part of my continuing education in retirement.
The donate button doesn’t work seamlessly for me: it takes me to Paypal, but it does not give an address to send the donation. When I pay for an ebay purchase clicking the Paypal button takes me directly to a page with a payment address once i have signed in to Paypal.
Can you supply an address right by the donate button, or something.
Once Liz Warren is elected to the Senate, there will be no more need for this site.
;)
Sounds good and I will support you. I read your blog everyday and it is my main source of critical and unorthodox information.
i will not use my credit card on line – but i have used it on the phone to promise $10.00/mo subscriptions to at least one other site. $10.00/mo is doable – better than periodic lump sums – $120.00/yr seems like a lot as a lump sum, but, psychologically and financially it is quite “doable” in monthly payments – and when it is “automatic” don’t have to remember to send it. !000 folks at $10.00/mo – $120,000/yr – not bad, and that would be a continuous feed you could count on ….
Could you set up a phone line for at least a limited period where folks could do this?
This is a terrific site, indeed a “must read”, especially when you break down the “technical stuff” (which, darn it, still loses me – rats) for those of us non financial types who, nevertheless, want, and need, to know this stuff ….
I love your iconoclastic, down to earth, no BS style! It is what, IMO, makes this site … A woman after my own heart …
The USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of the site, the thing that keeps me reading every day and dipping in multiple times daily, is YOU, Ms. Smith. I am flatly against anything that does NOT free up your time for more of what you already do so well, and I’m cool to the idea of your collaborating even with someone as outstanding as Marcy; this thing is yours, and it’s why I’m here.
If there’s a way to subscribe for a monthly fee, I’d do it; if there were swag, I’d buy it. If there were a way to buy your book through YOUR site I’d buy it (a plus: you might get to keep more money off each sale; a minus–somebody needs to do fulfillment and I don’t want your time to go there). I would also happily contribute toward a freelance publicity person/agent, if such would help you broaden your visibility. (I once mentioned here I’d love to see you on the Amanpour show, or teaching Charlie Rose a thing or two, and I still think that. These nitwits need to be schooled, and you’re someone who can do it.)
So, yeah, I’m in. Should I contribute now, or wait till you put up the balloons and crepe paper and “Bake Sale” signs?
I will donate something. Keep up the good work please; you are in my core website group. I have no creative fund raising ideas to offer — just ask for funds on a regular basis and make the payment mechanism easy to use.
I just made a small donation at Yves’s TIP JAR at the top of the main webpage. If we all did this occasionally, good journalism will be rewarded. Too many of us expect too much for free. Everything has a cost. An old time greenshade accountant made that point to me years ago.
Yves,
I often wonder how you find the time to write as much good material as is posted. To make more hours in a day, you might want to accept op-ed pieces from others (a la Huffington Post) which may provide daily content with less of your time. As you know, proof reading takes less time than creating/writing.
I support the idea of a fundraiser; I have been meaning to contribute for the longest time and a formal request may get others off their wallet. The proactive person would take your message and contribute today. My office will be contributing via PayPal and the website today.
Thank you for the good work.
DWoolley
“…a MORE effective and appealing voice…”
are you kidding?
for information and insight, this is one of the top sites in the entire weblog world.
whenever i recommend it the reaction is invariably:
“wow, what a great blog nc is!”
if you needed to do anything it would be some advertising to make more folks aware of nc.
that and cleaning up the current page’s presentation format which is too crowded with highlites intermixed with articles.
and
1) make contributing VERY, VERY easy – hint: visa is easy. paypal is easy only if you have a pp account. checks are even easier.
2) guaranteeing anonymity for pseudonyms is a must since visa, etc require real names.
I agree heartily with the idea of a fundraiser.
My first question is if there are parts of the site that you’re willing to hand to other people (more than already). Would an assistant to take care of links and make a first pass on correspondence help? Are you handling technical aspects that could be outsourced?
Second, (even though I don’t like it while it’s going on), the pledge model used by NPR seems to work pretty well. They’ve been pushing sustaining membership, which would give you better cash flow planning. Quarterly pledge drives with specific targets would give you recurring income. I’d also find a way to accept checks but request that they be high enough value to justify time to process.
One model that I’m impressed with is http://www.minnpost.com. So far they’ve done a decent job of attracting donations (I’m a member) and building relevant content.
I support the idea of a fundraiser; NC is too valuable to lose for lack of financial support.
Hi Yves.
I have been reading for a fairly short time but NC has become my home base to check in the morning, possibly my favorite blog with intelligence, density of information and smart and dense comments too. My previous home base has been disappointing me by dumbing themselves down to try to get a new wider audience at the expense of quality. And I’m finding that the founder turns a blind eye when a Democrat is in the WH, to things he would have been all over when it was Bush/Cheney doing them. It’s depressing.. I’ve been reading them for 5 years. Oh well, the center can never hold, things change. So now I’m nomadic and a Naked Capitalism/Real News/FDL/Greenwald person.
If something has got to give, please do fundraising and I will participate, if it means the writing stays smart and sharp. That’s my top choice of what would happen. Kevin
Hi Yves,
Absolutely, do a fundraiser. One suggestion: auction of a lunch with yourself. My guess is there are some well-healed types reading NK who might bid that up to $10k or more. Would that I were flush, I’d pay that much.
I’m a survivor of the decimated high-tech industry who got further wiped out in the post-Lehman debacle but I would dig into the very anemic coffers to contribute to a fundraiser. I’ve marvelled since becoming a daily NK reader at your diligence and the general excellence of what you produce. I had hoped you were independently wealthy from your days in McKinsey and Japan Inc., but I guess not. In these times we need voices like yours in the fray more than ever!
As I told a grocery cashier after the guy in front of me made a stink about getting cash back in too small bills for his taste, the problem in this world is that the wrong people have the money.
Best wishes,
Phichibe
Yves,
This is the best financial blog by a mile. The cash should flow well if you ask for it.
ftm
Please set up a bank account to which we can contribute automatically each month.
Your site’s the best
You provide incredible insight and information. You are the top of my google reader cue every day. I would be happy to support you
Keep up the fine work
and thank you !
If everybody would just go to the tip jar and make a contribution now, then maybe Yves would get enough money so she wouldn’t have to spend time on this fundraiser thingy instead of working on her blog.
Superb sanity-inducing site, yes, a fundraiser is an excellent idea. Appreciate the time and psychic (and professional) energy you put into this wonderful place.
Yves:
Most successful sites have vapid content: if you licensed your content to them, that might provide an income stream from which you could hire delegates for administrative tasks? Of course,this would be in addition to the fund-raiser…
Sent you a bit of cash, for encouragement. I have often wondered how you can maintain this quality and do anything else. I see the posting times on some of your diaries and conclude that sleep isn’t one of your needs.
Your insight, commentary and passion are well deserving of support! Count me in!
I will gladly donate up to $100 per year when you do the fundraiser.
I have experience as an executive assistant/research associate in the financial services industry. I have lots of free time at the moment and would love volunteer. Please contact me at the email address provided.
I just donated, would think that a reminder built in every year would help.
I like Real News approach:
“If you like this article please donate $10”
on every article, you tend to keep giving.
so, if i donate via Paypal, what address/account do i send it to?
Mr. Arturas Racas, from Lithuania wants to do the same thing. I think it is bulshet. Sorry about that. No money will be given to lithuanian journalist from countryside.
I would be willing to pay to read your content. If you want to expand your audience, keep appearing on other media formats. I saw your site from your guest spot on GG. I saw GG on Moyers. When you find people that are not all shoveling the same bull, you like to hear what else they have to say. Thanks for providing your perspective.
Dear Yves,
I’m just a poor, young, confused peasant, but I’d donate $10 right away!
Regards,
FrankZappasGuitar
Wake me up when the bucket’s coming round.
Keep up the far better than good work.
Yves,
I’d like to add my name to the outpouring of appreciation for the service you’ve provided with this site.
-By all means find a way to bring on staff to enable you to not have it drive you to distraction and burn out!
– Your media appearances are very effective, and should be more frequent if possible. There are very few if any other financially knowledgeable individuals who speak the truth to a wider audience in a way that they can understand like you do.
– Finally, keep your open comment policy, but when people (like myself) stray too far off topic send them a polite email asking them to consider how to better explore the subject at hand rather than just venting their frustration!
We need a site devoted to the discussion of SUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS. Surely there is room for a more sophisticated discussion than the Doomers like Kunstler elicit. Post-Collapse society may revolve around 40 acres and a mule, but I suspect it will also contain Drexler’s nanotechnology machines, bio-aquaponic food production, and 35% efficient solar collectors.
Any volunteers willing to apprentice with Yves and start it?
i dont know anything about fundraising, running a business, having a successfull website, etc.
some sites are subscription only (Sibel Edmonds)
some newspapers have ‘teaser articles’ (wall street journal)
some are masters of headline tweaking and awful ads (huffpo)
i dont know which way to go, but i do want to say good luck.
Yves
It seems the only way for you to expand. Possibly then you could hire 1-2 like minded individuals to augment your writings, with you editing their input before publishment.
I read your missives and would contribite to such a well thought out column.
Regards
Yes and no. I appreciate this blog, but I don’t care for the crossposting from other authors, whether I agree with them or not – I can read them on their own blogs, you might want to have an A list section for your daily list. Sometimes you have more “guest” posts than your own.
So, basically I would support and might even contribute to a fundraiser for Yves Smith postings. Not the rest. This is your soapbox, should I have to pay for the others who use it too?
Yves, your work ethic regarding this blog is phenomenal. I remember when you were trying to post while on vacation awhile back and I kept thinking to myself, “why doesn’t she just stop and not worry about it for a week”?
I like the present focus of your blog (and dislike the market commentary idea) and hopefully you’ll be able to find some new way to continue your great work that doesn’t put your health or sanity in jeopardy.
Yah Yves:
I have been free riding on you for many years, dear.
You have smoothed the edges of my rude education and allowed me to accurately peer through a 360 degree fog of obscruantism. As a Maine gal, you can appreciate the fog thingy.
I would be happy to drop a few dollars in the till, but please allow me to send a check as I don’t like the electronic Pay Pal thingy.
Best
Chuck Roast
P.S. I dropped a few bucks in the Occupy Maine till today in your name.
Yves,
I could help out with sweat equity, too. I’m unemployed and will most likely remain that way (not-so-long story). I have a tech and programming background, as well as being a good writer and quick learner. (I have degrees in both nursing and computer science, though my CS degree is quite rusty.) I’m outgoing and comfortable around all different types of people, i.e. I can talk to anybody. Let me know if I can help out. I’m bored!
I also made a modest donation. Money is a bit tight right now or I’d given more. I love your blog!
Yves, you and Glenn Greenwald are the only two bloggers worth reading IMHO. Both of you have no peers; just consistently the best content and commentary Out There.
I too have been taking a free ride and have little income to spare for my two favorite blogs, but if you need it, I am willing to contribute. I doubt if you’ll ever be up in my neck of the woods (the Frozen Tundra of Minne-snow-ta) but if you ever make it up here for a personal fundraiser, I’ll be there.
I echo the sentiments of most of your commenters here that your first loyalty is to your personal health and wellbeing. If you find it necessary to post on fewer days or take some vacation time, or go on a Field Trip, it sounds to me as though very few people would abandon the site.
Will wait to hear your thoughts but please know that I will support whatever decision you make as best I can financially and otherwise. You truly are a National Treasure.
I support Informed Comment, FireDogLake, Common Dreams.
NC is in that short list of blogs I visit often.
You only have to put up the request.
I don’t use PayPal.
Please offer an easy alternative.
Will be delighted to contribute, great blog indeed.
Maybe fewer posts would take the pressure off? I have trouble keeping up with *reading* this blog. (I’m not saying this as a substitute to raising funds; it just seems like the blog has become overly broad.)
As was suggested by a reader above, I made another
one time donation, but if you had a subscription
service, a la NYTimes, I would subscribe, of even
if you had a method of subscribing and paying
automatically, I would do that. It’s just so easy.
Maybe offer a PO box where people could use their
bank account bill payer to send a check each
month…..requires no thinking, and maybe even
just $10/month from most readers would help.
Anyway, however you structure it I’m in. Reading
NC has both made me money and saved me money.
And BTW, I would hate it I think if your uniquely
personal and professional voice and insight were lost here.
Yves,
You continue to be the one blog I will go to when I want a level-headed, cut the bullshit take on current financial events. I followed you on the edge of my seat during the crisis after stumbling through blog after blog trying to push their angle.
You have an angle too, but it’s the one that a large broadcast audience needs right now: Someone willing to continually translate what we’re being told about financial events into what these events actually mean and who is actually benefiting.
For me, and perhaps many others, the moment you lose sight of this singular goal will be the moment we’re forced to look for more sources to get the succinct, penetrating analysis we want. Sometimes what you say isn’t unique, but the tone and manner you communicate your ideas is your consistent contribution to the global debate: Simple matter-of-fact insider knowledge made available to whoever wants a deeper understanding of what’s wrong and why.
Do the fundraiser, find like-minded individuals to delegate as much non-creative work as possible (potentially including fieldwork, there are a ton of graduate students that would likely be proud to do your bidding), and try to remember that it’s more important to keep carrying out the role you’ve played than to get bigger/better/stronger.
A fund raiser is a great idea. However, for those of us who have quit using ATM cards and credit cards, you’ll have to give us a PO box to send checks to. I really hate the idea of Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, etc. getting a cut of a donation I give to NC.
Until recently stumbling on NC (via Baseline Scenario) I had pretty much given up on cultivating awareness and understanding of the recent big $ bang (and its many tentacles), its ongoing metastasis and the unbelievable ignorance/dishonesty of MSM and even most “liberal” leaning blogs. Quelle Belle Surprise, then, to discover NC.
I think I echo fellow fans of NC in pleading: Madame – Ne nous quittez pas! So don’t burn out; take time off; but please stay true to your great talent for eloquent, sharp and dead clear reporting and commentary.
I live in NYC and am happy to be a hand on deck.
Thank You for providing a platform of intelligence and sanity,
ARH
I’m in between law jobs at the moment, and ready, willing and able to help out in any way that would be . . . well, helpful!
Finding NC has been Une Belle Surprise indeed. Thank you so much.
AH
Until recently stumbling on NC (via Baseline Scenario) I had pretty much given up on cultivating awareness and understanding of the recent big $ bang (and its many tentacles), its ongoing metastasis and the unbelievable ignorance/dishonesty of MSM and even most “liberal” leaning blogs. Quelle Belle Surprise, then, to discover NC.
I think I echo fellow fans of NC in pleading: Madame – Ne nous quittez pas! So don’t burn out; take time off; but please stay true to your great talent for eloquent, sharp and dead clear reporting and commentary.
I live in NYC and am happy to be a hand on deck.
Thank You for providing a platform of intelligence and sanity,
ARH
Go for the fundraiser or anything else that makes your life manageable. I have read your blog for a couple of years and notice the discussions seem to be getting longer and longer. Perhaps some paring back of the volume and more specific viewpoint would be good for everyone?
Count me in.
Ask and you will receive!
I would be delighted to provide some financial support to your site. There are only two sites which I find to be indispensible, yours and Dave Cohen’s Decline of the Empire blog. Others are occassionaly useful but your two are top-notch. Please let us know just what it is that you want to propose and I will be pleased to contribute what I can.
I wouldn’t like another subscription with obligations to pay on a regular basis–life is complex enough as it is. But I’d be glad to donate if given the chance. I spend a lot of time on this site because of the quality I find here, and I’d do what I can to help preserve it.
P.S.
I didn’t know there was a tip jar. It doesn’t show up in my RSS reader–I use Readability whenever I can–so I’d need to be reminded to donate (if that’s the model you settle on) in a post every so often, as you did today.
Yves: you ought to feel pretty gratified by now
at the response. It’s great to know you’re loved
and revered, isn’t it?
What’s more, all these responses should tell you
that we, your loyal fans, will do whatever it takes
to keep you, and this blog going, in perpetuity.
I live in Memphis, Tennessee, but if you ever find
yourself in economic extremis, please know you
have a place to live, rent free, right here in
River City. If necessary, I will feed and clothe
you as well (though I’m not sure I could do it
at the level you seem to be accustomed to), just PLEASE keep “[doing] that voodoo that you do so well.”
Your blog is my daily dose of sanity.
Please do whatever you need to avoid burnout. Hire assistants, limit your posts… NC is your creation, the clear voice of a sharp intellect unpolluted by ideology. Unique and immeasurably valuable. Please hold on to that quality. Not an easy task, I know. Yes to fundraiser.
Thank you!
My copy of ECONNED arrived at Powell’s yesterday. I’ll be picking it up on my way to check out the goings on downtown at OccupyPortland. A report will be forthcoming, if a suitable thread appears . If there are concerns or areas of interest I can be attentive to, I am happy to be of service.
I have about 7 hrs/week available for volunteer work while my 3 year old is at school. It seems unlikely that I could be of assistance to NC (Philosophy undergrad, debt paid by learning rough carpentry well enough to start my own outfit, since down sized and turned over to my partner) but if so, I would be happy to offer some or all of those 7 hrs/week to the cause.
Your blog is the highlight of my reading day, and your book, Econned, is the best big-picture look at the economy I’ve read. I’d be happy to pay a fee for your daily insights.
Count me in…
Late to this, but like many others, NC is the first thing I read every morning beyond personal email. It’s been a source of much useful information. Don’t have a lot of time or money, but am willing to contribute whatever I’m able in one or the other or both.
A periodic (quarterly or yearly) fundraiser is a great idea. Fundraisers increase participation and affinity, compared to fees, and of course they’re much fairer to those who don’t have the funds to pay a fee. You’ll want to incentivize donations in some way (either with “gifts” as PBS does, or with the classic “thermometer” like United Way does). So this approach will take some thought, but there are many best practices that can help you.
I’m glad you asked. I know this blog must be a lot of work. It would be nice to have some help.
I have to wait until my next check in two weeks, though.
A blog should be a unique personal voice about issues that you focus on. As soon as you move outside this environ, you are no longer a blog.
I guess what you are saying is that you want the site to evolve down a research/detailed commentary on fairly technical aspects of the financial system that are not openly aired. This is another level up from a blog.
A hybrid blog/research consultancy….. A Grant’s Interest Rate Observer of modern financial monetarism. You need a subscriber section (cost) and a straight to the point blog (free).
Yves, I agree so much with so many people who have offered their views. Naked Capitalism is profoundly inspirational and would be the last blog/website that I would give up reading. In a former life I was a business mentor, indeed still have a couple of clients, and I know that properly constructing a solid business plan entails time, thought and much listening to your ‘customers’, your marketplace. Your audience have shown here how committed and loyal they are to you, that is incredibly important.
Here’s an offer. I am delighted to offer freely my time to work with you and assist in you thinking and re-thinking your way forward. Contact me via my Blog or direct to learningfromdogs@gmail.com
Thank you for all that you do, Paul
Hi Yves,
Its really important not to burn out. I’d stick with the list of links and cut down on the number of posts. You’re my daily news source. I check Drudge and HuffPo but no longer click on very much there.
Your point of view is without peer. You have to see yourself as an author -replacements are insufficient. Assistants, editors, whatever, yes. And I think, your having established a daily routine, sticking to that could be best for you with an occasional day off. Naomi Kline in an old interview, when she was confronted with how much she makes, shot back that she paid 7 researchers. That doesn’t make her work any less her’s.
The important thing is to have assistants who can learn from you to do the stuff you are ready to give up doing -anything you’d rather not do yourself -hey, that’s what success is for.
Just a thought about a fund raiser: as long as its structured so it doesn’t lead to a feeling of having to account for ‘amount raised’ or how money is used. The goal should be for the blog to pay for itself, pay you a salary, have a prudent reserve, and show a profit like any business.
I’d like the opportunity to buy NC items on the site: the usual big sellers, cheapest to print up; start with t-shirts. You can use the logo on the book without text. That way there are opportunities to notice others (who knows. i could be commuting daily with craazyman on the 65th st. crosstown and never know it), and if anyone asks what the logo stands for, there’s the opportunity to steer them to the blog one-on-one.
I had the delightful experience on my visit to Zucotti Park as an OWS observer and minor participant, of meeting a reporter who was on the job. In answer to my first question to her, ‘what blogs do you follow? (she writes on economics), she responded, “eves.” I sent her the photos of NYPD sexual molesting you had pointed us to on the blog. A great experience for my fist time participating in a demonstration. It gave us an orientation immediately for discussion. Regardless of her politics I could trust she had a somewhat open mind because of that. She pointed out who was who among groups of NYPD -a variety of departments working on site -some in business suits.
The greatest value I get participating on NC is hangin’ out with my betters. My better writers, more educated on a variety of subjects, and better read. Its been the best educational experience -helping unlearn a major in economics. Its a rich experience.
Commenters are important. Why, just today I checked out Dan Duncan’s link to Wolfram’s web site and the CDF player. Wow! Thank you, Dan. I enjoy practicing math and this is the best site I’ve seen for it so far. Might even get an iPod to have those math lessons apps portable.
Thank you, Yves -and all the best.
A fund raiser would be best. It could be as simple as having readers quoted at the top of an issue reminding readers of the value of NC and requesting that they drop some $ in the PayPal tip jar.
More people need to read Yves – that is the basic issue. I suggest allowing some people, like David Dayan at FDL, permission to reprint your posts in full with their own commentary. I noticed the other day that a Kos poster had your permission to post in full. I think that is a good trend – just pick the right people and the right places to give that permission to, and let those sites comment among themselves without wrecking the community you have built here.
Why is this important? because maintaining the integrity of the comments section here is paramount. The comments here are always almost as good as the post they are jumping off of. I would cry if they became overrun by reactionary axe grinding comments like those at Huffington, for instance, which I guess is a by-product of popularity.
I don’t know if I have any feedback on the voice of your blog. I can say that I’ve found it useful in learning about the questionable underpinnings of textbook economics, and unwrapping the spin on so many issues.
IMO, if you are in search of “more resources” you can either 1) lean on the community to generate content (potentially diluting the quality), or 2) extract the funds from the community to pay for high quality resources.
By developing a place on the website for community generated content and links, would be a way to crowd source content. This would cause you to allocate more time to the function of editing/filtering and while it diminishes the amount of self generated, high quality content that brings people to the site, it increases the breadth of the content covered allowing you to focus on specific ones to develop more fully. It sounds like this is not your preferred structure, but it should be explored.
The second method, may just require you to add a sentence to each post specifically stating, “If you like what you read, please support this site by making a contribution. Contributing $1 per article read, or $10 per month, helps NC provide quality insight and analysis. Thank you.”
With Glennzilla and Barry The Great, your blog is a mandatory daily stop for me, period.
Fundraiser is a great idea; I’ll pay to support you instead of any MSM, (they do not get my attention, time nor eyeballs already so…) NPR included.
I was recently thinking that Naked Capitalism has become my number one most trusted and most interesting site on the net. You are just the best.
Paradoxically, I think you should probably do LESS. As several people suggested, you might stop posting on weekends. Alternatively, you might farm out Saturday and Sunday to people whose views you find valuable.
It always seems that you have an acute sense of responsibility — that it’s vital for you to engage on all these crucial issues, to get people educated and pointed in the right direction, to call out conventional idiocy. But this is really too vast a responsibility for one person. The danger of total burnout is real.
Your great contribution is your superb ability to THINK, to apply your experience, and to write and speak clearly. (Not to mention a keenly honed sense of outrage.) All these things require some calm space to flourish, even for a person who likes a lot of action in her life. For the benefit of all your readers, current and future, pace yourself. We’ll wait. It will be worth it.
Well, I certainly feel I’ve learned a huge amount here and I’d be happy to support in some fashion. Whether you sell merch (it seems odd I suppose, but I’d be proud to wear a t-shirt) or do a fund-raiser, post about it & I’m sure I’ll be in (even if I can’t really kick up the kind of cash that many others of your NY-based readership likely can!)