By The Rev Kev from Down Under
It is with deep regret that we at Naked Capitalism announce the closure of our site due to lack of financial resources. We thank our contributors and readership over the years. We suggest that for news and analysis, that they peruse other websites such as the Washington Post, MSNBC, Daily Kos, the New York Times, Infowars, CNN and Fox News.
Yeah, obviously “fake news” but just writing this put the wind up me when I realized what a loss Naked Capitalism would be. I have seen great websites just disappear and it’s not a good feeling. So please, go to the Tip Jar right now, as in right the hell now. If you can give a little, give a little, and if you can give a lot, really give a lot.
It is a funny feeling daily visiting the Lord Voldemort of the internet as in they-who-must-not-be-named. At this stage of the game I think that a lot of “serious” people would sooner admit to visiting P***H** than Naked Capitalism. But visit they do. It is rumored that Ben Bernanke himself used to peek at Naked Capitalism articles surreptitiously to find out what sort of mess Alan Greenspan had left for him.
You gotta love a site that falls foul of mobs like Google and the Washington Post. Seriously, it is not like you can respect the opposition these days anyway. If you were holding a party, would you really invite the likes of people like Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg? Talk about your buzzkills. Far better to have people like Marshall Auerback, Michael Hudson, Bill Black, Rajiv Sethi, and Wolf Richter come over. So to continue to hang out with them, proceed to the Tip Jar, donate, and if you can, make it big!
I no longer know how many years ago it was that I first found Naked Capitalism. I was trying to get background on what caused the financial crash after 2008 to understand the bullet dodge we experienced. I found myself coming back here again and again because of the stories – and more importantly – the analysis of how it came about. Stuff you would never, ever see in the regular news. Stuff that should have been. Just the stories explaining what MERS was and how it worked were an eye-opener for me that hooked me in.
And I have been coming here ever since and eventually piping up. But along with the articles I found just as valuable the comments posted by such a wide variety of people from different backgrounds, different countries and so many with their own areas of expertise – comments that can be weird, wonderful, and even profound. It is a real community of like-minded people at work here.
So Yves will put up a post on Brexit and highly informative and perceptive remarks from people Like PlutoniumKun, Clive, vlade, David, and Colonel Smithers soon appear. Lambert, after putting on his yellow waders, will delve into the intricacies of American politics and observations flow in from all corners of the country – readers like flora, Wukchumni, Cal2, polecat, VietnamVet, Henry Moon Pie, Watt4Bob, pretzelattack, and ambrit. Jerri-Lynn will post an article on plastics or other environmental issues and commenters like Synoia, drumlin woodchuckles, Amfortas the hippie, OpenThePodBayDoorsHAL, witters and many others weigh in. And I have only named but a few but you all know who you are.
Before I forget… If there any members from any of the three-letter agencies reading this site as part of their daily duties… Fellas: You’ve got a good gig here. You get to read all these articles and great comments and get paid to do it. You owe it to yourselves to dig deep and do your part to keep this site going. See that Tip Jar with those begging snow leopards? Do it for your conscience – and don’t forget to charge it to government accounts. If you don’t, you may find yourselves being sent back to dig through the comments sections of Daily Kos and Breitbart!
There is an old American acronym that goes back to the 1930s which is TANSTAAFL – “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” and such is the case here. Naked Capitalism needs your help to keep up all its good work. Look, times are tough. You know it and so do I. I get it.
But if you want to find out why times are tough, who did it to you, how they did it and why, then that is why you have Naked Capitalism. When you put in a contribution, it is not only money you are donating but a vote of support to Yves, Lambert, Jerri-Lynn, and the rest of the crew. You are saying that you want to have their backs and value what they do. So give, for them, and for yourself too. It is time to give something back.
You may find too that you not only want to put in a contribution in your own name but that you would also like to make it on behalf of another person who, for one reason or another, are unable to make a contribution themselves. That being said, I therefore personally will be making a contribution in the name of Marcie Frost of Sacramento, California.
13 comments
Comments are closed.
Donated from Australia. Good for you, Yves, and all who help this site operate. Lurker for a long time. Now I’m invested.
That is so kind! Always exciting to get new donors. And I have a personal fondness for Australia based very much enjoying my two years there.
Thanks for the wake up call. I donated just now. Love this site, the writers and commenters. Reading NC is my favorite part of the day.
G’day Rev, and of course you are one of our most notable commenters around here.
Can I just iask people to consider one of the under-appreciated virtues of NC: it provides an excellent environment for commenting, and so encourages those with something to say to say it.
I have essentially given up commenting on other sites, because I’ve no desire to be insulted or abused, or shouted at in capital letters. Unfortunately, a quick look through the comments on, say, the Guardian website shows that this behaviour is actually pretty normal, and on many other sites it’s worse than that.
And then there are sites that adopt an informal Thought Police approach. For a few years I was a commenter on a site called Crooked Timber (no link) run by a group of left-wing academics, and often featuring interesting discussions. But it was always difficult to get away with comments that ventured outside the liberal Overton Window, and some commenters were banned, for example, for saying that immigration was a serious issue that needed looking at. The site went totally nuts after 2016, introducing compulsory moderation for all posts, and when I last looked was a shadow of its former self.
I don’t comment to show how clever I am, or how many comments I can make, or out of a desire to belittle or make fun of others. Life is too short for that and I have many other claims on my time. I only comment when I think I have something to say that people might be interested in, on a subject I know something about. I think that most of our habitual commenters feel the same way.
I must be one of NC’s longest-serving readers, and I have donated this year, as I have every year, but I’m especially pleased that money is going to support the comments section, and the work of the commentariat, who are a breath of fresh clean air after the fetid swamp of most comment sections.
brilliant! I would like to retroactively make half of my (already-made) donation on behalf of Neera Tanden.
Hey Yves!
Tried 2 donate w a credit card, it takes me to a default application for paypal; don’t want to use that. Suggestions?
second David`s last two paragraphs. Really value your comments in general! Yes, NC has become indispensible for so many of us. To NM I`ve been having problems trying to contribute and getting tangled up in PayPal, the team are on to it and maybe they`ll be letting us know soon what the problem really is. I don`t want paypal and my valid card is being refused. We`ll see….
Thanks so much for your willingness to give and sorry for the difficulty. The Tip Jar tells you how to donate by check but I will repeat the information here:
Aurora Advisors Incorporated (please make the check out in this name)
164 Peachtree Circle
Mountain Brook, AL 35213
Also if you look carefully at the first screen when you try to donate by PayPal, you can use your regular credit card. PayPal makes that option not at all obvious.
We used to have another payment service, but a few years ago, it went to high monthly minimum fees that were prohibitive for a small site like ours. Regular credit card merchant accounts also have hefty monthly minimums. PayPal is the best of the bad options available to small fry like us.
I am glad that this website exists. Many of us here are refugees from the Balloon Juice blog where we were former frequent readers. Unfortunately, the place became overrun with Clintonites and Obots around 2015 or so, and they began purging their commentariat of non-neoliberals because of their vitriolic hatred for Bernie Sanders which remains to this day.
I will donate to Naked Capitalism soon, as this is one of my primary news sources at this point. After all, it will only be a matter of time before Google puts a blog like this to be outside of people’s filter bubbles when they do a search.
Funnily enough, only today I recommended this site, as a template of practical and transparent comments exchange forum, to a bunch of my neighbors fighting the underhand imposition of a great deal of property developments onto our modest town in SW London, the imposition that will double the number of people living here. (yes you guessed right, there will be no doubling of schools or hospitals or roads or coppers).
Occasionally lazy to put my hand in my pocket, but making good today.
A pleasure reading everybody’s thoughts, keep it up.
Thanks for your donation and for encouraging others to read us!
Greetings from New Zealand. This donation is very long overdue. Thanks to all for the many years of sane and sensible analysis which I haven’t been able to get anywhere else.
Organization”, “name”: “Patreon”, “description”: “Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easy for artists and creators to get paid.