This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week! Please support our efforts to shed light on the dark and seamy corners of finance. For details on how to participate, please see our kickoff post.
Thanks to our loyal Saturday morning readers! We’ve already gotten just shy of 100 donations in the first six hours (out of our fundraiser target of 750 donors), and blew past our first target, which was $4700 to provide for upgraded tech support, which will provide for faster loading times, better ability to handle traffic spikes on big news days (as in fewer/shorter outages) and faster resolution of other site issues.
Our second goal is $10,000 for travel, and as of 1:00 PM, we already have over $1700 towards that target. Note that we get lots of invites to conferences, and right now we are awfully picky about which ones we go to, not just for travel cost reasons, but also because it may result in fewer posts (the usual problem of only so many hours in the day) and so can have an ad revenue impact as well. As you may know, even going to Washington DC on a day trip and having a few meetings (as in cabbing around a bit) is close to a $500 item. And next year, INET (the Institute for New Economic Thinking) will be having its session in Berlin. Last year, we had the opportunity to ask Larry Summers a question and see him evade it, so I’m sure we’d learn something, or if not, at least cause trouble. In many cases, the benefit of going to a conference isn’t just attending the sessions, but getting to meet people we may know by e-mail or reputation.
In addition, we have some people whose travel expenses we’d like to fund. For instance, a regular contributor, Andrew Dittmer (who was tremendous help on ECONNED and has also done a lot of behind the scenes work) is working on one of the Occupy Wall Street committees (the same one we are on), which is an offshoot of the alternative banking effort that we are provisionally calling Occupy Big Finance. He lives in Boston, and wants to come to New York periodically to participate in the sessions in person, as he is later today. We’d like to defray some of his travel expenses.
So those of you who have contributed already, thanks again for your generous support, and we look forward to those NC fans who have just found out about the fundraiser to help make the site more successful.
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Thank you for the great work you do.
Now there are plenty-o Christians who eat dog food so they can give their favorite televangelist a goodly check. I think we’d all like to see that same sort of enthusiasm displayed here today.
I like option 6.
Skippy…my dogs and cats can eat people food for a bit.
Hey Yveszilla, did ya get my first contribution yet?
I haven’t gotten so much as a thank-you, much less the year’s supply of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups we were all promised.
Yves is wanting in Santa’s little helpers to send out thank you notes that sound like they are from me but are only slightly tailored. This is what good secretaries are for, to extend one’s personal touch.
So I am thanking you here, and this is really from me. Good enough? I really appreciate all the contributions, and as I said in the kickoff post, I’m also feeling more than a wee bit guilty that the fact that I am chronically over my head means proper etiquette has gone by the wayside.
Lost my job 17 months ago after 16 + years and at 62 don’t expect to ever get back to work. Now to fight for my retirement. Mahalo from Honolulu,Hawaii for all you do.
Glad the subscription option is now there. I spent almost an hour at PayPal trying to set up recurring payments, but never found how. So I had to send payments manually every month, now I don’t have to worry about that.
Just made my first donation to NC. What can I say but “Thanks!” for doing a first rate job exposing these crimes. I’m still in shock at the lack of punishment for ongoing perjury in foreclosures.
I promise not to make fun of any other banana republics until we get our own house in order.
Yves,
I seldom speak up here, but I’ve been a loyal reader since early 2007. Your work is appreciated more than you know. I’ve made a contribution and wish you all the best with the fundraiser. Thank you!
For some reason PayPal would not let me make a one time payment saying my credit card couldn’t be used for it (very odd since I do all my online donations this way with this same card and have never had a problem before). However when I tried doing monthly payments it worked just fine with the same credit card. Over the 11 years I have had this PayPal account they keep wanting me to further verify by putting in my bank account numbers as well, but I refuse to do that. Since my credit card payments have never been an issue it creeps me out that they keep wanting my bank info as well.
I’m very glad to support the excellent reporting and group commentary at Naked Capitalism. I have learned so much from everyone involved, many thanks to Yves and co.
PayPal really likes a link to bank accounts. I think they have limits in terms of how much you can charge per year on a credit card, then they block you and make you provide a bank account. You might have circumvented it by spreading the payments out.
You know… they didn’t even let me put in the amount I wanted to pay, just said I couldn’t use the card at all, so what was their basis for evaluation? Therefore it was odd that right after that they told me I couldn’t use the card at all that when I tried the monthly option, that worked.
I prefer one time payment annual payments to monthly ones for all donations, but was willing to make an exception for you :) Had that not worked either, I would have used one of your other donation methods, but since I’m on vacation PayPal was the most convenient for instant gratification.
btw, I don’t spend that much on PayPal on a monthly (or annual) basis, what I do is fairly consistent, and we have an excellent credit rating. Despite this, PayPal periodically wants me to input bank info and has been after me for many years to do this using one ployt or another. No way is any online business ever getting a bank account number from me.
The Paypal limits, I am sure, have nothing to do with your credit rating. It’s just a screen. They figure if you use it enough, they can pull more into their system.
Sorry for the hassle and thanks for your persistence!
We did have a straight credit card option in our kickoff post, maybe you missed that.
What I love about PayPal is that all I have to do is login and give my password. I don’t have to find my purse, dig out my wallet and type in all those numbers, etc. PayPal is great for us lazy types!
Yves,
I’m contributing what I can in my current straightened circumstances; a check for $20 is in the mail (I truly wish it could be more, but I’m in the tenth year of high tech’s meltdown, and it’s been ugly). I will add to it when funding becomes more available.
NC is such an outstanding site, and we all need to keep your presence at these conferences. I don’t agree with 100% of your policy positions but then again I don’t agree with 100% of my own policy positions ;-) What I do believe is that you have been a prophet w/o sufficient honor or exposure in her own land, and that’s not tolerable. As I have written in previous posts on other NC stories, I admire without reservation your willingness to speak truth to power, and the brilliant mind behind the courage. It’s a rare combination.
A friend many years ago taught a useful saying of the Romans: illegitamati non carburundum – don’t let the bastards wear you down.
Sincere best wishes
Philippe Byrnes
Thank you Yves and all for this superb and educational blog.
What about having a conference in New York City where you charge a modest amount or less of the less than fully employed, to meet and hear you, and to network with other of your supporters.
Or do a one night event at say the 92nd st Y etc. with time to mingle afterwards. Perhaps a panel.
Do not make it too big to start – you would be surprised how many New Yorkers would show up.
Or, you could take a lot of your blogs and put them into book form with just a little editing and updating.
That’s a good idea. I’d be game to do the 92nd Street Y but have no idea how to get on their roster.
Bummer… bad timing as part of Bank Transfer Day I closed my Bank of Criminals .. I mean “America” account and the new one is not active until 5 to 7 days.
Yves, the check is in the mail (really). I don’t do paypal and I’m glad #ows didn’t either. They got their donation (online) thanks to your blog alerting to the (then) upcoming occupation.
Sending a check for your incomparable work [stop]…please weigh as to percentage of income as opposed to total donor amount [stop]…
Hiya,
In regards to travel, maybe we can put together a network of people in various locations that can help defray travel costs, like offer room and board, or transport. For caution’s sake, people signing up for the network would have to give references. If some of those references are people with whom you are already acquainted, so much the better.
A signup site perhaps could be designed, with a volunteer or two to check out the references? But initially, the first “Yves Host Network” members could be built informally among your already-existing circle of Naked Capialists (ah, a T-Shirt is born).
i like this idea. surely there must be a loyal nc reader in dc who would love to host yves, and maybe another who would enjoy driving her around, when she visits for a conference? anyone out there?
also, there are usually grad students happy to serve as airport pickup/ escort/driver for visiting speakers at universities, why not the same for yves smith? anyone out there?
Sending a check for $50, along with some suggested editorial changes (e.g., reduce reliance on fdl and rawstory links, use syndicated content from AEP, Heritage Foundation, et. al.) You’ll thank me later.
Yves, NC has always been a class act with great commentary. Keep up the good work! Americans are beginning to awaken from their long sleep of complacency.
Done! (Though under my RL identity, and smaller than it should be!)
Thanks for a great blog, my first stop in the morning.
I did PayPal and shall repeat until morale of the financial elites is so below zero for cause of exposure that they’d surrender to The People.
How’s that for an income stream? :-D
Yves, when you get your 10 grand for travel, make sure you schedule an event in Seattle.
Tonight, I went over to zerohedge.com to peruse and came across an article (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/some-words-advice-kyle-bass) about Kyle Bass which includes an hour long video interview of him at AmeriCatalyst 2010.
I started watching not expecting to watch in full but was intrigued enough to watch the entire interview. Nothing earth shattering was revealed because I’ve been reading Denninger, Mish, Jesse, CalcRisk, Yves, C.H.Smith, and Ritholtz for years now.
After the video, I researched when the it was made (Sep 2010) and when AmeriCatalyst 2011 was (starts tomorrow). Then I reviewed the 2011 Agenda and what popped off the page as a Recommended Reading for one of the scheduled panels? None other than ECONned. Congrats, Yves.
Just thought I’d share. Oh and Kyle will be back this year too.
It’s hard for me to believe there aren’t a thousand regular readers of this site who could easily send $100 each (I did). That would be a cool $100,000 and would take the pressure off for a couple of years. I mean, damn, you can’t buy a decent latte in Paris for $20 US. Every time I buy groceries and a tank of gas it’s $200 minimum. So let’s pony up here, folks. Let some moths out of that old black coin purse, you old Potters, cuz old Mr. Bailey at the S&L needs your help right now. You know and I know that this is the first site you click to in the morning. It is for me (followed by zerohedge and calculated risk, and Jesse when he’s feeling inspired). And I’m not disparaging those who sent $20, if that’s all they could afford, and they’re already on Alpo chunks and Old Roy. I just think this is a worthwhile cause. This lady knows what she’s doing, and the bigger we can make her blow torch, the more heat she can put on the Black Castle. Just a measly $100!
Yves I love your blog, you’re amazing. Invaluable stuff.