We are Six Years Old

I have this habit of missing my blog’s birthday. We were six years old last week too, specifically as of the 18th. But a belated celebration is better than none!

I know many of you are getting Christmas cards with inserts extolling company, or worse, family accomplishments. So I’ll keep it brief. Our biggest achievement over time is attracting a discerning, engaged readership, and we hope our work has shed a bit of light on the dark corners of the financial services industry. As we wrote on our first birthday:

Although we take interest in the traffic, what is most important to us is that we are attracting a high caliber readership and getting the attention of people who have influence. Perhaps it’s naive, but we think our mission is to encourage people to think more critically; finance just happens to be a convenient place for us to operate. One of our favorite mottos is the Will Rogers saying, “It isn’t what you don’t know that will hurt you, it’s what you know that ain’t so.”

There are so many people who have contributed in so many ways to the success of this website that it is hard to know where to begin. Our guest bloggers. The individuals who send us links suggestions. The commentariat. People who have put us on to important stories. Fellow bloggers, some of whom correspond, others who chew over what we have said on their sites. The members of the community who supported us in our recent fundraiser. But ultimately it is the readers that make an initiative like this possible, and I am as always grateful for your interest and participation.

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38 comments

  1. Thorstein

    Happy belated Birthday, Yves!

    And heartfelt thanks to you and your many contributors for six years of invaluable critical commentary on the relationship between society and what passes for economics.

    The world is a better place because Naked Capitalism is here. May 2013 be the year your voice is heard and at long last heeded in the corridors of power!

  2. TK421

    It must be rough having a birthday so close to Christmas! But thanks for starting this site and keeping it going so strong. We need as many islands of sanity as we can get. And my warmest regards to all its commenters too.

  3. rivegauche

    Happy Blog Birthday! Many thanks to you, Yves, for sharing your light in this dark night. And I agree: your guest bloggers and commenters are the best.

  4. Aronjohnson

    Happy Blog Birthday!!!! You brighten (or depress) the start of each day with your fabulous commentary and links to what is important to our quality of life. Thanks so much.

    1. DANNYBOY

      Personally, Enlightenment follow the depression.
      Growing pains, I guess.
      Or: no pain, no gain.
      Or: Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

  5. But What Do I Know?

    Only six years old? It seems like the blog has always been here–thanks for all the good work you do. . .

  6. Paulo Franke

    Happy blog b’day Yves, congrats for a job well done! Keep the ‘no stones unturned’ thoughts and views coming, I am sure they are pretty relevant to a large – and growing – number of readers. Cheers!

  7. Judi

    `Happy Birthday Blog. Six (6) is the very best age to be!

    “When I was one, I had just begun;
    When I was two, I was hardly new;
    When I was three, I was just me;
    When I was four, I could touch the door;
    When I was five, I was just alive;
    But now that I’m six and I’m clever as cleaver,
    I think I’ll stay six now for ever and ever.”
    by A.A. Milne

  8. K

    6 years of light in the darkness, hope in the desert (and a road map!) and food for the starving intellect.

    Happy holidays and a Happy (happier) New Year to all. Yve Smith blesses us, every one!

  9. skippy

    A kiss upon the cheek… an embrace unfulfilled… longings sweet melancholy… till then… patience.

    Skippy… Lounge room’s are not all equal.

  10. Keenan

    Yves: Congratulations to a blog well done!

    Your site is simply one of the most insightful and most comprehensive on the web.

    Wishes to all in the NC community for blessings of peace and contentment at Christmas and in the approaching year.

  11. Chris Rogers

    Yes,
    Well done on six years of highly informative information and dialogue on financial services, economics and the GFC – although missed your first year, have been a avid reader since 2008 and look forward to another few years of analysis and dialogue with your many readers.

  12. fresno dan

    congratulations!
    I have learned quite a bit from reading your blog.
    I have changed my mind on a few things because of the information and analyisis you have provided.
    The US needs people like you to provide insightful, critical oversight of the constant, uninterrupted tsunamai of bullsh*t that never ends…

  13. LeonovaBalletRusse

    Happy Blog Birthday, YVES & Co. How DIFFERENT are your MOTIVES from those we see below, in this “Happy Talk” summary from http://www.nytimes.com/bits — Quotation for research between the lines below:
    —————————————————————-
    //Monday, December 24, 2012
    /For the latest updates, go to nytimes.com/bits »
    /Daily Report
    /”Making Everything in Life a Game” | Many businesses are using games to try to get people hooked on their products and services – and it is working, thanks to smartphones and the Internet, reports Nick Wingfield on Monday in The New York Times./
    /Buying a cup of coffee? Foursquare, the social networking app that helped popularize the gamification idea, gives people virtual badges for checking in at a local cafe or restaurant./
    /Conserving energy? More than 75 utilities have begun using a service from a company called Opower that awards badges to customers when they reduce their energy consumption. Customers can compare their progress with their neighbors’ and friends and broadcast their achievements on Facebook. The endgame of Opower – its equivalent of defeating Donkey Kong – is to unlock the Cold Fusion badge by shifting entirely to solar power or another form of renewable energy./
    /People and businesses have long added game elements to parts of regular life. Parents reward their children for household work with gold-star stickers. Business travelers pump their fists when they hit elite traveler status on an airline./
    /But digital technologies like smartphones and cheap sensors have taken the phenomenon to a new level, especially among adults. Now, game concepts like points, badges and leader boards are so mainstream that they have become powerful motivators in many settings, even some incongruous ones. At a time when games are becoming ever more realistic, reality is becoming more gamelike./
    /The adoption of games has found particular resonance in the workplace, where games are no longer just a way to goof off./
    /Employers like Reed Elsevier, the publishing company, are using a Web-based game service from a company called Keas that encourages workers to stay healthy by grouping themselves into teams of six and collecting points for achieving mental and physical fitness goals. Among the challenges Keas assigns: laughing randomly for 30 seconds. The members of winning teams at Reed each get $200 gift cards.”//
    ——————————————————————
    Yves. aren’t these companies guilty of child abuse? Bait&switch for kids? Or are they “PUSHERS” pushing product (candy, dope, gadgets, tyranny) to kids? Didn’t this kind of “enticement” of kids used to be questionable? Surely there is no doubt that their “marks” are children, no matter what age.

    Naked Capitalism is 6 years old, but the humans behind it are adults, and so is the steady Commentariat. This must be the meaning of “grace” in the world.

  14. ftm

    Congratulations! I’ve been an appreciative reader for six years.

    I always wonder though is there some way Yves could take better advantage of the knowledge of her reader/commenters?

    I know Yves is giving 120% of her time but it seems like there are many knowledgeable readers who might make valuable contributions to something like a curated wiki targeted at key issues ( housing policy, macroeconomics, bank crime, etc.)

    I love this blog but a more permanent structured record of the discussion on key issues would be valuable.

  15. alan

    Thank you for your site, it is a very enjoyable read on a daily basis. I too have learned much from you and your commenters.

  16. Rich Van Horn

    Yves, thank you so much for all that you do. NC is my must read every morning (along with Krugman). I appreciate all that you have put into this. Your zeal for the truth and your love for your mission are palpable in your writing. I am glad that I can support this in my small way with a monthly pledge. And my thanks to your support team who came to your rescue when you were going down for the count from exhaustion. One request: please highlight your “must read” for the day to ensure that they are not overlooked. They are invariably valuable.

  17. Glen

    Congratulations! And thank you.

    Not sure when I started reading your blog, but it’s been an island of common sense, sanity, and clarity in a world losing those same values.

    Please keep posting!

  18. Brooklin Bridge

    It’s a sad counterpoint to this happy occasion that DDay has left blogging. He may have given O-Betrayer the benefit of the doubt too often, but he had an exceptional ability to make things like the housing fiasco and the fiscal-fly-trap clear.

  19. Jessica

    Congratulations and thank you so much.
    Some day, we will build a society that values integrity and honesty. A society in which the normal behavior is to help each other learn and grow and understand better. It will be difficult then to understand what a beacon in the darkness Naked Capitalism is for us now.

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