Announcing a Mini-Fundraiser for Lambert

Despite Naked Capitalism’s image of unvarnished candor, sometimes we seem to be too subtle for our own good.

Lambert instituted Water Cooler as a way to help alleviate the news overload I deal with daily in doing Links, to provide a more real-time venue for posting various statistical releases and breaking finance news stories, as well as following important social justice stories less central-to-mission than finance, like electoral politics, civil resistance, and the environment. At the end of each post, he has a modest request for tips.

Apparently not enough of you have taken note, so we are launching a mini-fundraiser. Lambert is seeking $2500 so that he can continue to devote time to Water Cooler.

I suspect many of you have no idea how indispensable Lambert is to the operation of this site. He carries a large portion of the administrative load, doing admin work on the site, keeping our tech people and intern in the loop, and taking late night or early morning tech calls from me. He also sends me a boatload of links and tweets that helps inform my posting. I pay him a large amount out of the annual fundraiser, but as his workload keeps growing, I trust readers recognize that as an exceptionally lean and resource-constrained operation, we depend on reader contributions to keep providing you with the quality and frequency of information and analysis that you have come to expect.

As Matt Stoller wrote,

The truth is, you can get lies for free. Wall Street is only too happy to buy advertising, to make sure you hear from their well-credentialled experts. If you are not paying for your media, though, then they are. And you aren’t the customer, you are the product being sold. While this arrangement works, what it means is that you’ll get lies for free. And this is a very expensive proposition.

The Financial Times recently reported that Americans are feeling more confident about their incomes and are spending more on dining out. So I ask you to contribute what you’d normally spend on a meal out to Lambert’s fundraiser. Consider this to be the best possible use of your widely-touted cheap oil savings.

And thanks again for your interest in and support of our work!

Click the hat for Lambert’s fundraiser page.

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40 comments

      1. Yves Smith Post author

        I see some big tips came into the NC Tip Jar that are almost certainly meant for Lambert, and I’ll sent him a payment for the tips in the regular Tip Jar over the next few days. But it makes it easier for all of us to send the donations for this fundraiser to Lambert directly.

        Thanks to you early responders for your generosity!

      2. c kimball

        I have attempted to respond to Lambert’s tip jar three times today without success.
        The red script is asking for my address (which I have supplied). May be someone
        else has experienced this problem. I did not get to give him any money.

    1. OIFVet

      At the end of each Water Cooler post is the tiny image of a hat. Click on the hat to take you to the Paypal donation site.

      Yves, the hat is pretty small, is there a way to make it a bit larger?

    2. Lambert Strether

      The hat for tips is at the end of this post, too! (I had an HTML glitch that nuked it; now it is fixed.)

      The hat is of modest size because that’s what PayPal wants…. I’ll see what I can do to make it bigger.

      1. Howard Beale IV

        I kicked in to your fund. Now will you start paying a liitle more attention to my tech links? (heavy sarcasm)

  1. John Zelnicker

    Glad I can help. Your work on this site, Lambert, is absolutely invaluable. Wish I could contribute more.

  2. Howard Beale IV

    Speaking of 2016, dontcha think it’s time that we start laying out what exactly the Skunk Party is supposed to be doing between now and Nov 2016? We know that NC locked up domains and other IP along the way, but it seems to me the 2016 cycle has already started, and it’s almost all but given that i’s going to be Jeb and Hillary.

    At least Jesse Ventura stated that as long as he gets ballot access in all 50 states and participation the debates he’ll run.

    Well?

  3. Robert Consoli

    Perhaps if Mr. Lambert can submit a plan by COB Monday specifying in what way he will adhere to the agreement and specify those links that he plans to leave out then it will be submitted to a review and, when approved, perhaps funds can be dispersed. It would help if he no longer went tie-less and dressed appropriately to and just generally behaved the way we expect a Water Cooler to act. Otherwise we of the institutions believe that we may reluctantly be forced into a Lambexit. In the meantime we agree to a four month extension of his current activity but that’s contingent upon how the markets react.

    1. Clive

      If we found a third person, we could become a Troika fluffy-bunny e-z-kleen nicey-nicey tea-and-sympathy good-cop-even-more-chipper-cop monitoring team…

      1. ambrit

        I nominate Joseph Cotten, with zither music in the background. (I would have nominated Orson Welles, but he’s already an “institution.”)

  4. Hieronymous

    It seems that when you are from the Netherlands, you are required to open a PayPal account to make a donation. I do not remember having to to do this at last year’s NC fundraiser. Perhaps I am overlooking something but if not, is there a way to donate to Lambert without opening a PayPal account?

    1. Lambert Strether

      I can send you my mailing address. Yves has a slightly more sophisticated fund-raising apparatus than I do, but unfortunately setting up infrastructure is work, and I don’t like work. I’d rather be blogging.

      1. Hieronymous

        Being in the eurozone area, sending you a dollar denominated check or using an international wire transfer is not very cost efficient so I have taken the liberty to donate to you using Yves’ tip jar instead.

  5. wbgonne

    Done. Thanks for all your hard work, Lambert. I really enjoy the Water Cooler.

    (FYI: Unless I’m doing something wrong (entirely possible) the credit card donation automatically comes up at $25.00.)

      1. wbgonne

        OK, but unless I am mistaken (again a distinct possibility), the $25 figure cannot be changed. IMHO, you are selling yourself short. But I hit you up twice so it’s all good!!

  6. dogwood

    Hi Lambert,
    If it’s possible I’d prefer to mail you a check. Thanks for your absolutely fantastic work — this site is a shining star.

  7. mitzimuffin

    Lambert and Naked Cap are fabulous! Thanks for all your hard work. Lambert, would you send my your address, also. Thanks so much.

Comments are closed.