Fundraiser 2025: What We Did for You in the Past Year

As we describe in our fundraiser kickoff post, 2025 has been ferociously intense. Yet we’ve managed the seemingly impossible task of providing even more extensive and in-depth coverage of a world roiled by Trump and its own contradictions and strife. And we did that while changing boats in the midst of this turbulent informational stream by bringing on board great new writers: Haig Hovaness, Nat Wilson Turner, Curro Jiminez, and semper loquitur, plus getting a new weekly contribution from KLG, after Lambert’s retirement,

We met these demands through rigorous, ahead-of-the-curve analysis on critical developments such as cutting through the Trump 2.0 chaos circus to get at the dollars and cents of engineering a Russia-in-the-1990s level crisis to facilitate plutocratic pillaging. Other major topics in what look too much like the start of World War III: the Ukraine conflict and European leaders’ untenable escalation schemes; Israel’s repugnant genocide and ethnic cleansing, plus its regional escalation, most dangerously with Iran; Trump’s bizarre conflict-stoking with Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, and Greenland; ongoing saber-rattling with China, and regime change gambits galore. And on top of that, the AI bubble; stagflation and the continuing decline in American economic security, living standards and health; the UK and EU self-destructively trying to hold onto old political and economic orders while militarizing; China’s economic headwinds; crypto boosterism, private equity trying to get permission to find retail saps as performance fades. We’ve also opened major new beats, such as Trump’s tariffs and their backfires, DOGE, the abundance agenda con, ICE as an assault on labor, and buy now, pay later loans.

If you are proud of us too, please go immediately to the Tip Jar to give by check, debit or credit card. Support world-ranging information curating, incisive commentary, mordant wit, and endearing animal photos.

Commentors have given us even more accolades in comments than in years past. Some examples:

From XXYY:

Yves, thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping on top of this vital and rapidly evolving issue. There is a plethora of stupid coverage and it’s almost worse than nothing in our information system right now as a result. You are doing your usual amazing work of ferreting out the good shit and bringing it into the light of day.

It’s to your credit that despite war and death being somewhat off topic for a financial blog (!), you have nevertheless centered much of your work on the various wars for the last several years. This is the kind of agility and freedom from dogmatism that I think most of us love about the non-profit press, and dare I say it, naked capitalism in particular.

And Otto Reply:

I rely on NC as an oasis where I can escape from the torrent of noise generated by sources I once respected but have come to loathe (nyt, npr, maddow, etc.) I know of no other news site that features such varied and informed comment from readers. It’s as if the Commentariat is another contributor to the site.

And Rivegauche:

18 of the best years as the indispensable source of news and analyses!

This praise means a lot to everyone here. But to be crass, we also need and very much appreciate whatever financial support you can give, be it tens or thousands of dollars (hint: please take a detour right now to the donation page to keep us fit and fierce).

Your support has enabled us to evolve. We predicted that the lack of real post financial crisis reforms, like the waves from a boulder thrown into a lake, would create ever-widening effects that would move into the political sphere. The minimal patch-up job kept the power structure in place as it fueled a rise in inequality and a drop in economic mobility. That increased elite isolation as it stoked well-deserved resentment among those denied advancement and security. In the West, it has also allowed the overlords to kid themselves about their competence, resulting in almost pervasive Dunning Krugerism. So they ignore pressing and difficult problems, from climate change to breakdown of the post World War II order (accelerated by Trump) to even more resource-driven conflicts and unrest in their own societies. And the worst is there’s little sign of a hungry young guard with better ideas ready to turf them out.

This steely coverage depends on the hard work of a lean team: our site writers, Nick, Conor, and KLG, with a huge boost from our new Coffee Break writers, Haig Hovaness, Nat Turner Wilson, Curro Jiminez, plus semper loquitur with his Sunday movie mental health break. We also rely on external regulars such as Michael Hudson, Satyajit Das, Rob Urie, albrt, Geroge Georgiou, Vladislav Sotirovic, Hubert Horan, plus independent writers with their own venues like Thomas Neuburger, Rajiv Sethi, Andrew Korybko, Tom Valovic, and Jared Holst. The reason more and more writers want to post at Naked Capitalism is the engagement with our esteemed, sharp-eyed, energetic, and well-informed commentariat.

Now, to how we have served the Naked Capitalism community since our last fundraiser.

What We Did Last Year: Help Navigate the Polycrisis

In the Trump 2.0 era, heretofore unthinkable recklessness and institution/relationship smashing is becoming an almost daily event. Event overload plus narrative control plus is numbing. And that’s a feature, not a bug, to thwart mass action and individual withdrawal.

Our job is to help you keep your head about you in this informational whirlwind so you can take better personal and community action. Even if your steps may seem small, like supporting BDS or planting a vegetable garden, positive action is more important than ever.

This itty-bitty site continues to punch above its weight:

Adding our Coffee Break feature with new writers who have expand the range and depth of our coverage and provided new perspectives. Haig Hovaness’ Armed Madhouse examines the many facets of the reach (and limits) of the military industrial complex, including bribery and messaging in entertainment. Nat Wilson Turner has blazed new ground with his focus on the nexus of technology, communications, media, pop culture and electoral politics. Curro Jiminez’s beat is ideas, theories and philosophies behind current events as well as finding real stories behind propaganda. KLG provides weekly surveys of medicine, science, and striking developments on the class warfare front in addition to his twice monthly deep dives.

The quality of these offerings upholds Naked Capitalism’s almost unique position in regularly providing near-think-tank level analysis, yet being at or ahead of the curve in covering breaking news. And we do this despite having only a tiny team of writers and no researchers.

Offering an ever-broader view of the world as political and economic conflicts escalate. This strength has become increasingly to important to many of us, as the US’ overzealous campaign to preserve its hegemony is backfiring while also increasing the intensity and escalatory danger of regional conflicts (well, “backfiring” save from the perspective of US arms merchants).

Our geopolitical focus continues to expand as part of our relentless drive to be early and accurate in covering developments that affect all of us, if nothing else through policies of more guns and less butter. For instance, Conor was chronicling the shifting relationship between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and specifically the Zangezur Corridor, before Trump tried squatting and rebranding it via his TRIPP scheme. He’s also alerted readers to the importance of South Africa as a naval trade node, kept on top of Turkiye’s and Israel’s arm-wrestling, and the US’ (somewhat stymied) port takeover campaign.

Similarly, Nick has chronicled US escalation against Mexico and Venezuela as well as Spain and Colombia opposing Gaza genocide, the US extending digital surveillance to Latin America, and China pushing back on Monroe Doctrine extension. Other prescient pieces include the hazards to citizens of coming digital Euro, and Swiss cantons starting to approve the right to an offline life.

As the US throws its diminishing military might around and the EU desperately tries to bulk up its forces, Haig Havaness opening the hood of the warmaking grift has covered topics central to the Ukraine war and the US’ fading pretenses to dominance, such as drone warfare and new Chinese weapons systems.

Yves has manned the ramparts with regular takes on the Israel’s economy and its aggressions, the Ukraine conflict and the impossibility of a negotiated settlement, the less-than-wonderful state of China’s and even more so the EU’s economies.

In addition to these geography/event driven reports, we have also been regularly chronicling the accelerating shift in the global order as the US tries desperately to hang onto its pretenses of dominance with wild acts of economic and military aggression. This includes the risks of a second Israel attack on Iran and the massive backfire of the Pakistan-Saudi mutual defense pact; India backing away from the US into the arms of Russia and China (with perhaps more caution than most commentators assume), Japan, South Korea, and Canada all trying to wriggle away from US domination; the state of play on non-US vassals building non-dollar payment systems and even more importantly, reducing their trade with the US; and whether BRICS will live up to its lofty aims.

Increasing the range and depth of domestic coverage in the Trump counter-revolution Nat Wilson Turner has added greatly to the intensity and sophistication of our coverage of US politics and the use of media and spokescritters rebranded as influencers to try to control an increasingly fractured and immiserated polity. That has included pointing out the power broker role of Rahm’s brother Ari Emanuel in both parties; influencer politics, breakdown of traditional political alliances, with Gaza as root cause; a takedown of Abundance shills and their connections to the political agenda of big LLM, and the new economic context; exposing the links among AI, media sycophancy, military-industrial graft, and endless war; and identifying the philosophies and communications modes of distinct factions in younger conservatives.

Even before Nat arrived, Conor described the continuity of agenda under Trump. For instance, the Democrat Abundance agenda was neo-neoliberalism, confirming that opposition to Trump is largely one of branding. The ICE machine is attack on all workers, shown via the nitty gritty of who is being targeted, what workers are saying, and the degree of bi-partisan support. Similarly, he was early on to the criminalization of homelessness, which again is bipartisan, as nothing but a cruel distraction from American structural economic issues.

Nick warned about how tech mogul, AI enthusiast and A-list Zionist Larry Ellison hearts for a future of total surveillance and information integration, of course for our good.

KLG has chronicled the eugenicism behind MAHA, the obsession of the super-wealthy with living forever, and the Trump tear-down of US scientific institutions, along with class warfare and the erosion of community.

Yves has covered many of Trump’s new initiatives, from his crypto grifting to DOGE to his cuts to Medicare and Medicaid to his war on universities and the science establishment to RFK Jr.’s dodgy and huckster-serving MAHA schemes to his wars on free speech and the Fed.

Keeping a watchful eye on our historical beats, particularly in finance and economics. These broader economic questions include Green New Deal hopium versus resource scarcity, the collapse in managerial competence, de-industrialization, deteriorating demographics, digital currencies/identities, some partial retreats on the war on cash as power outages are set to rise, inflation (now stagflation), challenges to the dollar, the AI bubble, wobbly banks, private equity’s grifting, and the never-ending Kentucky Retirement Systems pension litigation.

Continuing to have top-caliber writers contribute, from getting first access to Micheal Hudson’s pieces, to having Satyajit Das, Rob Urie, albrt, Hubert Horan, and former central banker George Georgiou all provide new articles. We also have writers with their own platforms featuring their works here, such as Thomas Neuburger, Rajiv Sethi, and Andrew Korybko. They value the intense engagement, careful reading, and additional insights in comments. So props to the readers!

Increasing our number of daily Links. Informationally, the Trump chaos machine is like drinking from a firehose. Our daily Links have accordingly gone from 55 a day to 65 to 70. This is a lot more heavy lifting!

Performing original reporting, including adding critical insight to news stories. One example was Nat using the influencer meltdowns over the Charlie Kirk killing to chronicle the complexities of right-wing factions, particularly among the young, where the modes of discussion and priorities are alien to older conservatives. Another was Curro filing a report from BRICS 2025 in Brazil.

Increasing our newsletter frequency from monthly to twice a month. With the pace of news continuing to accelerate, more often seemed more fitting. Thanks to our major domo katiebird!

Fostering the best commentariat. Naked Capitalism depends on its commentariat, and that in turn depends not just on your engagement and commitment to fighting fairly when you do fight, but even more important to our top-tier moderation team. Hats off to katiebird and semper loquitur!

We challenge you to identify another publisher that does as much as we do with so little.

How This Fundraiser Works

Please give as much as you can. $5, $50, or $5,000 are all appreciated. If you can only afford a little, then give a little. If you’re doing well, then please give more.

If you are flush, we hope you’ll include us in your good fortune, not just on our behalf but also for members of the community who have told us they want to help out but are too budget-crunched right now. So can you dig deeper and give more to make up for loyal readers who can’t participate in this fundraiser?

Everything you do – reading, commenting, giving, and sending us information and antidotes – is essential to making this community work. You can help right now by following this link to make a donation.

Our accompanying kickoff post gives a high-level view of what we’d like to do. Over the course of the fundraiser, we identify specific things that your donations will fund and tell you when we’ve hit each of these monetary goals.

We want to express our considerable gratitude to our loyal monthly subscribers. Their regular donations help pay for foundational expenses, like base writer pay for our established features.

The first goal is funding for digital infrastructure essentials.

This plumbing is not very sexy, but imagine what happens when your water is cut off or your power fails! This is a critical foundation for this site, so please help us keep it sound.

Due to the magic performed by our tech guru Dave, we are keeping this first target at the same level as last year, $25,000. Once we’ve hit that, we’ll let you know what our next item is.

How to Give

There are multiple channels for donating, and you will see them all when you go to our Tip Jar.

We really like checks! To give by check (which saves us PayPal/processor fees), please make it out in the name of “Aurora Advisors Incorporated” and send it to:

Aurora Advisors Incorporated
PO Box 110105
Brooklyn NY 11211-0105

At the same time, please send an e-mail to yves@nakedcapitalism.com with the headline “Check is in the mail” (and just the $ amount in the message) so we can count your contribution in the total number of donations.

The donation page describes how to arrange for Wise for those allergic to PayPal.

Thanks again for your interest and generous support!