Conor Gallagher: Naked Capitalism – A Bulwark Against the Breakdown

I read Anne Applebaum’s latest book so you didn’t have to. Enough said?

The Tip Jar is here.

More seriously, what did Naked Capitalism deliver this past year? NC is sometimes described as financial news and analysis, but as our readers know, it’s much more than that. It exists more at the crossroads where economics pounds the witches brew of kleptocracy, elite malfeasance, accelerationism, shock therapy, and institutional breakdown. You cannot tell one story without the other, and this is why Naked Capitalism is freuqnetly out ahead of other news sources on collapse in the US and its imperial projects around the world.

We are trying to keep up and make sense of the chaos and provide readers the tools to organize resistance—or at least make a personal risk assessment. Some examples:

• Yves’ authoritative insights on all the bubbles, bezzles, and bust outs (the latter being especially pertinent for European readers considering the evolution of the trans-Atlantic relationship).
• Imperial Collapse and Conflict. Nick Corbishley, in addition to his coverage of digital currency dangers, gets into the weeds with the empire in Latin America. Curro Jimenez examines power, money, and the struggle to maintain the status quo, while Haig Hovaness dives head first into the military-industrial-tech complex. By combining focus on economic and the US penchant for chaos in global affairs, We were on the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity way back when it was still being referred to by its prior name, the Zangezur Corridor, and predicted how the US would weasel its way in to inflame tensions in the region, which has come to pass.
• Health with KLG’s looks at COVID and other matters of science.
• Accelerationism. On all fronts, including climate, predatory capitalism, and the police state. We’re covering them all. Yves quickly saw the similarities between DOGE and 1990s-style shock therapy in Russia. We were early and accurate on Trump and his backers vision for Zionist America.
• Political. Nat Wilson Turner with political coverage that gets to the sordid behind the horse races. From the jump, we were  on top of the “Abundance” BS from Democrats, which shows opposition to Trump is largely one of branding. Importantly, our coverage stands above partisan shouting matches with an understanding that the true danger isn’t just TRUMP! or DEI! but bipartisan “authoritarian capitalism” and where it is likely headed.
• Labor. Examining how the ICE machine is an attack on all workers by getting into the nitty gritty of who is being targeted and listening to what workers are saying, as well as paying attention to the fact that this is largely bipartisan. Also bipartisan is the criminalization of homelessness, which is a cruel distraction from American structural rapaciousness that have brought the crisis to this point. We were on this early and continue to track as Trump plays his usual role as accelerant (or the dirty work professional?), making the problem worse by ending programs that at least helped people get into housing—although even those efforts were not enough to keep up with the sheer number of people losing housing.

The international coverage, in particular, stands out as you just don’t find propaganda-free detailed looks at US machinations around the world in many other places—if at all—at least until they become full-blown crises. And what separates NC further is an understanding of klepto forces driving policy at home and abroad.

And that is why we hope you will support us, at the Tip Jar. Please give generously!

How We Differ From Others and Why NC Is Becoming Even More Important

As search engines are crappified, and as Musk ruins Twitter, and as BlueSky is a love-me-I’m-a-liberal echo chamber, Naked Capitalism becomes even more important.

And as more reports are going behind paywalls, and more organizations are corrupted by money, spooks, Zionism, and their hatred of the unwashed masses, following the news is, frankly, getting increasingly difficult. It’s a job and one few have the time for these days. Perhaps that’s the way the powers that be like it. Everyone wading through dubious AI propaganda sewage.

Naked Capitalism acts as a ferry across the daily BS river with its unparalleled link aggregations, our writers have a wealth of knowledge and experience from around the world, and most importantly, we have the most knowledgeable readers and commenters ever assembled.

Those traits help Naked Capitalism make following the news easier by bringing together so much coverage in our unparalleled Links that then branches off in many directions via original posts and comments.

And we don’t rest on easy explanations but challenge the reader. And we refused to be dumbed down by any connection with AI.

We don’t have to because of your support. Help that continue by donating here.

Yasha Levine recently wrote about how even independent media on Substack are often beholden to clicks. Because of your support, Naked Capitalism isn’t overly focused on earnings and the news cycle subscribers. It’s about peeling back layers of that daily news and getting at drivers of the collapse we’re seeing all around us—even if that doesn’t run with the current of the day.

Your support is what allows us to do deeper dives on what really  matters, and allows us to be on stories early and often while much of the rest of the media chases its own tail or hides altogether from the most important questions of the day.

On some level, that’s understandable. The state of things can be a bit of a downer, what with genocide abroad and American elites reveling in their social murder spree at home. This is only going to grow worse as the plutocrats are increasingly stymied abroad and double down on exploitation at home.

Naked Capitalism doesn’t hide from this reality and, armed with the best commenters anywhere, brings it to you unvarnished so you know what to expect and can prepare your own personal risk assessment. Naked Capitalism does this because it’s too important not to.

And it does so even at tremendous risk often facing efforts to silence the site as well as constant harassment from Zionists for being early, unwavering and correct in its coverage of the US-backed genocide in Palestine. And we continue to cover the “Zionization” of the US and the dangers this poses.

Optimism, Forward March

Undergirding all this coverage is, believe it or not, a sense of optimism: that our elite are so far gone out onto the thin ice that a better future is possible. I’m certainly a believer in the following:

I have to think that having the least intellectually sophisticated ruling class in modern history will eventually redound to our advantage. But exactly when and how it is hard to say

— Erik Baker (@erikmbaker) August 3, 2025

As Naked Capitalism reader Henry Moon Pie put it in a comment that stuck with me:

This system of endless growth and consumerism is coming to an end. The question is what will replace it: an Elysium with a few living in luxury while the masses die young in an Earth venting its rage against humans; or a world where we share the hardships that we and our recent ancestors have brought upon ourselves as we learn to live more meaningful lives with less stuff.

That is the fight we find ourselves in.

And while the daily atrocities committed by a ruling class  trying to exert full control are like an oil slick spreading out over a vast body of water, there are also frequent sightings of better possibilities.

We’re on the quotidian crimes, but also constantly on the lookout for hope bubbling to the surface—or at least a way to keep yourself clean in the meantime— and we’re a community with whom to share life’s increasing absurdities.

There are also worker actions, alternative theories on paths forward, and even a belief that certain missteps by our billionaire overlords are creating openings for counter offensives. It’s an optimism that we can  use their wrong notes to play a better song:

Thelonious Monk turned wrong notes into the right ones. pic.twitter.com/YfZLuv5y3q

— Melodies & Masterpieces (@SVG__Collection) August 19, 2025

I look forward to the day when more of these songs will be written by our talented lyricists in the comments section.

So please head to the donation page, dig deep, and help us keep traveling this troubadour path together.