November 21, 2008

Trouble in River Citi

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TROUBLE IN RIVER CITI….Back in the hazy days of early 2008, Countrywide failed. But hey — they were hugely exposed to subprime mortgages, so that was hardly a surprise. Don’t read too much into it. Then Bear Stearns failed. But they were the weakest of the investment banks and had unusual derivative exposures. The others were probably OK. Then Fannie and Freddie failed. But they were GSAs. And Lehman Brothers went under. But Richard Fuld had really screwed the pooch, and the federal bailout plan would keep the other investment banks OK. But then Merrill got eaten, and Morgan and Goldman turned themselves into bank holding companies. No more investment banks. But at least the big money center banks were basically OK, right?

So tell me: now that Citigroup seems to be on the brink of failure, what are we supposed to think? Is anyone safe? Is Brad DeLong right, and full-scale Swedish style nationalization is the only real option still open to us? Does Congress really want to go into recess without passing some kind of major stimulus package before January 20? Really?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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