April 29, 2009

Economic Update

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So how’s the economy doing?  Let’s take a look!

New York Times: U.S. GDP shrank by 6.1% in the first quarter, far worse than the “consensus” prediction of 4.7%.

Bloomberg: A full third of the country’s biggest banks need additional capital, according to leaked preliminary results of the Treasury’s stress tests.

RGE Monitor: According to a government report leaked to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, bad assets in the German banking system total slightly over a trillion dollars.  Over half of bad assets worldwide are in the European banking system, which has done much less to recognize them than we have in the U.S.

Wall Street Journal: Business fixed investment in the U.S. was down a whopping 37.8% last quarter.

Want some good news to go with that?  Sorry!  Apparently personal consumption was up 2.2%, which is probably a mixed blessing, and home prices were down 18% compared to last year, but didn’t quite fall at a record rate.  That’s the best I can do.  Ed Yardeni tries to do better, but one of the green shoots on his list of reasons to feel optimistic is the fact that Portfolio magazine has shut down.  Put me down as unconvinced.

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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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