April 26, 2010

Greece Update

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After Greece officially requested financial help on Friday, markets responded favorably. But that lasted no more than a few hours. Here’s today’s news:

Financial markets upped the pressure on debt-ridden Greece, as investors remained skeptical about its long-term solvency despite assurances that a rescue loan will help pay off a chunk of its crushing debts in coming weeks.

….Analysts had said they expected the euro’s bounce to be short-lived. Now it appears the so-called relief rally after Greece on Friday formally requested financial aid has already run its course….Underscoring those worries, Greek 10-year bond yields soared to 9.60%, from 8.70% late Friday, as the yield premium over comparable German debt, the euro-zone benchmark, widened to 6.55 percentage point, from 5.63 percentage point late Friday.

This is just FYI. I continue to think that Greece’s prospects look very grim, IMF bailout or no.

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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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