As we describe in our fundraiser kickoff post, 2026 has spun well out of “old normal” bounds. Yet we’ve risen to the task of providing even more extensive and in-depth coverage of a world roiled by Trump and other leaders in the West reacting self-destructively to breakdowns of established orders
We met these demands through rigorous, ahead-of-the-curve analysis on critical developments such as top-notch coverage of the Iran War, including its vast economic and geopolitical fallout, above all the great damage to the US empire. This comes as European leaders desperately cling to the US and seek conflict with Russia despite a lack of weapons and production capacity even as Russia is clearly moving to a decisive victory in Ukraine. The strength of the dollar is making impact of the energy, food, and other key supplies shortages even worse for most counties in Asia and the Global South and threatens to trigger a yen carry trade unwind that could sink the overvalued US stock market. Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing have finally stoked enough revulsion around the world to harm Israel First US pols and generate some concrete, if so far grossly inadequate, UK and EU sanctions.
The severity of climate change has become undeniable as the only-starting super El Nino cooked Europe, big swathes of the US, and produced record-shattering global heat averages, with resulting droughts expected to generate food shortages and even famine. Yet Trump and just about all national leaders fiddle as their countries often literally burn. Trump has only become more grandiose and domineering, as his bizarre overnight tweet barrages, possession-by-proclaimed renamings and too-numerous schemes to Do Something to rescue the midterms for Team Republican illustrate. We will skip over his grotesque self-dealing due to space constraints.
We’ve also kept up on continuing stories, from Trump’s insistent conflict-stoking in Latin America and astonishingly Canada self-sabotaging threat displays against China, and regime change gambits galore. And on top of that, we’ve kept on top of the the AI bubble and the less visible but ongoing seize-up of the private credit market; stagflation and the continuing decline in American economic security, living standards and health; China’s economic headwinds; stronger pushes for mass surveillance. and crypto boosterism. We’ve also opened major new beats, such as the squillionaire search for immortality and its retail version, the MAHA con; fissures in the Democratic and Republican parties; the widening impact of AI on society and business operations; the Trump Administration’s media-influence-by-new-ownership game, food security, and the implications of America’s weakened navy.
Commentors have given us even more accolades in comments than in years past. For example:
From Mike S:
The first website I go to each day is Naked Capitalism. I appreciate the curated links and insightful analysis which enhance my understanding of what’s really going on in the world. It’s incredible how much content your team produces each day with the small staff that you have!
And Eclair:
Yves, my admiration for you knows no bounds. You wallow in this toxic stuff, day after day, to produce concise summaries for your most appreciative commentariat.
I am taking the rest of the day off and driving my Amish friend, L, about as she picks up deliveries for her dry-goods store…
By early evening I will again be ready to delve into the morass that is our world.
And props for our other mainstays, such as from ocypode:
Thank you for the lovely piece Conor! And a good reminder that limitations do make creativity work harder.
These kudos means a lot to us. But we cannot live on praise alone! We also need and deeply 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).
As Nick put it:
I’m proud to be part of such a great team of valued writers who know so much about so many varied topics as well as part of a much broader community of readers, writers, thinkers and commenters that literally spans the world. Viva la commentariat!
And KLG:
As someone who has been a scientific worker then a scientist and professor for the past fifty years, I am proud to be able to write about science, and other important matters, for a community whose goal is to understand our world as it is, not as our erstwhile leaders would have us believe.
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 scans, no-holds-barred commentary, gallows humor, and cuddly animal pix.
Your backing enabled us to evolve. We predicted that the lack of real post financial crisis reforms would generate pressures like sharp increases in inequality that would create instability in the political sphere. Elite isolation also allowed the boss class to kid itself about its visible incompetence and resulting loss of legitimacy. Bunkering and narcissism lets them to shirk pressing and difficult problems, from climate change to the splintering of the post World War II order (accelerated by Trump) to even more resource-driven conflicts and unrest in their own societies.
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 able Coffee Break stalwarts, Haig Hovaness, Nat Wilson Turner, Curro Jiminez, plus semper loquitur with his Sunday movie delights.
Now, to how we have served the Naked Capitalism community since our last fundraiser.
What We Did Last Year: Increase Vigilance As Things Fell Apart
Those in charge seem on some level to recognize how political and economic events are spinning out of their control, even if they can’t admit to the systemic ruptures driving it and their role in creating them. It isn’t just Trump, Hegseth, and Bessent who act as if strident vocalizations will somehow bring reality to heel. Even EU officials who have long had a tendency to histrionics, like Ursuala von der Leyen and Frederich Merz, have found new registers. Some top Russians and even a few stoically-tended Chinese have become tart in the face of insistent cluelessness. But most of the press is all in with the active practice of the Big Lie. So the din of noise on one side, much more aggressive censorship of opposition voices such as George Galloway and Jacques Baud, and the AI crapification of search further boosting bad orthodoxies have made it even harder to have a good approximation of the true state of play.
We help navigate of this informational fog so you can take productive steps, be they building local networks, learning how to can, pickle and bake from scratch, or protesting data centers. Positive action is more important than ever.
This itty-bitty site continues to punch above its weight:
Adding nearly-daily Iran War coverage. Readers have told us that our Iran war posts do the best job on the Web of presenting new developments and searching though the considerable official spin/media noise to pull out the signal. Our esteemed commentariat has contributed enormously to this effort, both by providing new intel in comments and via e-mail, adding their own experience and analyses, and testing the information provided. While we’ve continued to be early and accurate, for instance in when we said there would be no negotiated settlement, we were a bit too early in forecasting the energy crunch (in our defense, executives at Exxon and Chevron were making the same call).
The depth, range, and high caliber of the work of all our writers gave us the luxury of being able to focus so intently on Iran. We were confident it would not compromise the rest of your informational diet.
Continuing to widen our horizons as political and economic conflicts escalate. More and more experts worry that US’ overzealous campaign to preserve its hegemony will usher one or all of World War III, a global depression, and food shortages. High, even existential stakes mean more propaganda, particularly from the US (looking at you, CENTCOM). More and more nations in or moving towards a combat footing makes Haig Hovaness’ Armed Madhouse feature even more essential.
We’ve continued to expand our geopolitical focus as those events ever more affect all of us, as rising energy and prices and domestic dissent over the prospect of even more guns at the expense of butter attest. Conor examined spooky behavior, such as dirty tricks targeting China and infowars against Russia, and accelerationism, such as oligarch war-stoking and the US wrecking its food system.
Similarly, Nick dug further into the EU’s decay, such as EU citizens’ disapproval of the union, to US/Israel election meddling across the world, to more surveillance/police state measures, from debanking to age verification, to new developments in Latin America, such as Milei selling off Argentina, to Trump’s throwing his weight around with FIFA.
Performing original reporting, including adding critical insight to news stories. Most of Haig’s pieces either are or consist heavily of original reporting, from the many facets of why our Navy is a Potemkin force to how new technologies are rapidly reshaping combat, from zero latency to robot warriors to the loneliness of being Ted Postol. Conor’s semi-regular posts on EU energy situation typically involve digging into Commission energy data. And we continue to follow the never-ending Kentucky Retirement Systems hedge fund grifting case.
Increasing our daily Links to a typical 70+ entries. We’d committed to increase them to ~65. This is even more informational heavy lifting!
Increasing the range and depth of domestic coverage in the Trump counter-revolution Nat Wilson Turner had gotten reader kudos for ably filling Lambert’s yellow waders. New topics included the rise of Mamdani and Democratic Party’s fight against socialists and Zionism opponents
KLG has also provided insights into US politics via class/political commentary (often with a Southern slant) and his book essays, such as
Conor’s US-focused pieces include a reflection on Memorial Day and how the military serves America’s transnational oligarchs. and an almost shooting-fish-in-the barrel salvo at Democrats.
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.
Keeping a watchful eye on our historical beats, particularly in finance and economics. These broader economic questions include the war on Social Security, SNAP benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, and the Post Office, the impact of Trump’s tariffs, 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, private equity’s grifting, and the never-ending Kentucky Retirement Systems pension litigation.
Expanding the Sunday Movie feature with exciting bonuses to include a wide range of viewer delights, such as music videos, archival footage, and niche sporting events.
Continuing our newsletter frequency, now at twice a month. With the pace of news continuing to accelerate, more often seemed more fitting. Thanks to our major domo katiebird!
Continuing to have top-caliber writers contribute, from getting first access to Micheal Hudson’s pieces, to having Satyajit Das, Rob Urie, albrt, Vladislav Sotirovic, and Seb Canderie plus independent writers with their own venues like Thomas Neuburger, Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Rajiv Sethi, Richard Murphy, Andrew Korybko, Tom Valovic, Jared Holst and our exciting new contributor Joseph Busby.. They value the intense engagement, careful reading, and additional insights in comments. So props to the readers!
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.
And as most of you know, our tech maven Dave has been working overtime to keep AI scrapers from rendering the site unusable, so this target is even more important than ever. So we are increasing our budget from its level over the past two years to $27,000. 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 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!
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