The Stock Market Looks Totally Normal

I’m having a slow start to the 2020s. For one thing, this is my 8th decade, and that seems wrong somehow. I suppose this is what I get for being born near the end of a decade and then blogging near the beginning of another, but still. Eight decades!

Well, let’s start out with a chart, shall we? Here is Tim Duy’s log scale of the stock market, which suggests that everything is ducky. Stocks seem to be rising in value at about the same rate as they have for a long time (outside of the dotcom bubble, of course). What this means is that if you buy stocks because they don’t look overvalued, and then you lose your shirt, you should blame Tim. Just don’t blame me.

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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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