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President Obama’s big speech on financial reform is here. After hearing it, I don’t feel so bad about being unable to make the subject fascinating. If even Obama can’t make it sound interesting, what chance do I have? Here’s the Reader’s Digest version:

First, the bill being considered in the Senate would create what we did not have before: a way to protect the financial system, the broader economy, and American taxpayers in the event that a large financial firm begins to fail….Second, reform would bring new transparency to many financial markets….Third, this plan would enact the strongest consumer financial protections ever.

So: resolution authority, derivatives clearing, and the CFPA. All good stuff. Important stuff. Better than nothing. But in the great battle between those who want to bust up the big banks and those (like me) who want to implement serious, wide ranging limits on leverage — well, guess what? We’re both losers. Structurally, Wall Street just isn’t going to change much after all this stuff is passed.

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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