August 6, 2009

Crappy Mac?

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The Washington Post reports today that the Obama administration is considering reorganizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government-backed mortgage lenders. The plan calls for a “good bank-bad bank” structure, where toxic assets and bad liabilities would be stripped from Fannie and Freddie and put in a government-backed “bad bank,” leaving “two healthy financial companies with a clean slate.” 

Back in January, Citibank split in what some characterized as a good bank-bad bank move. The “bad bank,” Citi Holdings, promptly acquired a (very obvious) nickname. What should the very bad bank that will hold all of Fannie and Freddie’s bad assets be called? I suggest “Crappy Mac.” You?

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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