Dear Friends:
This website exists because of you. You called me out of retirement. We made a deal that you would support the website. And you have. Voluntary monthly subscriptions now exceed in number the responses to my quarterly call for donations.
Part of this is due to growth in the signups for monthly donations. But part is due to decline in the response to my quarterly requests.
Normally, readers show a strong response to the June quarterly request. But this June donations via PayPal are down 20% in dollar amount from last June. The number of donors are down 15%, and the average donation is down 6%. This decline is not offset by growth in donations via Stripe and direct payments sent to IPE’s bank account.
Readership continues to expand. Foreign contributions account for 43% of the donations via PayPal.
What catches my attention is rising readership and declining financial support. In our time, truth-telling carries penalties to the truth-teller. The print and TV media comprise a propaganda ministry that is in service to the elite and is driving you into the ground. I serve you. So support for this site should be growing.
My website has been experiencing problems, the cause of which I am uncertain. I know that I am under attack, as is President Trump, for preferring peace to war and normal relations with Russia instead of dangerous conflict and for objecting to the movement of American middle class jobs offshore to the detriment of the American people and their country. The attacks on me personally come from unidentitied and unknown sources, such as PropOrNot and from paid-trolls on Internet sites with comment sections and social media. Website problems could be attacks or simply the bugs of the digital age.
Regardless, I am increasingly cited by foreign governments and foreign media. My columns are translated and posted in other languages, and my books are translanted into German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Czech, and Turkish. Members of Congress have responded to my support for Nomi Prins’ call for the restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial from investment banking. It was the repeal of Glass-Steagall that caused the 2007-08 financial crisis.
I am extending my call for your support through this week. Perhaps some of you who use the site will decide to add your support.