This blog doesn’t need it, or Mark would have written an appeal. The RBC illustrates the new digital economy of the press: you can get good commentary on a lot of things for nothing, as the costs are sunk in the day jobs of academics or the pensions that keep the likes of me in dignified idleness. But that doesn’t work for reporting, and that side of journalism is in crisis. So I urge those readers who have not yet done so to make a (deductible for US taxpayers) seasonal donation to one of the other fine sites you follow, like Washington Monthly,  Mother Jones (Kevin Drum) or our indispensable common resource Wikipedia.