Reading Griftopia, Matt Taibbi's latest book. It is awesome. I recommend it to everyone, especially those who are cynical about his writing and those who often side with the banks in the analysis of the financial crisis.
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Can't wait to read it.
Just picked up this book and am half way through. I think it's phenomenal, Taibbi is an amazing writer. He completely rips Alan Greenspan a new one. How you can have any respect for Greenspan is beyond me. Interested to hear what others think about this. Probably not going to be very popular on here since it basically lays out how all the banks we want to work for are destroying the world. Time for a reality check because that's not that far from the truth.
One of the best, and most honest, books I've ever read. His stuff is great and anyone that denounces him as a "hater" or some such nonsense is either a blind shill, a troll, or a sociopath.
I also highly recommend reading through the Levin-Coburn report on the Crisis. Really incredible stuff on everything from WaMu, to the rating agencies, to regulatory failures, and Goldman Sachs / DB. Unbelievable stuff.
"But, but, your just jelly that Blankfein gets money" - typical troll reply to facts and reason with regards to an analysis of the financial crisis.
TheKing,
always love your posts. My roommate told me to read this and after the recs from him and you I'll have to give it a go this summer
LIBOR,
Glad to hear it. Hope you find it as interesting as I did. There's a line in the book on Greenspan that might be my all-time favorite sentence ever put to paper. And the chapter on Healthcare reform is spectacular and approaches the issue with really great substance (as opposed to the usual death panels vs. 40M uninsured crap.)
Check this out, King:
Probably use it for this week's Bonus Bananas.
Nice video. Honestly, I just hope that people that visit this site take a few minutes to watch things like this and do some homework of their own. The better educated people are, the better this industry will be.
I havent read this book so I won't comment on it, but from Taibbi's other writings I will say that anyone who buys into him is just as delusional as those who deny him outright. He is Michael Moore of the written word. He decides on a conclusion and finds facts that suit it. His most recent hack piece on Morgan Stanley was so desperately delusional I genuinely felt sorry for him as I read it.
His writing often reminds me of youtube videos of Maxine Waters. She is nothing short of full blown retarded, and possibly illiterate, but sure enough there is someone that will label her Financial Services committee participation as "grilling wall street executives" while the other 95% of America knows that she was making a fool of herself (to put it mildly).
PerhapsTaibbi has his moments, and maybe his message is well intended, but he generally only sells something the huffpo/RS crowd would buy.
@Cartwright:
How is his writing delusional? If you're going to make this sort of claim, bring some evidence. Which piece on Morgan Stanley are you even talking about? I'm not even aware of any piece he's written on MS. Have you even read any of his stuff? Give me a fucking break.
Fellating Taibbi and you're the one that needs the break?
I guess if you're not aware of the article it must not exist...in that case, do not follow this link.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-real-housewives-of-wall-s…
The focus of that article is about how programs like TALF which were well-meaning were completely taken advantage of. If you're ok with John Mack's housewife setting up a company to profit off of TALF, then there's no point in continuing this discussion.
What really depresses me is that your user name is paying homage to perhaps the greatest scene in Seinfeld history.
Seriously though, point out a few examples as to how Taibbi is "delusional," rather than just making ad hominem attacks on the guy.
How was it taken advantage of? Sounds like an investment in a fund completely unrelated to Morgan Stanley, using a spouse's name rather than the CEO of a bank which the pitchfork crowd (aka the poors, huffo readers, etc) would no doubt jump all over. I could parrot other retorts but Mr. Weinberg's seems just fine. http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2011/04/15/matt-taibbis-fact-souffle/
You will also notice I didn't discount Taibbi completely in my original post. Rather, I discounted both the complete acceptance of his viewpoints AND the complete rejection. I probably agree with a lot of his general thesis, if he presented them like a sane person in private and not like the hyperbolic lunatic his has to play in public (he is playing right?)
This was, after all, a journalist who wrote about fishing hats and bicyles for Men's Journal, and fine tuned his vitriol with an English-language Russian newspaper (wtf... http://dealbreaker.com/2010/02/horse-semen-scalding-hot-coffee-matt-tai… ...vanity fair link in there as well) , before the esteemed financial press of Rolling Stone gave him a platform.
No point in debating this shit. I'm just sick and tired of arguing about it. I'll never understand the issue guys like you have with the fact that Taibbi calls someone an asshole as opposed to "Mr. Blankfein" and "Mr. Paulson" and shit like that. As though it detracts from the arguments made.
I'll conclude by saying the one thing that we can definitely agree on is that when the Chinese restaurant owner said "I did call your name, I said Cartwright" is a top 3 scene in Seinfeld history.
I'm Cartwright
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