Call number
973.932 TAI
Collection
Publication
Spiegel & Grau (2010), Edition: First Edition, 272 pages
Description
The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 only prologue. The rise, fall, and rescue of Wall Street in the bubble-and-bailout era was the coming-out party for the network of looters who sit at the nexus of American political and economic power. The grifter class--made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding--has been growing in power for a generation, transferring wealth upward through increasingly complex financial mechanisms and political maneuvers. The crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they've hijacked America's political and economic life. Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi here unravels the story, digging beyond the headlines to get into the deeper roots and wider implications. He traces the movement's origins to Ayn Rand and her most influential acolyte, Alan Greenspan; he uncovers the hidden commodities bubble that transferred billions of dollars to Wall Street while creating food shortages around the world; and he shows how finance dominates politics with an inside account of the high-stakes battle for health-care reform--a battle the true reformers lost.--From publisher description.… (more)
Media reviews
The shelves are full of books describing how Wall Street turned mortgage markets into a casino. Goldman’s dealings with A.I.G. have been probed in the pages of this newspaper, among others. What Taibbi brings is a broader context and his trademark snarky prose. He has written a polemic, a
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full-scale indictment of Wall Street and Washington, one that sometimes veers toward ranting, yet serves as a needed antidote to the more even-tempered but fatuous accounts already available. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member jcbrunner
I really love the dollar scorpion origami cover which symbolizes the book's vicious but harmless sting. The book develops in greater detail and touching upon more fields the plutocracy themes mentioned in Taibbi's famous vampire squid Rolling Stone article. He is a master in catchy formulation and
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simple explanation. In a functioning society with free media and the rule of law, Taibbi's reporting would trigger widespread judicial inquiries, reporting and public discussion. In the US, he earns but a shrug and a gasp for slinging mud and feces at the masters of the universe. They have learned from the Nixon years, that not engaging in discussion will remove a topic out of the public view when the news cycle moves on to a white girl's abduction, a sex scandal or some public shooting. Thus, Taibbi's book is both entertaining, enlightening and frustrating to read. Does the rolling stone in the end refer to Sisyphus (who with a little bit of NLP became a happy man)? Show Less
LibraryThing member hugh_ashton
"Pointing at the sun while pissing on your shoes". A phrase from Ian MacDonald's Out On Blue Six to describe misdirection of the populace by the Powers That Be.
My feeling is that all Americans, whatever their political persuasion, should read Griftopia. Even if you are going to divide Taibbi's
There is sympathy in this book for the legitimate gripes of both the left (such as it is in such a conservative country as the USA) and the right-leaning Tea Party - but what he is trying to do is to educate these groups, and swing their guns in what he sees as the right direction - the Wall Street bankers, and the government that they have bought and paid for.
The simple description of how Chicago car-owners have been betrayed by the city government, who sold off the parking meters and revenue from them to an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium through a layer of shell companies, who promptly proceeded to gouge the citizens, would have caused riots and possible revolution if it had been reported in the mass media.
As it is, I become more and more convinced that no US administration will ever repeal or change the 2nd Amendment - it's a sop thrown to the American sheeple to give them the illusion that they are free. In all other aspects, they are slaves to a few large parasitic corporations which don't even produce anything of value. "Vampire squid" is a very kind term for them.
My feeling is that all Americans, whatever their political persuasion, should read Griftopia. Even if you are going to divide Taibbi's
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assertions by three, and take a third of what he says as true, there is food for thought here, no matter which way your political compass points. This is not a knee-jerk reaction against "the rich" as such, nor is it a rant against "welfare queens". It also dismisses Rand-ian pseudo-philosophy. What he is trying to do here is to strip away the concept that Democrats are automatically "good" and Republicans are automatically "bad" or the other way round. And the libertarian alternative really is no alternative - what the USA needs is more regulation, not less, of big business.There is sympathy in this book for the legitimate gripes of both the left (such as it is in such a conservative country as the USA) and the right-leaning Tea Party - but what he is trying to do is to educate these groups, and swing their guns in what he sees as the right direction - the Wall Street bankers, and the government that they have bought and paid for.
The simple description of how Chicago car-owners have been betrayed by the city government, who sold off the parking meters and revenue from them to an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium through a layer of shell companies, who promptly proceeded to gouge the citizens, would have caused riots and possible revolution if it had been reported in the mass media.
As it is, I become more and more convinced that no US administration will ever repeal or change the 2nd Amendment - it's a sop thrown to the American sheeple to give them the illusion that they are free. In all other aspects, they are slaves to a few large parasitic corporations which don't even produce anything of value. "Vampire squid" is a very kind term for them.
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LibraryThing member zstopper
America’s biggest financial bubble burst in 1929 and then the bubbles went away for fifty years until they started re-appearing in the 1980’s as the American economy became increasingly bubblicious, leading to the crash of 2008. The book Griftopia by Matt Taibbi is the story of how the grifter
The key to reviving a bubblicious financial system was getting rid of the regulations designed to prevent bubbles. In order to sell the de-regulatory proposals it was necessary to offer something in their place, and that something was the concept of self-regulation. As ridiculous as the concept sounds, the advertising campaign for it was successful and this book provides an insightful explanation as to how it was done.
Taibbi gives us an excellent example with Alan Greenspan of the disconnect between what we’re sold and what we actually get. As Taibbi writes, “Greenspan’s rise to the top is one of the great scams of our time. His career is the perfect prism through which one can see the twofold basic deception of American politics: a system that preaches sink-or-swim laissez-faire capitalismsto most but acts as a highly interventionist, bureaucratic welfare state for a select few ... If you can see through him, the rest of it is easy.”
Taibbi makes clear how Greenspan was the archetypal player among the priestly class of corporatism. Greenspan used his economics background to provide a thin veneer of academic respectability for each proposal to increase self-regulation. Without this academic endorsement the magical mechanisms of market-induced restraints would’ve been painfully easy to see through.
The book documents the pattern that played out repeatedly where the financial industry lobbied policy-makers for regulatory changes, while at the same time lobbying public opinion by promising rich rewards if the changes were implemented and dire consequences if they were not.
Taibbi more than amply justifies his characterization of the financial industry as grifters. He shows how they mis-represented their product offerings. They never came out and said that their gambling schemes were designed to scoop up money from everyone else and shift it into their own pockets. Instead they presented each new scheme as a magical plan to shower profits on all those who were true believers in these seemingly too-good-to-be-true opportunities. The impression was that the grifters would be taking only a small share of the take, with the majority of the benefit accruing to the public at large. This is the grifter modus operandi.
Books such as Griftopia are essential both to the democratic process and the economic future of the country. It’s imperative that significant segments of the populace become sufficiently capable of discerning the difference between advertising and economics. As essential as a book like this is, it can be a tough sell because many people want to hang on to what they think they know. Taibbi’s message can be a difficult one because it requires us to give up the something-for-nothing fables that the grifters lured us into with the help of their priestly class allies.
There’s plenty at stake here. Bubbles produce massive misappropriations of capital which cause serious damage to the long-term growth of the economy. It is the job of the financial industry to direct capital into the most productive ventures. It has become necessary for the public to insist that this industry get back to doing its job. It will also be necessary to insist that decisions be made based on the empirical record which is pretty clear about how poorly self-policing policies have worked in the past. The current gas price surge in the absence of any change in the supply/demand ratio is an excellent illustration of how the bubble pushers continue to rob us.
If the principle of self-regulation is ever going to be repudiated unequivocally then the public needs to get its head out of its ass, and this book is a great place to start.
On a personal level, my favorite aspect of this book is the fact that the author himself is a vindication of my view that there are heroes out there willing to endure all of the conflict and recrimination and slander and accusation in order to defend those of us outside of the grifter class.
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class brought the bubbles back through a campaign of political lobbying aimed at both policy-makers and the general public.The key to reviving a bubblicious financial system was getting rid of the regulations designed to prevent bubbles. In order to sell the de-regulatory proposals it was necessary to offer something in their place, and that something was the concept of self-regulation. As ridiculous as the concept sounds, the advertising campaign for it was successful and this book provides an insightful explanation as to how it was done.
Taibbi gives us an excellent example with Alan Greenspan of the disconnect between what we’re sold and what we actually get. As Taibbi writes, “Greenspan’s rise to the top is one of the great scams of our time. His career is the perfect prism through which one can see the twofold basic deception of American politics: a system that preaches sink-or-swim laissez-faire capitalismsto most but acts as a highly interventionist, bureaucratic welfare state for a select few ... If you can see through him, the rest of it is easy.”
Taibbi makes clear how Greenspan was the archetypal player among the priestly class of corporatism. Greenspan used his economics background to provide a thin veneer of academic respectability for each proposal to increase self-regulation. Without this academic endorsement the magical mechanisms of market-induced restraints would’ve been painfully easy to see through.
The book documents the pattern that played out repeatedly where the financial industry lobbied policy-makers for regulatory changes, while at the same time lobbying public opinion by promising rich rewards if the changes were implemented and dire consequences if they were not.
Taibbi more than amply justifies his characterization of the financial industry as grifters. He shows how they mis-represented their product offerings. They never came out and said that their gambling schemes were designed to scoop up money from everyone else and shift it into their own pockets. Instead they presented each new scheme as a magical plan to shower profits on all those who were true believers in these seemingly too-good-to-be-true opportunities. The impression was that the grifters would be taking only a small share of the take, with the majority of the benefit accruing to the public at large. This is the grifter modus operandi.
Books such as Griftopia are essential both to the democratic process and the economic future of the country. It’s imperative that significant segments of the populace become sufficiently capable of discerning the difference between advertising and economics. As essential as a book like this is, it can be a tough sell because many people want to hang on to what they think they know. Taibbi’s message can be a difficult one because it requires us to give up the something-for-nothing fables that the grifters lured us into with the help of their priestly class allies.
There’s plenty at stake here. Bubbles produce massive misappropriations of capital which cause serious damage to the long-term growth of the economy. It is the job of the financial industry to direct capital into the most productive ventures. It has become necessary for the public to insist that this industry get back to doing its job. It will also be necessary to insist that decisions be made based on the empirical record which is pretty clear about how poorly self-policing policies have worked in the past. The current gas price surge in the absence of any change in the supply/demand ratio is an excellent illustration of how the bubble pushers continue to rob us.
If the principle of self-regulation is ever going to be repudiated unequivocally then the public needs to get its head out of its ass, and this book is a great place to start.
On a personal level, my favorite aspect of this book is the fact that the author himself is a vindication of my view that there are heroes out there willing to endure all of the conflict and recrimination and slander and accusation in order to defend those of us outside of the grifter class.
Show Less
LibraryThing member metamariposa
Excellent and illuminating review of how the financial crisis came about. This book is better organized and more tightly focused than some of Taibbi's work. It left me seething with righteous anger and frustrated at the powers of corruption that warp our political system. The book is aimed at
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truthseekers, and although its perspective leans (far) left, readers who consider themselves "conservative" will still find information and perspective in this informative account. Show Less
LibraryThing member jrpalin
Loaded with sarcasm, colorful language, and point-blank attacks on the likes of Alan Greenspan and the leaders of Goldman Sachs, this book is immensely entertaining and also pretty informative. The chapters kind of stand individually from one another and the first two are better than what follows,
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but the whole thing is nonetheless worth a read. Show Less
LibraryThing member DRFP
At times a piece of writing more horrific than any work of fiction. Taibbi illuminates in a very easy to read style (with jargon simply explained) some of the many crimes that precipitated the recent financial crisis. It left me personally shocked by the very scale of criminality that took place
A couple of minor criticisms: firstly, a lack of any references was a little worrying whilst reading the book. I understand that many of the people Taibbi talked to would want to remain anonymous but there were occasions when I wondered where the author had got that quote or fact. Also, the first half of the book seemed stronger than the second. I realise its relevance to the overall narrative but the chapter specifically on Goldman Sachs felt a little tacked on at the end.
Despite these small sticking points I still think this was a very strong account of what led to the most recent bubbles and the malpractices that took place. Informative and a much needed wake-up call.
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and deeply worried about the government's complicity and / or ineffectiveness in trying to remedy the situation.A couple of minor criticisms: firstly, a lack of any references was a little worrying whilst reading the book. I understand that many of the people Taibbi talked to would want to remain anonymous but there were occasions when I wondered where the author had got that quote or fact. Also, the first half of the book seemed stronger than the second. I realise its relevance to the overall narrative but the chapter specifically on Goldman Sachs felt a little tacked on at the end.
Despite these small sticking points I still think this was a very strong account of what led to the most recent bubbles and the malpractices that took place. Informative and a much needed wake-up call.
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LibraryThing member BruceCoulson
To paraphrase Will Rogers, Taibbi explains the recent economic meltdown and bailout(s) in terms simple enough even an economist or banker can understand them. Although economists and bankers understand the new rules well enough; it's the rest of us who need to be brought up to speed as to how elite
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banks legally stole billions of dollars, and are continuing to get away with it. Show Less
LibraryThing member dherrick52
In blunt, vulgar language Taibbi plainly explains the perversionsin our economy that have weighted the scales towards the scammers at the cost to working men and women. Prepare to be outraged.
LibraryThing member schatzi
Finally, someone digs into what caused the recession we are currently experiencing instead of blaming it on everyone and everything besides the banks and the people who ran us into the ground. Taibbi is harsh in his criticism of banks and the lack of regulation pushed through (mostly) by
Taibbi is blunt and to the point, and some (perhaps many) will be put off by this. But this book is essential reading when it comes to the mess we're in today. And if you can read this book without having your blood boil, something's wrong.
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conservatives, which led to the financial crisis in the first place. But he is equally critical of Obama and the democrats, especially when it comes to health care and insurance. Taibbi is blunt and to the point, and some (perhaps many) will be put off by this. But this book is essential reading when it comes to the mess we're in today. And if you can read this book without having your blood boil, something's wrong.
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LibraryThing member Miro
Everyone should read this book. It explains very clearly what happens when "Commercials" displace "Guardians" in top government positions.
The Guardians are the referees, the government officials, ensuring that everyone plays by the same rules and providing the framework of a free society that
In contrast, the Commercials are the occupants of the house and (within the rules) use free markets and their creative individualism to drive development and wealth creation.
Taibbi doesn't explicitly look at it this way, in fact he is rather anti free market judging by his criticism ot Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", but he does show step by step how a group of highly commercial Manhattan Jews (Rubin, Summers, Blankfein, Greenspan, Bernanke + others around Goldman Sachs) managed to obtain the top economic Guardian positions in the Treasury and Federal Reserve and exploit them commercially for their own group profit.
He shows them breaking the key structural defenses of society such as the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that had since the Great Depression successfully separated retail deposit banking from speculative investment banking, the deed being done under the Clinton administration with the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, "We are here today to repeal Glass-Steagall because we have learned that government is not the answer... etc." .
The author illustrates what happens when the foxes run the chicken house and unchecked "creativity" only leads to one scam after another until there's not much left.
The Guardians are the referees, the government officials, ensuring that everyone plays by the same rules and providing the framework of a free society that
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benefits everyone. In other words they provide the structure of the "house we all live in".In contrast, the Commercials are the occupants of the house and (within the rules) use free markets and their creative individualism to drive development and wealth creation.
Taibbi doesn't explicitly look at it this way, in fact he is rather anti free market judging by his criticism ot Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", but he does show step by step how a group of highly commercial Manhattan Jews (Rubin, Summers, Blankfein, Greenspan, Bernanke + others around Goldman Sachs) managed to obtain the top economic Guardian positions in the Treasury and Federal Reserve and exploit them commercially for their own group profit.
He shows them breaking the key structural defenses of society such as the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that had since the Great Depression successfully separated retail deposit banking from speculative investment banking, the deed being done under the Clinton administration with the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, "We are here today to repeal Glass-Steagall because we have learned that government is not the answer... etc." .
The author illustrates what happens when the foxes run the chicken house and unchecked "creativity" only leads to one scam after another until there's not much left.
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LibraryThing member mj.greenway
Excellent read of very complicated, convoluted economic & cultural sabotage. Good mangement of political bias to reflect truth and impact.
LibraryThing member altonmann
This is the 6th book I've read about the recent financial catastrophes.
Fools Gold, The End of Wall Street, The Big Short, How Markets Fail, All the Devils Are Here are all worthy books, but Griftopia tops the rest with its insights and outrage.
Taibbi doesn't simply settle for exposition and
Taibbi is the Hunter Thompson of our time, but an improved version who does his homework and shows us where all the bodies have been buried.
Watch the documentary Inside Job and then read Griftopia
Fools Gold, The End of Wall Street, The Big Short, How Markets Fail, All the Devils Are Here are all worthy books, but Griftopia tops the rest with its insights and outrage.
Taibbi doesn't simply settle for exposition and
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analysis. He's angry that business (Wall Street, insurance industry in particular) abetted by our government has robbed us blind while citizens have amused themselves with a media circus that doesn't investigate or analyze anything but rather creates endless cheap Punch & Judy shows featuring mindless, clowns wearing business attire variously speaking in measured tones or spouting pointless vitriol.Taibbi is the Hunter Thompson of our time, but an improved version who does his homework and shows us where all the bodies have been buried.
Watch the documentary Inside Job and then read Griftopia
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LibraryThing member rivkat
I am powerfully drawn to Taibbi’s writing, but I can only read so much at a time before his and my rage threaten to overwhelm me. Also, warning: I can’t overemphasize just how often he uses disability-related words to signify stupidity, evil, or general unworthiness as a human being.
The version I read was updated with a couple more of his Rolling Stone pieces, and I hope this observation was prescient: “The vast majority of Americans are, I think, waiting for Wall Street itself to agree that it deserves to be punished or reformed, before calling for punishment or reform. But it’s never going to happen. I feel strongly that once more people realize this, that they don’t have to ask for Wall Street’s permission to be angry about what happened to their money and their mortgages and their credit ratings in the last ten years, the politics governing our economy will be altered.” He suggests that rhetoric and expensive lawyers have distracted us from what the people at the top are doing: stealing. People ask, he say, what good it would do to punish the people who tanked the economy. “[W]hen was the last time anyone stood up at a car thief’s trial and argued that jail time wasn’t warranted because putting the defendant in jail wouldn’t end car theft? We don’t make that argument because it’s absurd; that’s not how we measure justice…. If we force the people on Wall Street to live under our laws and our criminal justice system, who knows—they may even start to see themselves as citizens of the same country.”
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Nonetheless, I can’t stay away from a guy in the relatively mainstream media who is this angry about our current situation, and willing to call out specific people. He suggests that Tea Partiers have legitimate grievances about overintrusive local government, and have wrongly generalized that (with substantial assistance from powerful people with every incentive to help them do so), assuming that the government is to Wall Street what it is to Main Street rather than being a handmaiden of looting. But what actually happened and is still happening is complicated, and anti-intellectualism is a brilliant strategy because the Tea Party is “arguing against the very idea that it’s even necessary to ask the kinds of questions you need to ask to grasp bubble economics.” He makes a go of it, covering mortgage securitization (and initiation fraud), health care reform sold out to big pharma and insurance companies, and other consequences of corporate gorging on the 99%.The version I read was updated with a couple more of his Rolling Stone pieces, and I hope this observation was prescient: “The vast majority of Americans are, I think, waiting for Wall Street itself to agree that it deserves to be punished or reformed, before calling for punishment or reform. But it’s never going to happen. I feel strongly that once more people realize this, that they don’t have to ask for Wall Street’s permission to be angry about what happened to their money and their mortgages and their credit ratings in the last ten years, the politics governing our economy will be altered.” He suggests that rhetoric and expensive lawyers have distracted us from what the people at the top are doing: stealing. People ask, he say, what good it would do to punish the people who tanked the economy. “[W]hen was the last time anyone stood up at a car thief’s trial and argued that jail time wasn’t warranted because putting the defendant in jail wouldn’t end car theft? We don’t make that argument because it’s absurd; that’s not how we measure justice…. If we force the people on Wall Street to live under our laws and our criminal justice system, who knows—they may even start to see themselves as citizens of the same country.”
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LibraryThing member KateSherrod
Taibbi's first book, co-written with Mark Ames, went into hilarious, profane and excruciating detail on how a small cadre of "businessmen" walked away with millions, probably more like billions, of dollars worth of formerly state-owned assets, rigging auctions, strong-arming, whatever it took. The
From calling out Alan Greenspan as "the world's biggest asshole" to presenting detailed analyses of the Internet, housing and commodities bubbles (the last of which being the real cause of recent hideous spikes in gasoline and food prices, after important regulatory safeguards were sidestepped with the Republicrats' blessing and speculators went buck wild in that market), Taibbi is an angry jackass in the public interest, but one who does his homework and gets his facts straight.
It probably shouldn't be this much fun to read about how screwed we were and still are.
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Exile is the story of the biggest thefts in recorded history, of the corrupt western consultants who let it happen, and of the foreign press corps who cheered it on in the guise of reporting on it. No punches were pulled in the writing of that book -- or in this new one.From calling out Alan Greenspan as "the world's biggest asshole" to presenting detailed analyses of the Internet, housing and commodities bubbles (the last of which being the real cause of recent hideous spikes in gasoline and food prices, after important regulatory safeguards were sidestepped with the Republicrats' blessing and speculators went buck wild in that market), Taibbi is an angry jackass in the public interest, but one who does his homework and gets his facts straight.
It probably shouldn't be this much fun to read about how screwed we were and still are.
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LibraryThing member bibliosk8er
I don't have a lot to add to what some other's have written about this book. Having lived through these financial events and experienced the frustration, as a working stiff, of seeing mega-assholes fuck up the economy then get bailed out by the taxpayer, it is nice to find a writer who actually
Yes, that is kind of a petty way to feel, but I'm good with it.
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CALLS them assholes.Yes, that is kind of a petty way to feel, but I'm good with it.
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LibraryThing member cdogzilla
Can we just nationalize the banks and prosecute the fraudsters already?!
LibraryThing member Stembie3
This book is scarier than a horror movie.
LibraryThing member MontzaleeW
Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
by Matt Taibbi
I read this book a long time ago but it is still relevant today. The book is not about you or me but about the con men and women behind the scenes. (Well, some are right there in our faces just lying
This book covers the right, left, and everyone in between. No one is left out. The many ways people have had the screws put to us and gotten away with it. The author pulls no punches!
He makes even the most complex scams easy to understand.
I forgot how good this book was! Definitely need to get one of his newer books!
by Matt Taibbi
I read this book a long time ago but it is still relevant today. The book is not about you or me but about the con men and women behind the scenes. (Well, some are right there in our faces just lying
Show More
to us!)This book covers the right, left, and everyone in between. No one is left out. The many ways people have had the screws put to us and gotten away with it. The author pulls no punches!
He makes even the most complex scams easy to understand.
I forgot how good this book was! Definitely need to get one of his newer books!
Show Less
Pages
272
ISBN
9780385529952
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