hippiewannabe wrote:"Vampire squid"? You want me to read and take seriously an article that uses the term "vampire squid"?
A 2009 Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi likened investment bank Goldman Sachs to "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." It was later used by other critics of Goldman Sachs, such as the Occupy Wall Street movement. It even has a place in Wikipedia, put there by the cognoscenti, who are not squeamish at all by colorful language.
Colorful language is no reason not to read or listen. Samuel Clemens also pissed off the status-quo, as did George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and John Lennon.
hippiewannabe wrote:
The economy depends on the efficient allocation of capital. The banks and capital markets provide a vital function in directing savings to productive investments
You can stop right there. It has been proven that banks have done *terribly* with people's money when they decide to go all casino-rogue.
As for capital markets, they should be absolutely firewalled away from people's savings and pensions and mortgages. We have already determined that (Wall Street Journal contest) throwing darts at financial pages get just as good results in the real world as using financial managers with their dasdardly fees.
hippiewannabe wrote:
Wall Street deserves a reasonable cut of the profit. we must be careful to not slay the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Wall Street is not laying any eggs. They are annoying little racoons stealing eggs.
Colin
* please enjoy the following evidence that muckraking journalism is not yet dead*
Featuring Matt Taibbi:
How Wall Street Hedge Funds Are Looting the Pension Funds of Public Workers
In his latest article for Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi reports that Wall Street firms are now making millions in profits off of public pension funds nationwide. "Essentially it is a wealth transfer from teachers, cops and firemen to billionaire hedge funders," Taibbi says. "Pension funds are one of the last great,...
September 26, 2013
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U.S. Student Loan Bubble Saddles a Generation With Debt and Threatens the Economy
On the heels of President Obama’s signing of a measure keeping federally subsidized student loans at a relatively low rate through 2015, Rolling Stone political reporter Matt Taibbi joins us to discuss how the high price of U.S. college tuition and the federal expansion of student debt to pay for it pose a major threat...
August 20, 2013
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"Failure of Epic Proportions": Treasury Nominee Jack Lew’s Pro-Bank, Austerity, Deregulation Legacy
Former bank regulator William Black and Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi join us to dissect the career of Jack Lew, President Obama’s pick to replace Treasury Secretary Timothy Geither. Currently Obama’s chief of staff, Lew was an executive at Citigroup from 2006 to 2008 at the time of the financial crisis. He backed...
January 11, 2013
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Matt Taibbi & William Black
Bailout Secrets & How New Foreclosure Deal Spares Banks from Justice
Four years after the massive bailout that rescued Wall Street, we look at the state of the financial sector with Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi and former financial regulator William Black. In a new article for Rolling Stone, Taibbi argues the government did not just bail out Wall Street, but also lied on the financial sector’s...
January 11, 2013
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After Laundering $800 Million in Drug Money, How Did HSBC Executives Avoid Jail?
The banking giant HSBC has escaped indictment for laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and groups linked to al-Qaeda. Despite evidence of wrongdoing, the U.S. Department of Justice has allowed the bank to avoid prosecution and pay a $1.9 billion fine. No top HSBC officials will face charges, either. We’re...
December 13, 2012
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Matt Taibbi on the Unfolding Libor Scandal and What Sen. DeMint’s Departure Means for Fractured GOP
News of HSBC’s $1.9 billion fine comes as three low-level traders were arrested in London as part of an international investigation into 16 international banks accused of rigging a key global interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars. The London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor, is the average interest...
December 13, 2012
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The Secret to Mitt Romney’s Fortune? Greed, Debt and Forcing Others to Foot the Bill
A new article by reporter Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone sheds new light on the origin of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s fortune, revealing how Romney’s former firm, Bain Capital, used private equity to raise money to conduct corporate raids. Taibbi writes: "What most voters don’t know is the...
August 30, 2012
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Matt Taibbi Explains Wall Street’s "License to Steal," Offshore Tax Havens and Private Equity Firms
In part two of our interview with Matt Taibbi, he describes recent Wall Street scandals — including a decade-long Wall Street scandal that drained money from every county and state in the United States — and notes not a single bank executive has faced individual consequences. He also explains how Republican presidential...
July 30, 2012
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Matt Taibbi: Libor Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine"
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi joins us to discuss the pattern of systemic corruption by 16 banks accused of rigging a key global interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars. The London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor, is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from each other.
July 19, 2012
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Matt Taibbi on the Explosive Resignation of Goldman Sachs Executive Greg Smith
Financial reporter Matt Taibbi talks about Goldman Sach’s history of denigrating its own clients, as recently highlighted by former Goldman executive Greg Smith’s explosive resignation letter in the New York Times. Decrying what he called Goldman’s "toxic" culture, Smith said bosses at the firm called...
March 22, 2012
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"Too Crooked to Fail": Matt Taibbi Says Bailouts, Fraud are the Secrets to Bank of America’s Success
In his new article, "Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail," Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi chronicles the remarkable history of the rise of Bank of America, an institution he says has defrauded "everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed." Taibbi describes how the Bush and Obama...
March 22, 2012
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Covering Up Wall Street Crimes: Matt Taibbi Exposes How SEC Shredded Thousands of Investigations
An explosive new report in Rolling Stone magazine exposes how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation’s largest banks and hedge funds, including AIG, Wells Fargo, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and top Wall...
August 23, 2011
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Matt Taibbi: "Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?" (Complete Interview)
"Nobody goes to jail,” writes Matt Taibbi in the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine. “This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions,...
February 22, 2011
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Goldman Sachs Settles Civil Fraud Case for $550M — Less Than It Reportedly Expected, and With No Admission of Criminal Wrongdoing
Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to resolve a civil fraud lawsuit over selling a mortgage investment that was established to fail. While the SEC hailed the $550 million settlement as the largest in Wall Street history, many outside analysts questioned why the government didn’t demand more. Investors responded favorably...
July 16, 2010
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"Looting Main Street"–Matt Taibbi on How the Nation’s Biggest Banks Are Ripping Off American Cities with Predatory Deals
In a new article in Rolling Stone magazine, journalist Matt Taibbi takes an in-depth look at the experience of one small Alabama town and its disastrous dealings with Wall Street. Taibbi writes, "The destruction of Jefferson County reveals the basic battle plan of these modern barbarians, the way that banks like JP Morgan...
April 12, 2010
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As Goldman Sachs Posts Record Profits, Matt Taibbi Probes Role of Investment Giant in US Financial Meltdown
Goldman Sachs, the nation’s most powerful financial company, has reported the richest quarterly profit in its 140-year history: $3.44 billion between April and June. Goldman’s record profits come just one month after it repaid $10 billion of TARP money to the US Treasury, freeing itself from restrictions on year-end bonuses. We speak to Matt Taibbi, whose new Rolling Stone article argues...
July 15, 2009
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"How Wall Street Insiders Are Using the Bailout to Stage a Revolution"
In a new article in Rolling Stone Magazine, journalist Matt Tabbi takes an in-depth look at the story behind AIG. "The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d’état," writes Taibbi. "They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of...
March 25, 2009
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You will want to put this in your favorites folder, Hippiewannabe:
Colin ; )
http://www.democracynow.org/appearances/matt_taibbi