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Title details for Griftopia by Matt Taibbi - Available

Griftopia

Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

by Matt Taibbi
Patrick Egan
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
The dramatic story behind the most audacious power grab in American history
 
The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The stunning 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 whole fiendish story, digging beyond the headlines to get into the deeper roots and wider implications of the rise of the grifters. He traces the movement’s origins to the cult of Ayn Rand and her most influential—and possibly weirdest—acolyte, Alan Greenspan, and offers fresh reporting on the backroom deals that decided the winners and losers in the government bailouts. 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, from the story of investment bankers auctioning off America’s infrastructure to an inside account of the high-stakes battle for health-care reform—a battle the true reformers lost. Finally, he tells the story of Goldman Sachs, the “vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.”
Taibbi has combined deep sources, trailblazing reportage, and provocative analysis to create the most lucid, emotionally galvanizing, and scathingly funny account yet written of the ongoing political and financial crisis in America. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the labyrinthine inner workings of politics and finance in this country, and the profound consequences for us all.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 2, 2010

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780307751102
      • File size: 343711 KB
      • Duration: 11:56:03

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Think you understood the Wall Street collapse and what's going on in America? Read Matt Taibbi's GRIFTOPIA, and you'll realize two things: You don't have a clue what happened, and things are worse than either the right or the left can imagine. Taibbi, a contributing editor to ROLLING STONE, explains that the reason people aren't gathered outside Wall Street institutions with pitchforks and torches is that the financial system has been deliberately made so complex that few understand it. Patrick Egan performs the book with a voice that sounds like a man barely keeping his rage inside, a style that is the perfect for this story of theft, deceit, and betrayal. It's still happening. This is a true crime story. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 8, 2010
      Taibbi eviscerates Wall Street for what he considers frauds perpetrated on the American people over the last ten years. Delving into complicated financial history and lingo, Taibbi deftly lays the subject bare, rendering heretofore-dense subject matter simple without being simplistic. Blame for the recent mortgage collapse, commodities bubble, and tech bubble are laid at the feet of a relatively small number of bankers and traders who, in the author's opinion, act without fear of reciprocity from a U.S. government no longer representative of the American people. He begins by awarding the title "Biggest Asshole In The Universe" to former-Fed Chief Alan Greenspan, taking him to task for willfully or stupidly disemboweling what little regulation the financial markets may have had before his tenure. This theme resounds throughout, and Taibbi asserts that the collusion between Wall Street and the White House has effectively turned the United States into a massive casino, in which working Americans are regularly bilked out of their savings and homes while the wealthy are repeatedly rewarded for their graft. It's an important and worthy read, but not for the Randian disciple or Goldman-Sachs alum.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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