This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
In a pure capitalist system, an institution as moronic and corrupt as Bank of America would be swiftly punished by the market – the executives would get to loot their own firms once, then they’d be looking for jobs again. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
The threat posed by Bank of America isn’t just financial – it’s a full-blown assault on the American dream. Where’s the incentive to play fair and do well, when what we see rewarded at the highest levels of society is failure, stupidity, incompetence and meanness? If this is what winning in our system looks like, who doesn’t want to be a loser? Matt Taibbi Read Quote
In America, it takes about two weeks in the limelight for the whole country to think you’ve been around for years. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
Democracy doesn’t require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but it requires some: It requires taking a good look outside once in a while, and considering the bad news and what it might mean, and making the occasional tough choice, and soberly taking stock of what your real interests are. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
One of the great cliches of campaign journalism is the notion that American elections have long since ceased to be about issues and ideas. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
Since the end of the Cold War, America has been grasping left and right for an identity. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
Prop trading’ is just a fancy term for banks gambling in the market for their own profit. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it’s a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to year are constantly switching sides and trading hats. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
Mike Huckabee represents something that is either tremendously encouraging or deeply disturbing, depending on your point of view: a marriage of Christian fundamentalism with economic populism. Matt Taibbi Read Quote
