Taibbi's Goldman Sachs Rolling Stone Piece: Writer Strikes Back

True/Slant:

After my Rolling Stone piece about Goldman, Sachs hit the newsstands last week (unfortunately the piece is not yet up on the magazine's web site, so I can't link to it yet -- but it is out in print), I started to get a lot of mail. Most of it was thoughtful and respectful criticism, although there was an amusingly large number of people writing in impassioned defense of their right, under our American system, to be ripped off by large impersonal financial companies.

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Read the whole story: True/Slant

Comments

[mredder4]

Given the many comments on this site from people who undoubtedly spend more time online commenting than studying financial regulations or anything market related, this quote rings so true:

"The more dangerous thing is that Taibbi makes a lot of people feel like they finally understand how they were conned. Taibbi's facile use of technical terms, his lengthy explanation of little-known secrets that have been endlessly rehashed on every financial page for going on a decade, gives people the illusion that they have acquired valuable information about the financial crisis. They haven't. They've acquired a bunch of disconnected vignettes."

http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/matt_taibbi_gets_his_sarah_pal.php

Admit it, you like the author, not the subject material. Matt Taibbi could write that the moon is made of cheese and there'd be a surge in rockets made of crackers trying to take off. He's jumped his own shark, and he's become the kind of celebrity hack within his own medium that he decries from his perch.

[Witkacy]

Taibbi brings it, as usual.

[winningticket]

Matt Taibbi 2 Goldman Zero! Matt you are one of a kind. Please keep up the good work and thank you for calling out these Goldman thugs.

[rogerthat21]

We need to stop the corruption by Goldman, bank of Amerika, and Jp Morgan. Stop the Geithner and bernanke. .

Obama's policies may not be working as well as many had hoped:
1st 100 days - There are 2.9 million more people unemployed in May than there were unemployed in January. The unemployment rate went from 7.6% to 9.4%. Since May 2008, we have lost 5.5 million jobs. The biggest losers were:

Manufacturing 1.5 million lost
Finance & Prof Serv 1.5 million lost
Construction 1.1 million lost
Retail & Leisure 1.3 million lost

good political & economic articles: http://iamned.blogspot.com

[doneflyin]

GS is so rattled by Taibbi that they have resorted to that cheap trick labeling him a conspriracy theorist. This is the modern day version of calling someone a heretic. The term is such a perjorative that no further argument or facts are necessary to fully discredit someone.
When you don't have the facts to back up your defense and are clearly quilty, you pound the table and call your opponent a conspiracy theorist.This identifies him as a crazy kook that no one should take seriously.

As far a GS getting a "fair shot", they own this administration. I would call that more then a fair shot.
More like a huge giant advantage. I don't know how much better it can get for them then this.
It's a "get out of jail" free card.

Matt Taibbi is one of the last investigative reporters we have. This guy has some cajones to take on these power brokers!

[grateful4thedead]

you just KNOW that the goldman senior management is just HATING all this publicity.

keep pouring on the sunshine everybody until all the moldy, dark stink dries out.

thanks to huffpo, zerohedge, denninger and sooooo many others for their efforts to show this great country what is really going on with goldman and their alumni.

president obama: i think you are great but these guys are playing you like a fiddle.

[swisskabab]

Taibbi wrote ...

< ....... Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. ...>

[swisskabab]

Taibbi writes ...

Obama is pushing Goldman/WallSt's cause under the guise of "Credit Crisis" and "Energy Reform".

It is one. And by the way it walks like one and talks like one. Go on Matt ... say it.

[Lori Bowles]

Keep up the great work Taibbi, I'd really hate to be on your bad side! Outstanding reporting and loved your book!

[retreadite]

If half of the Rolling Stone atricle is true it's really scary. Highly recommended article, best thing I've read in a long time. Carbon Credit is the next market Goldman Sachs is going to manipulate (and it will be easier than mortgages, internet bubble, or IPOs).

[renatam]

With Al Gore. Now we are going to pay for letting him down in 2000! I voted for you, Al. Don't forget me! :)

[rogerthat21]

go get em, Goldman are such crooks.

good articles: http://heavysidetrade.blogspot.com/

[PhilipTaylor]

"Goldman shorted their own (mortgage) cr@p, which means they knew that what they were selling was a loser."

MATT! This is "Manufactured Insider Trading" which is far worse then even "Insider Trading" in that you are NOT taking advantage of an existing situation but you are "Manufacturing" the situation! This means you have NEAR PERFECT or PERFECT KNOWLEDGE ahead of time!

They should serve a far longer term than M@rtha Stew@rt served for her small and far less CALCULATED infraction!

[PhilipTaylor]

Matt the fact you got a response is a Great Achievement!

The fact the response was so condescending and lacked any real facts or substance shows Goldman is bankrupt in defending its behavior!

Keep up the PRESSURE as so far you have shaken their TIMBERS and the pirates are clearly nervous!

One suggestion is to also cover a similar EV1L DOER in JPM!

[Freenation]

Matt: keep us informed about future heists....

[PhilipTaylor]

Well SAID! 100% agree!

Our banks are the revitalized Mafia without the rules as Kennedy did not end their reign as they s1imed their way up through the Financial System and NOW OWN CONGRESS and the Presidency using their ill-gotten LOOT!

Goldman is simply the Godfather in competition with the gangs other Godfather JPM!

[PhilipTaylor]

Matt quotes, "and this is pure Goldman, just outstanding stuff — make it clear that both I and my sources are simply not as smart as they are and don’t understand what we’re talking about."

This is the typical response by Financial Types to virtually any pointed criticism of their corrupt practices. It has happened dozens of times to me since I blog on MarketWatch and see it on HP but much less.

Since they can not or will not answer the direct fact based question they simply try to make you irrelevant!

[argeec]

I would love to watch GS testify, under oath before a Pecora-style commission, about their actions in the oil futures markets over the last few years.

[hollybork]

Wouldn't that be interesting?