Matt Taibbi Talks Goldman Sachs, Regulation (VIDEO)

Matt Taibbi, the author of the much-discussed Rolling Stone article "The Great Bubble Machine" about Goldman Sachs, recently appeared on Air America's The Break Room Live.

Taibbi offered some interesting background on his piece, which has drawn the ire of the Goldman PR department and been something of a sensation in the financial blogosphere. Specifically, he expounds on what he sees as a tectonic shift in the culture of Wall Street in the 1990s. After investment banks became publicly traded companies, Wall Street became obsessed with short-term profits.

Here's Taibbi:

"I think what happened was that Wall Street traditionally had at least a minimum level of societal concern and ethics, and that just disappeared in the mid-90s. And now its completely gone."

WATCH:

Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[PhilipTaylor]

Three New Courses in the G0LDMAN School of Market Manipulation:

1. O1L Markets - Leveraged Profits UP and Bigger Leveraged Profits Down

2. Automated Stealing Machines - Tricks you can use to make $Billion without lifting a finger.

3. Manufactured Insider Trading: 100 Ways to do it with Derivatives

[voltage356]

When Goldman Sachs needs help in manipulating the markets and thereby violate federal securities laws, the United States prosecutors are always willing to turn a blind eye.

http://blackstarnews.com/print.php?a=5870

[jasongrundy]

FIXING wall street is very easy....DO­N'T invest in Stocks, Mutual Funds, etc. The game is rigged. Invest in the government. The risk is safe...not as profitable, but at least you know your money will there tomorrow.

[HST]

Forget about Matt Taibbi, if you want some really good financial information check out Jim Cramer's show Mad Money! Didn't all the money news channels call the meltdown before it happened? Man those guys know their stuff. Hahahahahahaha.

[Rule Of Law]

If you liked Taibbi's article in the Stone, then you may also be interested in this--

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/y-2009/

The top 25 under reported stories of each year--the place where the MSM lapdogs drop the ball that folks like RS and Project Censored pick up!

[LemonMeringue]

I take Rolling Stone only so I can read this man's writing. He is the best journalist writing today.

[Rule Of Law]

Too many people forget that RS began as a music and Political newspaper. At the time, our greatest observers of the political scene, other than Walter Cronkite, were the musicians, and RS gave them a forum beyond what they put on records and hired the best reporters and interviewers to do the job. Good to see them, and Taibbi, returning to the activist roots that helped end one war a long time ago.

[marijam]

Seeing as how it isn't making any difference that they've recovered, it probably would not have made any difference if they had been allowed to go bankrupt. It's going to be quite shocking when Independents move to vote for conservatives. You know, the conservatives that said to just let them all go under? The ones everybody was calling crack pots a few months back? They don't seem so crack pot now, huh? Problem is, most Independents won't want all the other stuff that goes along with conservatives. What's a socially responsible person to do?

[azdisabledsci]

I am sorry to say that not much has changed with Obama in the white house, but the night he got the nomination he went straight to the Marriot where the Bilderberg group was meeting & ditched his media entourage. I knew right then & there nothing would change. The game is stacked tot he house & the house is the Fed, Central Banks, CFR, Media, UN etc...gove­rnment & the big banks. They are one giant evil cabal.

[LemonMeringue]

Does Obama have a choice? Do you think he can buck the cabal that rules the world?

I wish it would be true that he can.

[youtubeit]

this economy is in such deep *&^ yet Obamma & Summers live on another astral plane, unwilling to acknowledge reality, even though 995 of Americans experience and know what's going on, and are tired of the BS.

good articles: http://www.iamned.com

[spinns17]

what ever this guy says i will listen to.maybe our elected scumbags should do the same.

[devans00]

The main points Mark Spitzer made that I agree with:

If enabling Goldman Sachs to recover solvency and make ginormous profits but it doesn't translate into more investments that create jobs or makes society better, what was the point?

Better that US taxpayer money go to economic sectors that gives the public more bang for their bucks.

[devans00]

Let me try this again:

If giving Goldman Sachs tons of money to recover solvency and make ginormous profits didn't translate into more investments that create jobs or make society better, what was the point?

Here is a direct link to the Spitzer video interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBbwfOdjLko

[Faraja]

Hey Matt, enjoy your 15 minutes of fame while it last, because it never does.

[suesue707]

Something tells me that Matt isn't in it for the fame. I know that's hard for you to comprehend. There are still some real journalists out there. Kudos to him. Keep exposing these thieves.

[LemonMeringue]

Taibbe has been around much, much longer than 15 minutes. He has something earth-shattering in Rolling Stone every month.

[msjimmied]

I think Matt has lit the fire...rea­d the blogs on this page, how many are about Goldman? Go on any site where they discuss financials, and there it is! Same topic. And it will not go away, one and half million people are going to run out of unemployment benefits by the end of the year. Goldman's bonus calculates to about 700k per employee. 16 billion tax payer dollars from AIG, manipulating the market with almost 50% of trading volume on the NYSE. And there is no problem for them? It is a PR nightmare that will not stop. If the employee who "stole" their software used to manipulate the market decides to talk it will get truly ugly...of course on the PR side, the damage has already been done, thanks to their bone headed lawyer who explained why the code should be protected as someone else could use it to do exactly what Goldman is doing.

Nope it aint all going to blow over....no­t this time. Its not just tax payer money, its your 401k, your IRA, your investments, your pension. Don't think this does not affect you. How Goldman deals with it is yet to be seen...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldman-sachs-full-frontal

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldman-sachs-full-frontal

[Baltotoast]

In the Internet boom GS was only one of many, many players - they had no leadership in that bubble. As Taibi mentions GS had a 20% market share in Internet IPOs - hardly dominant. He also ignores all the other sectors of technology where GS had much less market share.

[IDIOTA]

It would be interesting to read about the other players as well. Do you deny that GS was a malefactor?

[Baltotoast]

Taibi's thesis seems to be that GS is a ringleader, and, at least the dotcom boom, they were just a player. Taibi manipulates the stats to make them look bigger than they were. They did not invent any of the antics described and were not even the most egregious practictioner. Ironically Lehman was one of the worst at "spinning".

[anshumanmishra]

The biggest was Credit Suisse, in the person of Frank Quattrone.

[TokyoStormWarning]

One thing that Taibi does have right is that there was an industry-wide cultural change where ethics were no longer a consideration. Deregulation caused incentives to be skewed from protecting your firm and clients' long term interests to just going after quick and massive bonuses.
This is not going to be easy to fix, but it must be fixed if America wants to maintain its position as a global financial power.

http://www.squidoo.com/the_free_market_myth

[land2341]

Ah, I regret to inform you that this particular ship has already sailed. Those of us racing madly to the dock simply haven't recognized it yet.

[msjimmied]

And the giant vampire squid has been cramming his blood funnel into what is left of the market. 50% of the volume on the NYSE! With or without that proprietary program they use to manipulate the market...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/goldman-sachs-principal-transactions-update-humming-nicely

yes, lets talk Goldman Sachs and regulation.