Matt Taibbi On "Colbert Report": Wall Street Is 'One Ponzi Scheme After Another' (VIDEO)

Matt Taibbi took his crusade against Goldman Sachs to "The Colbert Report" last night, accusing the investment colossus of using its influence in government to repeatedly manipulate financial bubbles.

Taibbi pointed to three examples -- the dot-com bubble in the late nineties, the housing bubble and commodities speculation last year -- which he says Goldman Sachs used to get rich at taxpayers' expense. In the case of the tech stock bubble, Taibbi accused Goldman of underwriting a high number of risky internet IPOs and manufacturing a "collapse in underwriting standards."

Wall Street is no longer "about helping investors find good business opportunities which in turn would create jobs," Taibbi told Colbert, but rather "one Ponzi scheme after another." And when Wall Street's bets fail? Friends in government -- Taibbi named Robert Rubin, who left Goldman Sachs to be Treasury Secretary in both Clinton administrations and now advises President Obama -- come to the rescue: "they know the government is going to bail them out," he says.

And that's the crux of what bothers him. It's not that he has "a thing against unprecedented success," as Colbert put it, but that everyone else has to bear the burden of any Wall Street imprudence:

"I don't mind anyone who's successful as long as my tax money isn't going to pay for it," he said. "That's the only problem with Goldman Sachs."

Watch Matt Taibbi skewer Goldman:

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Comments

[dbg2]

10:36 AM on 01/13/2010

Don't forget Goldman and the huge run up in oil prices in the winter and spring of 08 ... me thinks they are at it again this year

[menlopian]

04:49 PM on 12/14/2009

As opposed to those budgetary ponzi schemes instituted by our elected offices known as medicare and social security?

[invest in jobs]

01:52 PM on 12/14/2009

Great country we live in... the only ones who benefit from economic % stock market growth are the top 1-3% of earners. Middle & lower class are stuck with stagnant wages, surging gas & food prices, no retirement, and no job security (if they are lucky enough to have jobs).

hat tip to http://fianceopinionss.blogspot.com
How long can this trend of inequality continue? Sadly, forever. Even with Obama nothing can be done.

[Siebenstein]

04:11 AM on 12/14/2009

http://www.jwj.org/recovery/bankcrimes/chase.pdf

[msjimmied]

10:06 PM on 12/13/2009

I hate it when this happens..an explosive article like what Taibbi wrote needs time for others to to come up with their two cents. There was a counterpoint article that did not stay up long enough for others refute. Hate when that happens...but here's a good one.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/177870-fernholz-vs-taibbi?source=hp_wc

[wfglaser]

05:17 PM on 12/13/2009

Corporate "socialism": Welfare for the wealthy, as usual.

[barryr20]

04:55 PM on 12/13/2009

It is sad but Taibbi is spot on. The whole system is set up in a way that makes it very unfair to the poor and the middle class through the Federal Reserve's monetary policy of quantitative easing. As a conservative I am extremely encouraged by the fact that the left is finally looking towards the right place to where the problem comes from and that is the Federal Reserve. It really doesn't matter if its Goldman Sachs or J.P. Morgan Chase, the monetary system is setup to favor big banks and corporate giants. For some reason though the democrats in power haven't taken notice of this fact enough and way to expand the Fed's power. I hope sites like this one continue to expose our monetary system and don't just concentrate on large corporations like Goldman. Pressure your congress to go after the source of the problem and support the audit policy. I don't believe in many of the views of Taibbi and this site, but they like some on the right are actually doing investigative journalism.

[Dukedraven]

02:53 PM on 12/13/2009

Based on what I know, I agree with you, lloydc123.

[sloppybear16]

02:48 PM on 12/13/2009

Not to discredit Taibbi because he's absolutely right, but he sounds a little like Beck. For some reason conspiracy "theories" seem much more reasonable when you aren't shouting like a lunatic, and using an old school chalkboards.

[Dnietz]

03:47 AM on 12/14/2009

he doesn't sound anything like beck

what he says are not theories but facts

[jameshat]

03:42 PM on 12/14/2009

or when he's right

[msjimmied]

01:13 PM on 12/13/2009

Wish this had come out when the fur was flying about Taibbi's more gripping article. This interview is lame. But here is his response, sort of...follow the links too. Do not compromise for what you want.

http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/12/13/obamania/

[cbates]

11:48 AM on 12/13/2009

I don't know where true North is on how the economy works and who should and should not do whatever in financing. I do know that Matt should write something someone will read and seems as though from the little b bit I could bare to read he is grinding an ax or something like that in his personal attacks.

[Name Not In Use]

09:33 PM on 12/13/2009

Did you read this:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_great_american_bubble_machine

?

This is why he is being interviewed.

[Dnietz]

03:50 AM on 12/14/2009

personal attacks? against who? the criminals running the banks?

read his work, then criticize. it is all true

and in case you thought he was attacking our president, he isn't. he is critical, but it is clear that he is anti corporatist

if i mis understood you and you are pro corporatist, then we have nothing to discuss

[invest in jobs]

11:24 AM on 12/13/2009

The whole system is corrupt
Lets be real. Today's society is all about about less jobs. Less employees means more profit. Its all about productivity. Employers dont want to have more employees when they can have less. They will be high unemployment for a while. In capitalism it's all about profit not job creation. When a company lays off employees the stock price goes up! Unfortunately the way things are the economy can prosper with 10% unemployment and the little guy gets shafted.

good articles: http://financeopinionss.blogspot.com/
Solution: suspend free trade. A 2nd jobs stimulus

[CologneCitizen]

01:46 PM on 12/13/2009

I guess you are right. In this recession companies are losing dead weight. These jobs will never come back. We had the same in Germany 20 years ago. Before then companies used to have a kind of social responsibility to their not so qualified work force. Not anymore.

Less employees means more profit. You are absolutely right. The problem just is nobody is willing to communicate this inconvenient truth.

[desertman]

02:20 PM on 12/13/2009

Less employees means fewer sales. How can that mean more profit?

[desertman]

02:19 PM on 12/13/2009

The actual reason to lay off employees is to avoid bankruptcy. If the company goes bankrupt no one has a job. It can only a short term fix because you no longer have the sales you once had. I thought this was common sense.

[cclaker]

07:14 AM on 12/13/2009

I read Matt Taibbi's book about how he infiltrated the religious right and found him to be deceitful and condescending to people who befriended him.The way he depicted them was pretty swarmy. As a result, I don't trust him, and I find him entirely too comfortable with his new found celebrity journalist status. You have only to watch him yukking it up with folks like Don Imus to realize that Taibbi's sold out.

[goto1000]

02:44 PM on 12/13/2009

Yeah. That's right, you'd rather trust the banks, Timmy Geithner (Turbo Timmmehhh) and Larry 'dump toxic waste in poor countries' Summers. You're really smart, aren't you? Part of Matt's article addresses the very question of people like you, infact.

[Dnietz]

04:06 AM on 12/14/2009

he can do anything negative to or say anything negative about the religious right and i will support him for it

the religious right is the primary source of malice in our country today. they are harmful to our society. and they are inherently dishonest and deceitful.

they take a fantasy story written and rewritten many times over by people in power and use it to control people's behavior. humanity will not progress until we shed that garbage from our world.

anyone that is a religious conservative or has sympathies for religious conservatives is an enemy of humanity

[humpfree]

01:05 AM on 12/13/2009

http://www.businessinsider.com/matt-taibbis-goldman-sachs-story-is-a-joke-2009-7

This was an interesting read from a Taibbi detractor. He makes a good case against Taibbi, but also throws him a really big bone on the carbon market.

[dennissinned]

10:39 PM on 12/12/2009

Curious to know how many times Elizabeth Warren met with the President. Curious to know whether the President had any consumer advocate in his economic advisory board.

[Carolab]

12:00 AM on 12/13/2009

Warren's route to the center of the nation's debate over financial regulation has taken a more complicated path than many of her backers and critics may realize.

She was once a registered Republican who believed that most families who filed for bankruptcy or had their homes foreclosed were irresponsible. It was only after years of study, she said, that she determined that many families were not primarily at fault.

Warren says she never envisioned herself as someone who would become a nemesis of corporate America. But after working on several bankruptcy studies, she concluded that most people who declare bankruptcy are undone by a combination of questionable banking practices and outsize medical expenses.

She argued that many such families were going bankrupt and losing their homes to foreclosure because the cost of necessities had skyrocketed to unsustainable levels even when both parents worked.

Warren met Obama at a fund-raiser for the future president's campaign for US Senate in Illinois. Obama had heard about Warren and approached her, greeting her with the phrase: "Predatory lending.''

Obama then spoke at length about why he wanted to go to Washington to stop financial institutions from cheating consumers. Warren sought to reassure the future president that he didn't need to convince her.

"You had me at ‘predatory lending,' '' she said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/11/matt-taibbi-on-colbert-re_n_388793.html?show_comment_id=36214011#comment_36214011

[Carolab]

12:01 AM on 12/13/2009

Warren's route to the center of the nation's debate over financial regulation has taken a more complicated path than many of her backers and critics may realize.

She was once a registered Republican who believed that most families who filed for bankruptcy or had their homes foreclosed were irresponsible. It was only after years of study, she said, that she determined that many families were not primarily at fault.

Warren says she never envisioned herself as someone who would become a nemesis of corporate America. But after working on several bankruptcy studies, she concluded that most people who declare bankruptcy are undone by a combination of questionable banking practices and outsize medical expenses.

She argued that many such families were going bankrupt and losing their homes to foreclosure because the cost of necessities had skyrocketed to unsustainable levels even when both parents worked.

Warren met Obama at a fund-raiser for the future president's campaign for US Senate in Illinois. Obama had heard about Warren and approached her, greeting her with the phrase: "Predatory lending.''

Obama then spoke at length about why he wanted to go to Washington to stop financial institutions from cheating consumers. Warren sought to reassure the future president that he didn't need to convince her.

"You had me at ‘predatory lending,' '' she said.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/03-0

[Carolab]

12:37 AM on 12/13/2009

Sorry for the dupe post but the first had the wrong link.

[Dnietz]

04:08 AM on 12/14/2009

warren is good at her job and an excellent human being

if she ever runs for office, i will support her

i hope she remains fearless