Ratings agencies are the glue that ostensibly holds the entire financial industry together. Matt Taibbi More Quotes by Matt Taibbi More Quotes From Matt Taibbi You win the modern financial-regulation game by filing the most motions, attending the most hearings, giving the most money to the most politicians and, above all, by keeping at it, day after day, year after fiscal year, until stealing is legal again. Matt Taibbi gameswinningyears There are times when American politics seems like little more than two groups in a fever to prevent each other from trespassing upon their respective soothing versions of unreality Matt Taibbi fevergroupstwo The individual incentive not to commit crime on Wall Street now is almost zero. Matt Taibbi incentiveswallzero The NFL, sadly, has a fatal environmental problem: It kills its workers. Matt Taibbi environmentalnflproblem The one thing that I do is take really complicated systems and subjects and make them accessible to regular people. Matt Taibbi subjectscomplicatedpeople The race for the White House is normally an event suffused with drama, sucking eyeballs to the page all over the globe. Matt Taibbi racewhitedrama 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 get-awaystealingamerica 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 choicesrealmean In the old days, when you took out a mortgage, it was probably through a local bank or a credit union, and whoever gave you your loan held on to it for life. If you lost your job or got too sick to work and suddenly had trouble making your payments, you could call a human being and work things out. Matt Taibbi creditsickjobs Being a wiseass in a groupthink environment is like throwing an egg at a bulldozer. Matt Taibbi groupthinkenvironmenteggs Most people, when they imagine New England, think about old colonial homes, white houses with black shutters, whales, and sexually morbid WASPs with sensible vehicles and polite political opinions. This is incorrect. If you want to get New England right, just imagine a giant mullet in paint-stained pants and a Red Sox hat being pushed into the back of a cruiser after a bar fight. Matt Taibbi fightinghomethinking Greenspan's eventual explanation for the growing gap between stock prices and actual productivity was that, fortuitously, the laws of nature had changed -- humanity had reached a happy stage of history where bullshit could be used as rocket fuel. Matt Taibbi bullshithumanitylaw 2008 was to the American economy what 9/11 was to national security. Yet while 9/11 prompted the U.S. government to tear up half the Constitution in the name of public safety, after 2008, authorities went in the other direction. Matt Taibbi safetygovernmentnames John Boehner is the ultimate Beltway hack, a man whose unmatched and self-serving skill at political survival has made him, after two decades in Washington, the hairy blue mold on the American congressional sandwich. Matt Taibbi selfbluemen America's always had a real passion for lunatic movements. Matt Taibbi passionrealamerica I try to be outraged by things that other people are just very accepting of, as though they're normal and can't be changed. A lot of what I write about is, "Hey, you know, this stuff is really awful, and it doesn't need to be, and that's why it's so offensive." Things should be better. Matt Taibbi writingtryingpeople I get the cynicism thing all the time, although I don't really know where that comes from, because I think I'm actually the opposite of a cynic. Matt Taibbi cynicismoppositesthinking Having lived in a collapsed empire before - I lived in Russia right after the Soviet Union collapsed - you can see a lot of the classic signs of an empire that's on its way out. Matt Taibbi empiresunionsrussia If you look back in history, as the barbarians were invading the gates of Rome, people were consulting fortunetellers and worrying about the end of the world and all sorts of other apocalyptic notions. When the tsars were finally overthrown, they were all reading tarot cards even as the revolutionaries were banging at the gates. Matt Taibbi romereadingpeople What makes us feel pessimistic about the world, ultimately, is the way the media encourage us to believe that our fate hangs on the every move of the promise-breaking, terminally disappointing Teflon liars in Washington. Matt Taibbi feelbelievewayworld
