Citizen Reader's Holiday Gift Guide: Griftopia

There are not enough words to describe how awesome Matt Taibbi's Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America is.

And by awesome, of course, I mean depressing as hell. If you want to get a handle on a) how our political system now only functions as entertainment for the masses, and b) how thoroughly manipulated our financial markets are for the vast personal gain of the very few, then this is the book for you. And no one, NO ONE, can lay it on the line like Matt Taibbi:

"Bad political systems on their own don't always make societies fail. Sometimes what's required for a real social catastrophe is for one or two ingeniously obnoxious individuals to rise to a position of great power--get a once-in-a-billion asshole in the wrong job and a merely unfair system of government suddenly turns into seventies Guatemala, the Serbian despotate, the modern United States.

Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan is that one-in-a-billion asshole who made America the dissembling mess that it is today." (p. 34.)

I'll give him this: he tells the truth, so he makes me cry, but at least I'm laughing while I'm crying.*

Rest assured: he does not blame everything on Greenspan. He goes on from there to describe (in terms a normal person can actually understand) how the financial crisis of 2007-2008 actually got rolling, how the "commodities bubble" caused gas prices to go up (an event which had nothing to do with supply and demand), and how our politicians are currently busy selling our infrastructure to foreign investors for lump sum payments that vastly underestimate their value. The last anecdote I wowed my brother with from this book was how all the parking meters in Chicago have been sold to a consortium of foreign owners, and now they can't have street fairs anymore in Chicago. Why? Because the consortium wants to charge fair organizers for their day of lost meter business--and no one can afford what they're asking. (pp. 165-171.)

So who might like this book?

Anyone you know who feels ripped off by their vote for Obama.

Anyone you know who enjoys indignant profanity.

Anyone who know who might be interested in learning what a credit default swap actually is, without reading a whole boring business book on the subject of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

*Taibbi must have a great sense of humor and a sanguine personality. A friend told me she recently saw Taibbi speak, and he was quite chipper, especially in light of what he was talking about. This annoyed her--she didn't see how he could be so happy--but it made me feel better. Taibbi's one of the smartest guys around, and if he can write this whole book and understand it and STILL smile, well, that makes me feel better too.

Comments

[Tripp]

Thanks, CR. I agree that I like that he can smile. It makes him seem like less of a ideologue and lets me trust him a little more.

[Citizen Reader]

Tripp,
I like it too. I don't know how he CAN smile, but hey, okay. The day before my friend told me he unnerved her with his cheeriness, I had said to Mr. CR, how does Matt Taibbi know all this and stand it? Maybe he doesn't believe it's all hopeless, which would be nice.

[Sarah]

Maybe he can smile because he knows how right he is - he did his homework - and he'll shred anyone foolish enough to argue with him.

[Venta]

Taibbi has been on MSNBC a lot lately as a guest on different shows (e.g., Rachel Maddow). I think he stays so chipper, because he has a wonderful sense of humor, and it's not always sharp. I still laugh when I think about scene from The Great Derangement when he tells his church group that his father was a clown who beat him with his flipper. Even when I read his blog (wonderful!!!), and he writes about the chaos and corruption, I still get to laugh. He throws in lines that are just hilarious. For example, he talks about America's new fascination with Ayn Rand although no one has ever read her. Obviously, I'm not as funny, but read his blog!

[Citizen Reader]

His blog at Rolling Stone, Venta, or is there another one I don't know about?
Thanks!

[Venta]

Yup! The blog at Rolling Stone! Sorry about that. I wasn't being a good information specialist!

[Ralph]

Truly astounding, fantastic book. Hunter Thompson would have been thrilled to write anything half as good as this -- not counting, of course, Thompson's wicked masterpiece FALILV, which takes place in a city even more soaked in cheap money than DC.

Incidentally, Griftopia makes me wonder how Rachel Maddow still manages to go to work and talk as if the world was all about Good Democrats versus Bad Republicans. Of course it's true that the current Republicans are as close to flesh-eating political zombies as a human being can get, but it seems that at least half the Dems in office can only envy the Republicans their easy access to corporate payoffs.

[Citizen Reader]

Ralph,
Can you believe I've never made it through Thompson's FALILV? I think I've read some of his sports journalism stuff, though, and really enjoyed it. Perhaps this is the year I pick up Las Vegas.

Yes, well, Maddow is really just the flip side of Fox News, isn't she? They all know that nuance won't play to a broader audience (by definition), and they've got to make a living too.

Glad you liked the Taibbi too. Sad, but fascinating reading.

[lesbrarian]

I'm reading this now. It's brilliant. I wish I could write about it for my library's book blog, but I have no way to adequately describe it. Maybe I could just stitch together some long excerpts and call it a review?

[Citizen Reader]

Lesbrarian,
I don't think it matters what you do as long as you DO post something to your library blog about this book, and/or Taibbi in general. He needs more readers!
Yes, it's a brilliant book, but brilliant sad. It should be required reading in high schools, actually, although that might depress the poor little kiddies before they even start their adult lives.