Griftopia

by Frederic P. Miller (Editor), Agnes F. Vandome (Editor), John McBrewster (Editor)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Griftopia, Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America is a book by the political journalist Matt Taibbi that reviews and analyzes the events that led to the financial crisis of 2008. The book was published in November 2010. Its main thesis is that the crisis was not an accident of the free market but the result of a complex and on-going politico-financial process taking place in the United States whereby wealth and power is transferred to a super-rich "grifter class" that holds a grip on the political process. The book has been described as a "necessary ... corrective" of the assertion that bubbles are inevitable in the market system, and contests the notion that the greed of the American consumer was a primary cause of the problem. Taibbi maintains that "all of us, conservatives and progressives, are being bled dry by a tiny oligarchy of extremely clever criminals and their castrato henchmen in government."

Genres: Economics

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2011

About the author

This is the 'editor' of many books based upon Wikipedia articles.

Reviews

[Gabe Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always known in the back of my mind that the big banks get away with murder and no one holds them accountable, but this book really clarifies just how terrible things really are. I'm thankful that people like Matt Taibbi are out there trying to hold some feet to the fire. Hopefully, with the publication of books like these, more and more Americans will pay better attention to the really important complex decisions involving monetary policy and the like rather than mind-numbing pop-culture such as "reality" TV shows. Occupy Wall Street is more than justified.

[Priyanko Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so terrible my Professor apologized for even assigning it. Never have I wanted to like a book more, and failed miserably at doing so. The author is shallow, pompous, and worst of all, inaccurate. His heart's in the right place, but he uses terrible metaphor and unfairly cherry-picked quotes to draw some bizarre conclusions. The worst part was when I started feeling sympathy for the bankers because of how he'd portrayed them. I can't emphasize enough how heinous a read this was.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an okay read but i did get angry with all the graft in the financial industry and in the US government with no accountability. Not the best writing.

[Pilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great. Especially after reading Morris and Lewis.