Monday, January 9, 2012

Book Review: Griftopia by Matt Taibbi

Matt Taibbi's Griftopia is a good place to start to understand how many believe that derivatives and lack of regulation is damaging our financial system. Especially if you like your economic explanations to come with four letter words.

Taibbi - a frequent contributor to Rolling Stone - chronicles our national transition into a casino, where financialization of the economy takes precedence over allocating capital and actual work.

The result? Higher prices for food and oil, government officials paid to look the other way, and a towering edifice of credit and collateral debt swaps supported by a tiny amount of actual capital.

(By the way, that real capital has been sold and leased a hundred times over, so real ownership is unclear at best).

Features a great chapter that explains collateral debt swaps, and the musical chairs aspect of this form of financial insurance.

There's also a chapter about the ideology of the elite, and its growing influence in what is supposed to be a democracy under rule of law.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Taibbi has become a favorite of mine for explaining the workings of American finance. Especially enlightening was his discussion of Goldman Sachs and the jaw-dropping number of ex-employees now in top US government positions.