It's only mildly reassuring to see the theme of Matt Taibbi's latest Rolling Stone piece, "Why Isn't Wall St. In Jail?"generating some late notice, notably in The New York Times. Why aren't more news outlets asking questions about the Scot-free financial crimes that brought the system (almost) down a couple years or so ago? Taibbi's main point: not one--not one!-- of the banksters and financiers culpable in the financial crisis will see jail time. (Sorry, Bernie Madoff was a lone wolf operating an age-old Ponzi scheme that affected a relative handful of investors, nothing like what was perpetrated by Goldman Sachs, A.I.G, Bank of America et al). In the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, a thousand felony convictions were handed out. This time, nothing.
Tabbi, who in his piece “The Great American Bubble Machine,” famously depicted Goldman Sachs as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” has consistently dealt with the financial crisis and its aftermath in ways that the mainstream, corporate-owned media doesn’t; clear-eyed, in depth and with plenty of finger-pointing. Taibbi's tentacled symbolism is not without precedent and has been criticized for associations that don't necessarily apply. Nor has Taibbi let Obama off the hook for stocking his staff with Wall St. insiders.
Why Taibbi isn't given more shrift among the Beltway insiders for his financial reporting is obvious: he 's smart, he digs up information (we used to call it investigative journalism) and he writes well enough to explain the working of the heavily-veiled financial industry in ways even a rabbit can understand. Because they don't understand it themselves, our Media Stars are loathe to actually work on stories rather than repeat them. Or they prefer to serve as cheerleaders for the industry. Taibbi is the last guy they want to have on their programs. Instead, we get Ben Stein. At least Rachel Maddow and Bill Maher aren't afraid of him.
The Rolling Stone contributing editor hasn't escaped criticism for excess and omissions in the Jail story and other of his financial scandal pieces. But even without an understanding of the laws, one comes away from the piece outraged that no one will serve time (think Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial) for obvious theft and lies to authorities and the public. At least Taibbi has Rolling Stone, which in a return to past glories has served the political and financial issues well in the last few years. When we wonder why there isn't more anger directed at the financial sector, one answer is obvious: there's not enough gutsy reporters willing to call a money-sucking vampire squid a money-sucking vampire squid.
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