18 April 2010
Matt Taibbi discusses the financial crisis and the Obama White House
This is an no-holds-barred presentation by Matt Taibbi, journalist for Rolling Stone magazine. I have previously cited his views on health care reform and on Goldman Sachs' questionable practices in world financial markets. In this interview he offers a scathing indictment of the financial team put together by the Obama administration.
I know (or believe) that most readers of this blog are Obama supporters and will not like what Taibbi has to say, but I blog from the center, and I believe Taibbi's comments here are worth hearing.
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I'm very much a lefty, and I have never been an Obama fan, FWIW.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I take Mike Taibbi with a large saltshaker handy. He tends to go way over the top no matter what he's railing about; he isn't always careful with his facts; and I certainly wouldn't take his analysis of the financial/economic situation as gospel.
You and I are a lot alike, Swift Loris. I'm a righty, and have never been a Fox news or Limbaugh fan (or Bush or Obama or McCain).
ReplyDeleteAnd I also agree with your take in paragraph two, and think you could probably substitute the 'Mike Taibbi' there with just about ANY news commentator on either side of the divide. Let's see... 'Glenn Beck'.. yep, it fits... 'Kieth Olbermann'... yep, works for him...
I've read a lot about the economic implosion and its causes, and the more I read, the less I seem to know. But one remark of Taibbi's really caught my attention, which was when he offhandedly blamed Rubin for deregulating Wall Street. Now one thing I do know is that deregulation began quite some time back, and it wasn't accomplished by a single individual. Actually it was pursued with equal enthusiasm by both Republicans and Democrats, from the Carter administration forward. That makes me take everything else Taibbi says in this interview with, as Swift Loris indicates, a large saltshaker in hand.
ReplyDeleteThe Atlantic just published an excellent, in-depth article focusing on Tim Geithner, which I would highly recommend to anyone wishing for an overview of not just the current situation, but its historical origins and the actual aims of Obama's financial team. Geithner is quick to agree that absent meaningful reform of Wall Street, government intervention will have worsened the problem. But his first task was to keep a bad situation from getting much, much worse. It was basic triage at its heart. Now it's time for the reforms -- which is where Congress gets involved, and which will probably conclude in a way that none of us are happy with.
It's a long article, but worth a careful read:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/inside-man/7992/
Taibbi's waaaaaaay to the left. Obama's in the center-left. So it makes sense he's not a fan. Frankly, Taibbi isn't much of an expert on anything....at all (though that doesn't mean he's incorrect on how Obama has handled the financial crisis and its aftermath, per se).
ReplyDeleteRolling Stone is a rag of magazine anyway.
Not all your readers are Obama supporters, my friend.
ReplyDeleteI thought you would like this post...
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