“You can have somebody living next door to you and you can live in a completely different world from that person, which is definitely something we've never experienced before. So I think just because of the media landscape and the way we get our information now, we're more atomized and isolated from each other than ever before.” ThinkingWorldWayPersonsDifferentNextDoorsMediaInformationLandscapeIsolatedDifferent Worlds Author:Matt Taibbi
“If you look back in history, as the barbarians were invading the gates of Rome, people were consulting fortunetellers and worrying about the end of the world and all sorts of other apocalyptic notions. When the tsars were finally overthrown, they were all reading tarot cards even as the revolutionaries were banging at the gates.” PeopleIfsWorldLooksEndsReadingWorryNotionCardsRevolutionaryGatesRomeEnd Of The WorldBarbariansApocalypticConsultingBangingTarotInvadingTarot Cards Author:Matt Taibbi
“I think America has the best assholes in the world. I defy the Belgians or the Japanese to produce something like a Donald Trump.” ThinkingWorldAmericaProduceTrumpBelgians Author:Matt Taibbi
“Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game.” WorldMayLittlesDifferentHandsGamesPlayerBelieverConspiracyApologyPremisesSkepticTheoristsMasonsRigged Author:Matt Taibbi
“An unregulated derivatives market essentially gives Wall Street a way to place hidden taxes on everything in the world.” WorldWayGivingStreetsWallTaxesDerivatives Author:Matt Taibbi
“America's always had a real passion for lunatic movements. That's one of the things we're probably known for around the world, I would imagine.” WorldRealAmericaPassionKnownImagineMovementAround The WorldLunatic Author:Matt Taibbi
“'Nobody goes to jail.' This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth - and nobody went to jail.” WorldFactsWealthCompanyMillionsSawsStreetsWallMajorsCrisisDollarsFinancialCriminalsBillionsDestroyedErasJailScandalMantrasObsceneFinancial Crisis Author:Matt Taibbi
“Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it's a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to year are constantly switching sides and trading hats.” WorldYearsSidesJusticeRoomsPartyMonthsCriminalsHatsCombatCopColleaguesTradingCocktailsCriminal JusticeStanleyCrooksInterrogationSwitchingCocktail PartiesCourthouses Author:Matt Taibbi
“The House Rules Committee is perhaps the free world's outstanding bureaucratic abomination - a tiny, airless closet deep in the labyrinth of the Capitol where some of the very meanest people on earth spend their days cleaning democracy like a fish.” PeopleWorldEarthHouseDemocracyFishesTinyCommitteesClosetsCleaningOutstandingLabyrinthCapitolFree WorldAbominationHouse Rules Book:Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire Source: Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire
“There really are two Americas, one for the grifter class and one for everybody else. In everybody-else land, the world of small businesses and wage-earning employees, the government is something to be avoided, an overwhelming, all-powerful entity whose attentions usually presage some kind of financial setback, if not complete ruin. In the grifter world, however, government is a slavish lapdog that the financial companies that will be the major players in this book use as a tool for making money.” IfsWorldKindTwoBookUseGovernmentPowerfulAttentionCompanyClassPlayerLandMajorsToolsFinancialRuinsMaking MoneyEmployeeOverwhelmingEntityEarningSmall BusinessAvoidedSetback Author:Matt Taibbi
“The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” WorldFacesHumanityPowerfulBloodInvestmentSmellVampireMost PowerfulSquids Book:Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America Source: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
