Tag Archives: Matt Taibbi

May 23, 2012, 10:10 am

Count Romney and the Reign of Bain Capital

" . . . and your pension and benefits too . . . " (photo by Flickr/CC user outcast104)

Just a few short years ago, vampires ruled. Twilight, True Blood, and other cultural obsessions posited the vampire as perfection–a strong predator who is not merely beautiful, but never ages. Joan Rivers with a mixed martial arts fighter’s body.

But perhaps it is a sign of our times that these ubervampires have morphed into the far more campy ones in Dark Shadows. As Americans lost our appetite for the sort of blood-sucking predators who ruled Hollywood and Wall Street, vampires no longer haunted our cultural imaginary as heroes, but as villains. By the time Matt Taibbi used the phrase “vampire squid” to describe Goldman Sacks in 2009, the vampire had lost his mojo.

So perhaps it should be no surprise that the …

April 9, 2012, 2:49 pm

Looking for a New Apartment? How About a Bank Lobby?

By Laurie Essig

Bank of America has been named Villain Number One by many of the Occupy protesters (not to mention most of the other 99%). Bank of America has played a central role in the housing disaster. It bought subprime mortgage giant Countrywide Financial back in 2008. Of the $750-billion in loans, about $250-billion are in foreclosure.

Deemed “too big to fail,” Bank of America was given billions in taxpayer money and trillions, yes trillions, in emergency loans. Meanwhile, Bank of America paid zero dollars in taxes but somehow got another $1-billion back from the IRS.

Bank of America has rewarded American taxpayers with more foreclosures, many of them apparently of dubious merit still. So what better way to reward Bank of America for their shady dealings with taxpayers than to move into their lobbies (which, technically, we have paid quite a bit of money for).

Needless to say the…