Matt Taibbi

Considerado por buena parte de la crítica norteamericana uno de los mejores libros sobre las razones de la crisis financiera actual, Cleptopía es un preciso relato, lleno de humor negro y no poca mala leche, de los acontecimientos, y tambien de los nombres y apellidos, que llevaron a la caida y posterior salvamento publico de la economia norteamerica. Desde la historia de ese "capullo" de Alan Greenspan hasta la estafa de Obama con la ley sanitaria, pasando por las subprime, la salvaje especulacion en los mercados de alimentos y, claro, el mafioso comportamiento de la banca -empezando por Goldman Sachs-... nadie ni nada queda al abrigo de la poderosa escritura de Matt Taibbi y del descarnado retrato que hace de la sala de maquinas del capitalismo financiero y de su dominio sobre la politica contemporanea.Si alguien quiere saber que paso -y quien hizo que pasara- en la ultima y todavia presente crisis economica, este es el libro... que se lee, ademas, como una buena novela.

Durante las dos últimas décadas, en Estados Unidos se ha asistido a un curioso misterio estadístico: la pobreza aumenta, el crimen disminuye y la población reclusa se duplica. Sin embargo, no todo el mundo pasa por la carcel. Gracias a un sistema judicial diseñado a la medida del nuevo culto a la riqueza y el poder, la gran mayoria de los delincuentes de cuello blanco han logrado eludir la carcel desde que empezo la crisis financiera, mientras que pobres y miembros de minorias etnicas acaban en prision de manera casi automatica.La desigualdad de ingresos se traduce en desigualdad ante la justicia cuando analizamos quien es objeto de persecucion penal y quien no. El fraude de las clases privilegiadas se lleva por delante el 40 por ciento de la riqueza mundial, pero nadie va a la carcel.

Durante las dos últimas décadas, en Estados Unidos se ha asistido a un curioso misterio estadístico: la pobreza aumenta, el crimen disminuye y la población reclusa se duplica. Sin embargo, no todo el mundo pasa por la carcel. Gracias a un sistema judicial diseñado a la medida del nuevo culto a la riqueza y el poder, la gran mayoria de los delincuentes de cuello blanco han logrado eludir la carcel desde que empezo la crisis financiera, mientras que pobres y miembros de minorias etnicas acaban en prision de manera casi automatica.La desigualdad de ingresos se traduce en desigualdad ante la justicia cuando analizamos quien es objeto de persecucion penal y quien no. El fraude de las clases privilegiadas se lleva por delante el 40 por ciento de la riqueza mundial, pero nadie va a la carcel; en los barrios pobres de las grandes ciudades, decenas de miles de personas son detenidas al cabo del año por el delito de estar en la calle. Esta brecha es la que permite el fraude masivo e impune. Taibbi propone un viaje por ambas caras del sistema de justicia: por un lado, casos como el sorprendente saqueo de Lehman Brothers que precedio al colapso financiero de 2008, o como la conspiracion de un grupo de multimillonarios, gerentes de fondos de alto riesgo, para arruinar a una compañia rival. Por el otro, las redadas de inmigrantes promovidas por un sistema de bienestar que trata a sus beneficiarios como ladrones.

One of the most important voices in contemporary American journalism - Independent Matt Taibbi is one of the few journalists in America who speaks truth to power - Bernie Sanders Matt Taibbi is the best polemic journalist in America - Felix Salmon NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"The thing is, when you actually think about it, its not funny. Given whats at stake, its more like the opposite, like the first sign of the collapse of the United States as a global superpower. Twenty years from now, when were all living like prehistory hominids and hunting rats with sticks, well probably look back at this moment as the beginning of the end."In this groundbreaking battery of dispatches from the heartland of America, Matt Taibbi tells the full story of the Trump phenomenon, from its tragi-comic beginnings to the apocalyptic election. Full of sharp, on-the-ground reporting and gallows humour, his incisive analysis goes beyond the bizarre and disturbing election to tell a wider story of the apparent collapse of American democracy. Taibbi saw the essential themes right from the start: the power of spectacle over truth; the end of a shared reality on the left and right; the nihilistic rebellion of the white working class; the death of the political establishment; and the emergence of a new, explicit form of white nationalism. From the thwarted Bernie Sanders insurgency to the aimless Hillary Clinton campaign, across the flailing media coverage and the trampled legacy of Obama, this is the story of ordinary voters forced to bear witness to the whole charade. At the centre of it all, "a bumbling train wreck of a candidate who belched and preened his way past a historically weak field" who, improbably, has taken control of the worlds most powerful nation. This is essential and hilarious reading that explores how the new America understands itself, and about the future of the world just beyond the horizon.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, AND KIRKUS REVIEWSA scathing portrait of an urgent new American crisis Over the last two decades, America has been falling deeper and deeper into a statistical mystery: Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles.Fraud by the rich wipes out 40 percent of the worlds wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to jail. In search of a solution, journalist Matt Taibbi discovered the Divide, the seam in American life where our two most troubling trendsgrowing wealth inequality and mass incarcerationcome together, driven by a dramatic shift in American citizenship: Our basic rights are now determined by our wealth or poverty. The Divide is what allows massively destructive fraud by the hyperwealthy to go unpunished, while turning poverty itself into a crimebut its impossible to see until you look at these two alarming trends side by side. In The Divide, Matt Taibbi takes readers on a galvanizing journey through both sides of our new system of justicethe fun-house-mirror worlds of the untouchably wealthy and the criminalized poor. He uncovers the startling looting that preceded the financial collapse; a wild conspiracy of billionaire hedge fund managers to destroy a company through dirty tricks; and the story of a whistleblower who gets in the way of the largest banks in America, only to find herself in the crosshairs. On the other side of the Divide, Taibbi takes us to the front lines of the immigrant dragnet; into the newly punitive welfare system which treats its beneficiaries as thieves; and deep inside the stop-and-frisk world, where standing in front of your own home has become an arrestable offense. As he narrates these incredible stories, he draws out and analyzes their common source: a perverse new standard of justice, based on a radical, disturbing new vision of civil rights. Through astonishingand enragingaccounts of the high-stakes capers of the wealthy and nightmare stories of regular people caught in the Divides punishing logic, Taibbi lays bare one of the greatest challenges we face in contemporary American life: surviving a system that devours the lives of the poor, turns a blind eye to the destructive crimes of the wealthy, and implicates us all.Praise for The Divide Ambitious . . . deeply reported, highly compelling . . . impossible to put down.The New York Times Book Review These are the stories that will keep you up at night. . . . The Divide is not just a report from the new America; it is advocacy journalism at its finest.Los Angeles Times Taibbi is a relentless investigative reporter. He takes readers inside not only investment banks, hedge funds and the blood sport of short-sellers, but into the lives of the needy, minorities, street drifters and illegal immigrants. . . . The Divide is an important book. Its documentation is powerful and shocking.The Washington Post Captivating . . . The Divide enshrines its authors position as one of the most important voices in contemporary American journalism.The Independent (UK) Taibbi [is] perhaps the greatest reporter on Wall Streets crimes in the modern era.Salon

A brilliantly illuminating and darkly comic tale of the ongoing financial and political crisis in America. The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isnt past but prologue. The grifter classmade up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their biddinghas been growing in power, and the crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how theyve hijacked Americas political and economic life.Matt Taibbi has combined deep sources, trailblazing reportage, and provocative analysis to create the most lucid, emotionally galvanizing account yet written of this ongoing American crisis. He offers fresh reporting on the backroom deals of the bailout; tells the story of Goldman Sachs, the vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity; and uncovers the hidden commodities bubble that transferred billions of dollars to Wall Street while creating food shortages around the world.This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the labyrinthine inner workings of this country, and the profound consequences for us all.

‘A brilliant work of narrative nonfiction’ – Booklist‘Matt Taibbi is one of the few journalists in America who speaks truth to power’ – Bernie Sanders‘A searing exposé’ – Kirkus Review‘Taibbi may be

A REVELATORY AND DARKLY COMIC ADVENTURE THROUGH A NATION ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWNFROM THE HALLS OF CONGRESS TO THE BASES OF BAGHDAD TO THE APOCALYPTIC CHURCHES OF THE HEARTLANDRolling StonesMatt Taibbi set out to describe the nature of George Bushs America in the post-9/11 era and ended up vomiting demons in an evangelical church in Texas, riding the streets of Baghdad in an American convoy to nowhere, searching for phantom fighter jets in Congress, and falling into the rabbit hole of the 9/11 Truth Movement.Matt discovered in his travels across the country that the resilient blue state/red state narrative of American politics had become irrelevant. A large and growing chunk of the American population was so turned offor radicalizedby electoral chicanery, a spineless news media, and the increasingly blatant lies from our leaders (they hate us for our freedom) that they abandoned the political mainstream altogether. They joined what he calls The Great Derangement.Taibbi tells the story of this new American madness by inserting himself into four defining American subcultures: The Military, where he finds himself mired in the grotesque black comedy of the American occupation of Iraq; The System, where he follows the money-slicked path of legislation in Congress; The Resistance, where he doubles as chief public antagonist and undercover member of the passionately bonkers 9/11 Truth Movement; and The Church, where he infiltrates a politically influential apocalyptic mega-ministry in Texas and enters the lives of its desperate congregants. Together these four interwoven adventures paint a portrait of a nation dangerously out of touch with reality and desperately searching for answers in all the wrong places.Funny, smart, and a little bit heartbreaking, The Great Derangement is an audaciously reported, sobering, and illuminating portrait of America at the end of the Bush era.