Just a personal bookmark, Taibbi's recent stuff seems rather flat and predictable.We've noticed we are not alone in this observation, in fact some people are taking an active dislike to him: "JOBS Act: Matt Taibbi Has Become a Grumpy Old Man".
I don't care enough to go that far.
In this piece he comes across as though he uncovered something all by himself, with an extra large helping of righteous dudgeon that made me decide against linking when his article came out. I did read "Vampire Squid...blah, blah, blah" and swear he lifted some of my little (very little) contributions to whole story and I know he lifted uncredited pieces from Reuters and the Financial Times. That's just weak.
A major piece from FT Alphaville:
Information asymmetry, bad incentives and Taibbi
Alert, alert! Matt Taibbi of Vampire Squid fame has discovered contango in a five-page mega opus for Rolling Stone magazine, in which he blames all the usual names for crimes against markets, people and everything good in the world. It’s also a running continuation of his “everything is rigged” theme.See also "Matt Taibbi Now Resorting To Calling Goldman Sachs Fat " (GS)
But it’s a terribly nauseating read for anyone following the story since 2008.
First off, Taibbi turns out to be a dependable repackager of other people’s stories. Facts and ideas unearthed by others are borrowed and twisted until they fit his own version of reality (often without citation or attribution). Case in point, the “vampire squid” description is surprisingly similar to popular writer ‘Coin’ Harvey’s 1894 description of the Rothschild bank as a black octopus stretching its tentacles around the world.
True, Taibbi never claimed to have come up with the term himself and perhaps it is just a coincidence, but one can’t deny he’s benefited immensely from borrowing it and applying it to Goldman Sachs.
But let’s move on to the latest opus, in which — amongst other things — Taibbi unearths the sensational news that banks and trading companies respond to contango incentives, own physical assets and use the information derived from these assets for their own financial gain.
Now, we’ve covered the “contango” trade and physical loophole story ad nauseum, and can probably be accused of sensationalism ourselves. But we’d argue there is a difference in our coverage. We have never for one minute suggested that these trades represent illegal activity. Our focus was not to denounce crooks, but rather to inform the market of what goes on. This is to breakdown the information asymmetry which ends up favouring some parties over others, i.e. to figure out their strategies, expose them and allow the market to factor that information in.
The point is to help outsiders learn how the markets operate so that they can make wiser decisions and realise the information disadvantage they’re up against. It’s all a bit like the Krypton Factor, a giant puzzle that needs solving and figuring out in the name of efficient markets. The more pieces of the puzzle you hold, the more likely you are to see the big picture.
It’s entirely farcical to suggest, however, that those who operate in physical markets should either give up all their information to the public voluntarily (as per equity insider trading rules) or construct Chinese walls that separate physical asset management from marketing and hedging. Protecting your economic edge/advantage is capitalism....MUCH MORE
On the other hand I (and others) got a kick out of the old Taibbi:
Taibbi: "Surprise Winner in Thomas Friedman Porn-Title Contest"Gawker are also fans of the older stuff
Matt Taibbi's Relentless Hounding of Tom Friedman Continues, Thankfully
The 2012 piece on Friedman is a lighthearted romp through the state of punditry in America or at least the Upper East Side, as the case may be.In 2005, Matt Taibbi wrote a takedown of NYT mouthbreather Tom Friedman's unique idiocy that remains the greatest thing ever written about the mustachioed private-jet-frequent-flyer. Now Taibbi has a new piece; top ten anti-'stache material.His original story was all about The Earth is Flat, and why Tom Friedman is a rich asshole who butchers the English language and is not particularly bright....MORE
