Matt Taibbi quote: "Creating legislation is a tough process. But watering down legislation? Strangling it with lawsuits and comment letters and blue-ribbon committees? Not so tough, it turns out."

What we have now is a situation where politicians get a whole bunch of money from mainly business in...
MATT TAIBBI

In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats d...
MATT TAIBBI

2008 was to the American economy what 9/11 was to national security. Yet while 9/11 prompted the U.S...
MATT TAIBBI

Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversaria...
MATT TAIBBI

The threat posed by Bank of America isn't just financial - it's a full-blown assault on the ...
MATT TAIBBI

What the mortgage bubble was all about was big banks like Goldman Sachs taking big bundles of subpri...
MATT TAIBBI

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons a...
MATT TAIBBI

Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to m...
MATT TAIBBI

The moral angle to the foreclosure crisis - and, of course, in capitalism we're not supposed to ...
MATT TAIBBI

I don't often get angered by the things press spokespeople say. Most of these people have diffic...
MATT TAIBBI

In the Tea Party narrative, victory at the polls means a new American revolution, one that will '...
MATT TAIBBI

In modern American politics, being the right kind of ignorant and entertainingly crazy is like havin...
MATT TAIBBI

Within the cult of Wall Street that forged Mitt Romney, making money justifies any behavior, no matt...
MATT TAIBBI

The party in power almost always unapologetically engages in deficit spending, while the other party...
MATT TAIBBI

You know what an effective deterrent to crime is? Jail! And do you know what kind of criminal penalt...
MATT TAIBBI

In the '50s and '60s, journalism wasn't a profession. It wasn't something you went t...
MATT TAIBBI

An unregulated derivatives market essentially gives Wall Street a way to place hidden taxes on every...
MATT TAIBBI

The race for the White House is normally an event suffused with drama, sucking eyeballs to the page ...
MATT TAIBBI

You win the modern financial-regulation game by filing the most motions, attending the most hearings...
MATT TAIBBI

The failure to work out sensible budgets makes it impossible for government agencies to make long-te...
MATT TAIBBI

Since the end of the Cold War, America has been grasping left and right for an identity.
MATT TAIBBI

The national debt is totally unlike a family budget for about a gazillion reasons, not the least of ...
MATT TAIBBI

You know, I used to live in Russia where you had officers in the military opening up the warehouses ...
MATT TAIBBI

It's not a stretch to say the whole financial industry revolves around the compass point of the ...
MATT TAIBBI

It would be inaccurate to say the Tea Partiers are racists. What they are, in truth, are narcissists...
MATT TAIBBI

It's increasingly clear that governments, major corporations, banks, universities and other such...
MATT TAIBBI

The print magazine and print journalism industry is obviously in a great deal of trouble, and one of...
MATT TAIBBI

There are some who think that the government is limited in how many corruption cases it can bring ag...
MATT TAIBBI

Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representati...
MATT TAIBBI

The House Rules Committee is perhaps the free world's outstanding bureaucratic abomination - a t...
MATT TAIBBI

We love wealth, and we hate poor people. I know people who work in TV news who have actually been to...
MATT TAIBBI

In reality, everybody in Congress is a stand-in for some kind of lobbyist. In many cases it's di...
MATT TAIBBI

There is a reason it used to be a crime in the Confederate states to teach a slave to read: Literacy...
MATT TAIBBI

In other countries they have histories with revolutions and class movements. In America, people don&...
MATT TAIBBI

This idea that you can't be an honest man and a Washington politician is a myth, a crock made up...
MATT TAIBBI

If anything, the bailouts actually hindered lending, as banks became more like house pets that grow ...
MATT TAIBBI

I'm a product of an East Coast liberal arts educational system.
MATT TAIBBI

This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far fr...
MATT TAIBBI

Obviously the commercial news media tries to get you worked up and terrified so you'll buy produ...
MATT TAIBBI

I didn't know Michael Hastings very well, but one thing about him was always obvious - he was bo...
MATT TAIBBI

The basic scam in the Internet age is pretty easy even for the financially illiterate to grasp. It w...
MATT TAIBBI

This story is the ultimate example of American’s biggest political problem. We no longer have the ...
MATT TAIBBI

'Prop trading' is just a fancy term for banks gambling in the market for their own profit.
MATT TAIBBI

There really are two Americas, one for the grifter class and one for everybody else. In everybody-el...
MATT TAIBBI

The mistake our politicians so often make with these industry leaders is in thinking they are intere...
MATT TAIBBI

The new America, instead, is fast becoming a vast ghetto in which all of us, conservatives and progr...
MATT TAIBBI

It's really interesting that we've had this great Tea Party movement that is all about resto...
MATT TAIBBI

Over the years, many in the public have become numb to news of financial corruption, partly because ...
MATT TAIBBI

Our leaders know we’re turning into a giant ghetto and they are taking every last hubcap they can ...
MATT TAIBBI

What makes us feel pessimistic about the world, ultimately, is the way the media encourage us to bel...
MATT TAIBBI

America's always had a real passion for lunatic movements. That's one of the things we'r...
MATT TAIBBI

Obviously, people who commit crimes should be punished. Even people who steal socks and 'Snow Wh...
MATT TAIBBI

By incentivizing Wall Street players to sniff out inefficient or corrupt companies and bet against t...
MATT TAIBBI

Comparing your family budget to the sovereign debt of the United States is a little like comparing t...
MATT TAIBBI

Wall Street has turned the economy into a giant asset-stripping scheme, one whose purpose is to suck...
MATT TAIBBI

The joy of being a consumer is that it doesn't require thought, responsibility, self-awareness o...
MATT TAIBBI

He steps to the lectern and does his Mussolini routine, which he’s perfected over the past months....
MATT TAIBBI

People aren't pissed just to be pissed. They're mad because a tiny group of crooks on Wall Street bu...
MATT TAIBBI

At the tail end of the Reagan years the Democratic Party, with the aid of Clinton/Gore–led groups ...
MATT TAIBBI

Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive.
MATT CAMERON

If I could do it over, I'd want to come up to the big leagues like Mike Trout. He's exciting...
MATT KEMP

I love L.A., but you can get into a lot of trouble out here.
MATT KEMP

When I spend money on myself, it's almost always on shoes and clothes. I'm addicted to shoes...
MATT KEMP

I never want to sit out. I want to play baseball games.
MATT KEMP

I don't think some athletes understand how big it is to be an athlete, what they can do with jus...
MATT KEMP

I get bored real easy. I'm so used to L.A. and the pace that when I go home now I start thinking...
MATT KEMP

I'm always telling people baseball needs to be more prominent in the African American community....
MATT KEMP

I've been a Lakers fan since growing up in Oklahoma. My hometown's finally got the Thunder, ...
MATT KEMP

Sometimes I forget how much people look at you as their hero. I forget that.
MATT KEMP

If you do a full-on workout and then eat McDonald's or Wendy's, you're defeating the pur...
MATT KEMP

We definitely weren't poor growing up, but we weren't rich.
MATT KEMP

Dirty martinis and music - that's the big motto in our family. We get the booze going, and the m...
MATT HARVEY

I worry about that every single day: Am I being a good father?
MATT LAUER

It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody.
MATT DAMON

I've talked to some drummers who seem to have a very hard time staying in shape on the road, inc...
MATT CAMERON

Ben was more improvisational, and relied less on methodology, and basically is a guitarist who switc...
MATT CAMERON

I would never want to live in L.A., and I made that decision years ago, so I never chose that path f...
MATT CAMERON

Whenever Elvin Jones comes to Seattle I try to go catch him.
MATT CAMERON

A lot of times, when a band finds success with a certain style or sound, they have a really hard tim...
MATT CAMERON

Creatively, I thought we were still viable and could do more records. But our working relationship j...
MATT CAMERON

I guess by taking lessons early on, and really trying to play all the rudimentary stuff, and try to ...
MATT CAMERON

When I first went on tour with PJ in '98, I was still in shock having gone through the Soundgard...
MATT CAMERON

For me, I just try to make sure I eat enough and drink enough water and that's about it.
MATT CAMERON

But I've always liked to be the kind of drummer and musician who likes to go outside of what'...
MATT CAMERON

My recording career has luckily run the gamut of recording environments.
MATT CAMERON

I love the way Pharell is laying down great drum tracks. He is a great drummer.
MATT CAMERON

I'm always going to get more of a charge playing Chicago than I will Duluth or some place like t...
MATT CAMERON

I still felt we had some really good music on that record, but it's a shame that we couldn't...
MATT CAMERON

I try and stay limber, swim, run, ride motorcycles.
MATT CAMERON

So, I just kind of played the way I played and then eventually we kind of figured out what worked be...
MATT CAMERON

If PJ Harvey ever came to town I'd definitely go try to go see her.
MATT CAMERON

Like I'm in San Diego today and this is my hometown so I've got a lot of my friends coming a...
MATT CAMERON

In my last band, Soundgarden, I had a couple of different drummers sit in on some stuff and it was f...
MATT CAMERON

I show up ready to play, so I normally try and fit the situation.
MATT CAMERON

I think every band is a little cautious when the drummer starts to write tunes.
MATT CAMERON

I always loose a little weight on the road, so I constantly have to be on top of my nutrition and hy...
MATT CAMERON

I like doing comedy, I like doing drama. Naturally I like to do, I like doing dramas, I like conflic...
MATT DILLON

I may be biting off more than I can chew, but with 'The Simpsons' and with 'Futurama,...
MATT GROENING

The demands of the present must stand above the political habits of the past.
MATT BLUNT

Over the next four years, we will be bold. We will be willing to experiment. We will not fear failur...
MATT BLUNT

If you're opposed to the budget I submitted to the General Assembly, you're for a tax increa...
MATT BLUNT

The decision to join or not join a service union, political party or other organization should be le...
MATT BLUNT

Taxpayers deserve a government that harnesses technology to better serve the people.
MATT BLUNT

In a government such as ours we have vigorous contests to determine who should lead. The recent elec...
MATT BLUNT

In spite of advances in technology and changes in the economy, state government still operates on an...
MATT BLUNT

The spirit and determination of the people to chart their own destiny is the greatest power for good...
MATT BLUNT

We stand in the shadow of Jefferson who believed that a society founded upon the rule of law and lib...
MATT BLUNT

Public education is an investment in our future.
MATT BLUNT

With 'Futurama,' I wanted to do unrequited love, and David Cohen agreed, and although our or...
MATT GROENING

Well, most grown-ups forget what it was like to be a kid. I vowed that I would never forget.
MATT GROENING

Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature ma...
MATT GROENING

Cartooning is for people who can't quite draw and can't quite write. You combine the two hal...
MATT GROENING

You've got to embrace the future. You can whine about it, but you've got to embrace it.
MATT GROENING

I don't have to be careful, I've got a gun.
MATT GROENING

People go into cartooning because they're shy and they're angry. That's when you're ...
MATT GROENING

I think there is a certain charm to the hand drawn image that I like. My problem with CGI is that it...
MATT GROENING

Sometimes people try to read into my strip and find out what my state of mind is. And I can say if I...
MATT GROENING

I went through a phase where people would introduce me at parties as a cartoonist, and everybody fel...
MATT GROENING

I've conducted an experiment on my kids. Instead of denying them access to media, I've encou...
MATT GROENING

The thing about a cartoon is, you can do whatever you want. The tightrope that we are walking on ...
MATT GROENING

I thought I was going to make crazy cartoons for the rest of my life. I didn't think I'd eve...
MATT GROENING

The best stories in our culture have some sort of subversiveness - Mark Twain, 'Catcher in the R...
MATT GROENING

My father was a really sharp cartoonist and filmmaker. He used to tape-record the family surreptitio...
MATT GROENING

If I have one technology tip of the day, it's this: No matter how good the video on YouTube is, ...
MATT GROENING

Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?
MATT GROENING

Here's to alcohol: the cause of, and answer to, all of life's problems.
MATT GROENING

If you're wearing suits and you want to create your own sense of style, get to the tailor.
MATT BOMER

I like fishing as much when I don't catch anything as when I do.
MATT LAUER

A highway sign used to welcome people to New Haven, birthplace of President George W. Bush. But it w...
MATT APUZZO

I've always liked Southeast Asia a lot. It's a wonderful place, an easy place. People are gr...
MATT DILLON

Red notification bubbles on any icon, including mail, drive me crazy.
MATT MULLENWEG

Oh, I think Janie Bryant is a genius. I mean, I think she changed menswear almost single-handedly wi...
MATT BOMER

That's the way this business works: if your movies do well at the box office, you will be offere...
MATT DAMON

Right before 'The Bourne Identity' came out, I hadn't been offered a movie in a year.
MATT DAMON

Bond is part of the system. He's an imperialist and a misogynist, and he laughs at killing peopl...
MATT DAMON

I have voted to make tough decisions in budgetary times, I've served on two recessionary budgets...
MATT GONZALEZ

I was always taught that the first rule of bunker play is to just get the ball out. When you have a ...
MATT KUCHAR

It would be lovely to live in a culture where calmness was the aim.
MATT HAIG

I think we get too hung up on categories. Obviously, the book market has to categorise things, and i...
MATT HAIG

Prosperity has brought complications. Our lives are busier, faster, more stressful. They're nost...
MATT RIDLEY

I pretty much got busted for everything, but I definitely stretched out my boundaries as a kid, as w...
MATT BOMER

The main thing that 99designs is about is choice. It's a fantastic model that eliminates risk fo...
MATT MICKIEWICZ

If you've ever questioned your faith, you're going to question it when you are burying your ...
MATT BEVIN

'The Kids Are All Right' is amazing. The performances are insanely good. Julianne Moore is g...
MATT BOMER

Understanding is curing ignorance and curing ignorance is abolishing fear.
MATT MARTY

I've always been a guy that's liked a crowd and having people around cheering for me. I'...
MATT KUCHAR

Teenagers are in some ways the best readers because their imaginations haven't been narrowed dow...
MATT HAIG

I'm not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Those guys walk into a room and the room changes. I think t...
MATT DAMON

Two hundred years ago, industrialisation ruined the labour force. In the modern age, especially in t...
MATT BELLAMY

If I wasn't an actor, I probably would've tried to get a job with the Braves.
MATT LANTER

'The Simpsons' from the very beginning was based on our memories of brash '60s sitcoms -...
MATT GROENING

I had been drawing my weekly comic strip, 'Life in Hell,' for about five years when I got a ...
MATT GROENING

This administration will have no tolerance for the type of brazen disregard that Planned Parenthood ...
MATT BEVIN

If you took away all pain, if everyone lived forever, everything would be bland, flat and boring; th...
MATT HAIG

I felt cheated by the way grown-ups told me that the future of the world was bleak when I became a t...
MATT RIDLEY

Families are about love overcoming emotional torture.
MATT GROENING

There are 100 million blogs in the world, and it's part of my job as the co-founder of WordPress...
MATT MULLENWEG

When you look at things like Flickr and Youtube, they are specialised blogging systems, so why hasn&...
MATT MULLENWEG

I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.
MATT GROENING

A group of adventurers is known as a "party," and not just because they like to celebrate their succ...
MATT FORBECK

If you can't spot the sucker in the first half an hour at the table, then you are the sucker.
MATT DAMON

Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking...
MATT DILLON

Success is not something I've wrapped my brain around. If people go to those movies, then yes, that'...
MATT DAMON

It-was a tiny mollusc that caused Walter, grandfather of the greatest biologist of the twentieth cen...
MATT RIDLEY

As a small boy Francis Crick had been haunted by a fear that by the time he grew up everything would...
MATT RIDLEY

Families are about love overcoming emotional torture.
MATT GROENING

Enjoy the journey, enjoy ever moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing.
MATT BIONDI

When the authorities warn you of the dangers of having sex, there is an important lesson to be learn...
MATT GROENING

I don't have to be careful, I've got a gun
MATT GROENING

I've heard it said of faith that first we jump, and then we grow wings. Integrity is like that too, ...
MATT BALDWIN

There's something uniquely aggravating about the smugness of liberal Hollywood.
MATT STONE

Now that I have kids, I'm probably more overprotective than I've ever been. My wife's ni...
MATT DAMON

If I could film, we'd film every episode of 'Doctor Who' in New York. I have an affinity...
MATT SMITH

I'm a stubborn guy that loses his temper, sometimes driving the station wagon in the wrong direc...
MATT BERNINGER

It seems like the web, particularly software as a service, provides ample opportunities for you to f...
MATT MULLENWEG

'Alligator' was the first record that anyone paid attention to, and it seemed like it was th...
MATT BERNINGER

I don't like the idea of 'I've played nine years, I've made some All-Star teams, I m...
MATT HOLLIDAY

'The Simpsons' is about alienation and the ambivalence of living with a family who you love ...
MATT GROENING

I always see people tweeting about these crazy amazing things their boyfriend or girlfriend did for ...
MATT PROKOP

You would be amazed what the ordinary guy knows.
MATT DRUDGE

There's always room out there for the hand-drawn image. I personally like the imperfection of ha...
MATT GROENING

I believe in forgiveness, I believe in second chances, and I believe we should find a way to restore...
MATT BEVIN

If anybody wanted to photograph my life, they'd get bored in a day. 'Heres Matt at home lear...
MATT DAMON

What we really have to do is stop the adjective before the job title - whether it's 'black a...
MATT BOMER

I'm becoming far more interested in just functionality and making sure my body is as strong as i...
MATT DAMON

I think 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' have definitely staked out their own style a...
MATT GROENING

On 'The Simpsons,' I will say that we definitely like to comment on what's going on in t...
MATT GROENING

I went to a couple Academy Awards parties and I was definitely like, 'Whoa, no one will talk to ...
MATT STONE

I don't know why, but audiences are often sympathetic to thieves. Sometimes they are more sympat...
MATT DILLON

My wife is my soul mate. I can't imagine being without her.
MATT DAMON

It's a social contract we make. We're willing to give up certain things. We give you the rig...
MATT APUZZO

Already renewable energy advocates are noting that the 42 miles of above-ground right-of-way between...
MATT GONZALEZ

If I was making a tea advert, I would want to communicate about tea is that it can console you, it c...
MATT SMITH

We don't push back hard enough against the government. We could use, the country in general coul...
MATT APUZZO

I'm not handsome enough to be James Bond. Maybe a villain, though.
MATT SMITH

No matter how much success you're having, you can't continue working together if you can'...
MATT CAMERON

Because good writing in a TV cartoon is so rare, I think the animation on The Simpsons is often over...
MATT GROENING

While it may seem small, the ripple effects of small things is extraordinary.
MATT BEVIN

Certainly other things we can do, we gotta promote after-school employment, give kids an opportunity...
MATT GONZALEZ

The mind is the most important part of achieving any fitness goal. Mental change always comes before...
MATT MCGORRY

Creating legislation is a tough process. But watering down legislation? Strangling it with lawsuits and comment letters and blue-ribbon committees? Not so tough, it turns out.

Copied!

Matt Taibbi

Creating legislation is a tough process. But watering down legislation? Strangling it with lawsuits and comment letters and blue-ribbon committees? Not so tough, it turns out.

Matt Taibbi

Share:

Related

More Matt Taibbi