Summary Of The Great American Bubble Machine By Matt Taibbi

Matt Taibbi’s “The Great American Bubble Machine” and “The People vs. Goldman Sachs” are two articles that explore the corruptness surrounding one of the biggest investment banks in the world. In Taibbi’s “The Great American Bubble Machine”, Taibbi describes Goldman Sachs as a very money-hungry company that places itself in the middle of the huge financial bubbles it creates. Taibbi then describes the five financial bubbles that Goldman Sachs has created over the years. Those five financial bubbles include The Great Depression, tech stocks, the housing craze, gas prices, and finally the bailing out of various other companies. Matt Taibbi then goes on to explore the bubble Goldman Sachs created in the 2010’s in relation to the Global Warming

Goldman Sachs” discusses the evidence found against Goldman Sachs that should make them stand trial. Carl Levin investigated and created a report about the bubble that Goldman Sachs created and the frauds involved in it. In response to the report that Carl Levin publishes, Goldman Sachs misled Congress and then claimed that the bank was just really good at making money. Taibbi then explains that the reason that Goldman Sachs was able to get away with fraud and other crimes was in part due to investment banks convincing the government to allow them to voluntary regulate. These banks claimed that they could regulate themselves because they wanted to weed out corruption and fraud; however, investment banks like Goldman Sachs still participated in those very practices. Matt Taibbi then goes on to discuss the testimonies that the executives at Goldman Sachs gave to Levin’s committee and Congress and how these executives still got away with their crimes. Taibbi ends by concluding that crime in America is not defined by what you commit, it’s determined by the person you

One concept that Taibbi’s articles connect to is the concept of power. According to Max Weber, power is the ability to get an intended outcome, a form of empowerment, even if others oppose that outcome, a form of domination (Lecture, 9/17/15). Matt Taibbi’s “The Great American Bubble Machine” connects to power in regards to how Goldman Sachs does its business. Taibbi explores the idea of power in relation to Goldman Sachs when he writes, “Another practice Goldman engaged in during the Internet boom was ‘spinning,’ better known as bribery,” (Taibbi 2010). This illustrates reward, an aspect of domination, in which Goldman Sachs was able to get the outcome they wanted through lowering share prices in exchange for future business. Another example of how Goldman Sachs used reward to get what they wanted is illustrated when Taibbi writes, “Between 1999 and 2002, the firm paid out $28.5 billion in compensation and benefits- an average of roughly $350,000 a year per employee,” (Taibbi 2010). The employees at Goldman Sachs most likely knew that they were involved with corruption and fraud; however, Goldman Sachs had power over them through use of money and reward as a form of