Explore Quotes by Matt Taibbi

Democracy doesn't require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but it requires some: It requires taking a good look outside once in a while, and considering the bad news and what it might mean, and making the occasional tough choice, and soberly taking stock of what your real interests are.

Within the cult of Wall Street that forged Mitt Romney, making money justifies any behavior, no matter how venal.

One of the great cliches of campaign journalism is the notion that American elections have long since ceased to be about issues and ideas.

Ratings agencies are the glue that ostensibly holds the entire financial industry together.

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

This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it.

The individual incentive not to commit crime on Wall Street now is almost zero.

The NFL, sadly, has a fatal environmental problem: It kills its workers.

The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending - with the exception of the money spent on them.

Once you give an NFL player permission to have thoughts, you invite all kinds of mischief.

Politics is about a lot more than winning and losing. I think politics at its best is about compromise, shades of grey and about issues.

The race for the White House is normally an event suffused with drama, sucking eyeballs to the page all over the globe.

I mean, people who say that the Tea Party isn't a grassroots movement, I think, are incorrect. I think in some respects, it is a grassroots movement.

In the years just after 9/11, even being breathed on by a suspected terrorist could land you in extralegal detention for the rest of your life.

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

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

There are some who think that the government is limited in how many corruption cases it can bring against Wall Street, because juries can't understand the complexity of the financial schemes involved. But in 'U.S.A. v. Carollo,' that turned out not to be true.

America's always had a real passion for lunatic movements. That's one of the things we're probably known for around the world, I would imagine.

The threat posed by Bank of America isn't just financial - it's a full-blown assault on the American dream. Where's the incentive to play fair and do well, when what we see rewarded at the highest levels of society is failure, stupidity, incompetence and meanness? If this is what winning in our system looks like, who doesn't want to be a loser?

In America, it takes about two weeks in the limelight for the whole country to think you've been around for years.

Obviously the commercial news media tries to get you worked up and terrified so you'll buy products that they're advertising.