Once in a long while, a single person will point a finger at the powers that be, and by the sheer moral weight of their accusation make the foundations tremble. Matt Taibbi just did.
In his recent Rolling Stone article "The People vs. Goldman Sachs", he raises an indictment of not just a very crooked investment bank, but also of the Department of Justice, SEC and a string of administrations who have pandered to the financial industry and ensured minimal regulatory oversight. In the 12 years leading up to the financial crisis, the number of criminal referrals from ever weakening regulators was reduced by a factor of 25. And as Taibbi points out, Goldman "stands now on the precipice of officially getting away with one of the biggest financial crimes in history". With a 650-page bipartisan Senate report as his source, Taibbi points at how Goldman swindled both customers and the US tax payer, and how they merrily set about milking the financial crisis they saw coming (with no thought of, you know, warning anyone or trying to prevent the disaster).
This article is the Real Thing, the Stuff That Changes the Future. It is already credited with shaving a few billion off Goldman's share price. It channels the rage of millions and millions of Americans who did not appreciate their economy being crashed by Wall Street and on top of that having to pick up the bill. It could still single-handedly force the DoJ and the SEC to grow the balls to confront these very powerful interests.
If I were an American, I would be looking for the "US Tahrir Square".
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