Barrons-A Review of Matt Taibbi's New Book "Griftopia"

"Griftopia" cover: Barrons.com

(Book review by Ann C. Logue for Barrons.com)

THE FIRST THING YOU NEED to know about Matt Taibbi is that he's everywhere.

Last year he wrote a scathing story about Goldman Sachs in Rolling Stone magazine, famously calling the firm "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity." Then, his opening sentence for that article—"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere"—turned up almost verbatim in a scene in the new Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps from Oliver Stone. It's the opening line of a disillusioned trader's exposé of a firm called Churchill Schwartz (read: Goldman Sachs).

Now, just as Goldman is launching a new image campaign, Taibbi, a contributing editor of Rolling Stone, comes out with a book—essentially a longer and fresher version of the controversial article.

(Click here to read the full review on the Barrons.com website.)