Review: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America by Matt Taibbi

by

Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
by Matt Taibbi

# ISBN-10: 0385529953
# ISBN-13: 978-0385529952

PROS:

  • Covers areas of financial fraud both well-known and obscure in the American economy over the last few decades.
  • Surprisingly deep and human treatment of the issues and the politics helps you understand the people and the issues.
  • Makes an attempt to explain the financial issues that often go unreported and mis-understood.
  • Attempts to keep a sense of humor about some of these things as horrible as they are.

CONS:

  • Explanation of economic issues really is not kept simple enough to explain to people without an interest in economics.
  • The author's mixture of humor, outrage, and swearing may turn some off (while others will enjoy it immensely).
  • Doesn't always dig deep enough into the patterns described.
  • Has little suggestion on solutions to the problems.

SUMMARY: Griftopia is a flawed, but interesting, examination of decades of financial fraud in America.  It is more for people who have the inclination and knowledge to dig further into the financial messes in the US.

Read more

News of the Day 1/11/2011

by

Verizon gets the iPhone, sucking the oxygen out of the newsroom, and . . . well other stuff.  But iPhone!

Economics/Geekonomics:
A look at the Massahusetts 'Ibanez' Case that some think may unravel the mortgage market. This may be a bit tough reading, but basically a major policy in foreclosures was invalidated – and apparently banks are facing the attention of unhappy investors over this.

Publishing:
eBooks are booming in Great Britain.

Social Media:
MySpace goes through with its massive cuts. I'm sure we have more of this story to come.

Groupon is nearly done raising that $950 million. I'm not surprised they're getting money, but wonder if they really are overvalued by now. They are buying up other companies, so I think their goal is to crush competition first – and globally. Not sure of the stability of that idea, but I'm not going to say "don't work there," they seem promising at least in the short term.

Technology:
Trade-file-by-touch company Bump raises $16 million which seems like a good investment. They've got a lot of attention and a solid basic idea – so send a resume!

Verizon:
There is now an iPhone available from Verizon. This is stunning news to anyone not living on a different planet in an alternate dimension, under a rock, asleep. Everyone else knew it was coming.

And now more info on Verizon:

Video Games:
Microsoft's mobile gaming device is Windows 7 Phone, which makes a whole lot of sense as that's the way the trends are going.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Does Microsoft's strategy indicate the death of the portable gaming device, since Sony is trying the same thing.

– Steven Savage

Kinect Hacks, Microsoft, And Consumer Experimentation

by

So how many ways can people do bizarre and unusual things with the Kinect?

The Kinect seems to be getting hacked left and right.  Yet, it seems beyond some of the pornographic elements, Microsoft is saying very little about this.  This leads me to two conclusions I'd like to discuss.

(And, yes I could joke about a Microsoft product being hacked, but that's serious low-hanging humor fruit).

Read more