Over the past several years, Rolling Stone Magazine writer and contributing editor Matt Taibbi has created quite a reputation for himself as one of the most astute, original, funny and courageous observers of Wall St., American political corruption and cultural decline, and the 2008 financial crisis. Taibbi runs in a similar Gonzo journalism current made most famous by Hunter S. Thompson; in a 2008 article in Rolling Stone he famously called Goldman Sachs, "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money". His latest book, called Griftopia, examines the recent financial crisis, and the video below is a short edited clip of his recent interview with Democracy Now!on that topic:

As a complimentary accompaniment to the Taibbi interview, here's the trailer for the recent Academy Award winning documentary The Inside Job: