A seasoned reporter on economics and the inner-workings of Wall Street, Taibbi covers complex financial topics in his award-winning Rolling Stone columns. He told Simmons that writing about these issues, especially the more controversial and scandalous events, isn't something that many reporters are eager to do. Mainly, he says, because fully understanding complicated financial issues is hard work. It's not an area that you can just “jump into” without having put in the proper research. “It's all cloaked in its own language,” he says, “and if you don't understand it you won't get very far.”
Because of this, he says many reporters are too intimidated to write about Wall Street. While it's a lot of work, Taibbi says he loves it because it's like “a new Sopranos episode every day.” The financial world, he says, is like reporting on criminal organizations led by villains—something that is well worth the time he put in to understanding what's going in the industry. He expands on his hard-hitting coverage of Wall Street corruption in his landmark book Griftopia, his eye-opening talks, and his numerous media appearances.
