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Matt Taibbi's The Divide

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In 2008, the worst economic state since the Great Depression occurred, affecting many Americans across the country. In The Divide, Matt Taibbi portrays to the reader the case of Lehman Brothers and Barclay Bank Firms, where fraudulent activity occurred which greatly affected the economy. Lehman Brothers took out loans, without collateral, and later claimed the money as assets. As Taibbi explained, "this is like taking out a cash advance on your credit card and telling your wife you earned the money pulling extra overtime shifts (page 150)..." Barclay later stole billions of dollars from Lehman without notice from Lehman creditors. Moreover, Lehman employees and Barclay developed two plans, one real and one fictional. The valid plan gave

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Matt Taibbi's The Divide

...In The Divide, Matt Taibbi discusses the attempted destruction of Fairfax Financial Holdings, a large Canadian-based bank firm. Because of Fairfax's honest and fair past record, Morgan Keegan, an American-based bank firm, and Exis Capital Management found Fairfax threatening in terms of dominating the American economy (Fairfax had recently joined the American economy). As a result, Morgan Keegan bought large quantities of short investments- borrowing stocks and selling them in order to make a profit- and Fairfax's stock value went down 25% in one day. Furthermore, Morgan Keegan wrote reports that argued false statements about Fairfax, which caused investors to invest their money in other companies. Moreover, the main conspirators who wanted to destroy Fairfax were Spyro Contogouris, Adam Sender, Stevie Cohen, Dan Loeb, and Jim Chanos. Each man was notorious for their abrasive demeanor and narcissistic tendencies. Because of the heinous and illegal actions of the conspirators, Fairfax executives and their eight thousand employees were not only concerned for their jobs and their livelihoods, but they were also concerned for the future of the Canadian and American economy if Fairfax Financial Holdings were destroyed....

Words: 416 - Pages: 2