Taibbi's writings on the financial industry always seem a bit sloppy to me, if pleasantly hyperbolic. My estimation of him went up after reading his Baffler review of Blagojevich's book where Taibbi displays his knowledge of The Wire:

Fans of the HBO series The Wire who read this book will undoubtedly recognize in Blago’s public appeals for sympathy on the corruption charges--whatever he did, he did because he just loves the people of Illinois so goddamn much-- an almost flawless impersonation of Isiah Whitlock, Jr.s’ immortal character Clay Davis, a corrupt-as-fuck Maryland state senator. Indeed, the chief differences between the two are incidental: Davis quoted Aeschylus; Blago quotes Shakespeare.

...

The story that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald tells in his indictment of Blagojevich--copiously borne out by the wiretap transcripts-- is in the grand Chicago tradition of open graft. Blagojevich is trying frantically to sell the Senate seat to Obama’s people, who apparently wanted African-American lawyer Valerie Jarrett, a longtime confidant of the Democratic presidential nominee, to get the spot. "I’ve got this thing, and it’s fucking golden, and uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for fucking nothing," he says, in one such voluble wiretapped call. Later on, Blago deputy John Harris is heard negotiating with then-aide and now-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, saying that if Jarrett were to be Blago’s pick, "all we get is appreciation, right?" To which Emanuel says, "Right."

(Video via The Wire fan Yglesias)