Taibbi

Hi Atlantic! One theme I heard constantly in the years covering Wall Street was that if Obama had been a better messenger at the peak of the crisis - if he had used his communications skills to explain the mechanics of the subprime scam (and also not shied away from the racial/exploitative aspect) -- it might have made a big difference in people grasping what happened. Instead, they swept it all under a rug with bailout money

Hi pixel monkey! Great question. I was drawn to Friedman immediately -- I think it's a writer thing. This may seem a little odd but for me writing is sort of an auditory thing, I'm oversensitive to the way words sound in my head, and when I read Friedman it's like all the notes are off in this amazing way that you'd actually have to put work into to have it come across like that. His metaphors are ingenious, they never match! I actually feel kind of bad about it now, especially since I met him once and he was nice

JMike, I think there was a genuine belief among a lot of the people at the top that prosecutions would disrupt the economy. There was also -- and this I know for a fact because I heard it from several upper-level prosecutor types -- an unwillingness to chance a loss in court with some of these cases. That is the inexcusable part to me. Also, thirdly, there was a contingent that simply didn't see these offenses as serious, and many of those people had been lawyers to those companies before serving under Obama (and would again after).

Hi all, sorry for the wait. I would love to work with Alex again, but this is twice he's joined me in a new venture only to have my problems blow up in his face. I wouldn't do it a third time. Alex is amazing, had so much fun working with him, he's a brilliant writer and will do great things

I heard from them recently, but not sure. Possibly! I enjoy that show, although it's hard -- you have to fight to get a word in and I'm actually the kind of person who naturally sits and waits his turn to talk, so I always feel off a bit there. But it's challenging and fun