The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for Sept. 1, 2012

“Greed and Debt”
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

How Mitt Romney and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs, and stuck others with the bill.

“Before Gunfire, Hints of ‘Bad News’”
Erica Goode, Serge S. Kovaleski, Jack Healy and Dan
Frosch, The New York Times

James Holmes’s mysterious descent from shy graduate student to mass murderer.

“Teen Titan”
Lizzie Widdicombe, The New Yorker

The man who made Justin Bieber.

“Catch Me If You Can”
Dean King, Outside

From the perspective of an autistic, 8-year-old boy who went missing in a Virginia park, the largest manhunt in state history was the ultimate game of hide-and-seek.

“Revolt of the Rich”
Mike Lofgren, The American Conservative

America’s financial elites are the new secessionists.

“A Dancer’s Demons”
Julie Kavanagh, Intelligent Life

A few months ago Sergei Polunin walked out on a golden career with the Royal Ballet, sounding like a lost boy. What was going on? And what happened next?

For more great longreads, visit our friends at Longreads.com.