11-22-2008
This month I read a timely sequence of books
"1776"
McCullough describes how Washington with his poor, ill equipped army won the siege on Boston and then lost or fled from four battles until finally, after retreating the whole year from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, at Christmas Day he surprises the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. All the time, the US rebels (terrorists?) seem to pursue a lost cause. Many have no shoes; they avoid battles because they have no gunpowder. The stingy Congress does not pay the soldiers and many return to their farms and family. Yet, somehow, inexplicably, Washington prevails.
"Bad Money"
Kevin Phillips' describes the "Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism,". While it was published in April 2008 , it is so 'on the money' that one thinks it must be written in October 2008 when it became clear that money managers were bringing the world economy down with their Ponzi schemes, while personally making $1 billion/year. Kevin Phillips was not the only one to foresee that unbridled capitalism goes berserk. But most people can be fooled most of the time. That's how magicians make a living.
Who are losing these trillions? Everyone with equity on paper (pensions, stocks) loses. People without equity have nothing to lose. This financial crisis brought about a redistribution of wealth that the most fervent socialist would not dare to propose. Sure, the wizards who created the mess lose the most; but after losing 90% of $1 billion, they still have $ 100 million.
11-2009 Now we know that it is even worse than I described a year ago. The money managers are reaping in millions but unemployment is around 10 %
"Hot, Flat & Crowded"
Thomas Freedman shows that the financial meltdown is just a blip in comparison with the global meltdown caused by pollution. What we are doing to ourselves, with the US leading the parade, is unbelievably irresponsible. Five years ago the prediction was that the icecaps would be melted in 2040; now, it seems they will be gone in 2015! Will Freedman say " I told you so", when we are puffing, drowning or choking? My grandchildren will ask, like German kids in the fifties, "What did you do, grandpa?"
In the second part of the book, Freedman, as a good patriot, makes the case that American initiative, ingenuity and leadership can save the day. Does he really believe that?
Population control is conspicuously missing in his policy advice. A politically correct position.
"The Audacity of Hope"
Obama wrote a beautiful book! Personal, eloquent, balanced, wise and hopeful. I expected a political pamphlet, but this book is timeless and a pleasure to read, anytime. Obama's challenge is no less than Washington's in 1776 and the stakes are even higher. The world is at stake.