"The Fifth Risk" by Michael Lewis

Above: "The Fifth Risk." Michael Lewis. 219 Pages.

Lewis writes a paean to big government as he scores Trump for ignoring the benefit that it does.

I completed reading this book today. I read it because of my high regard for some of Lewis' other works: "Money Ball," "Liars Poker," "The Big Short," and various articles in "Vanity Fair."

In this book, Lewis, first, disappoints...

Lewis writes a paean to big government as he scores Trump for ignoring the benefits that big government produces.

Lewis reams Trump for being derelict, post his election, for not immediately sending his transition teams out to hear presentations from formerly Obama led government departments. If a Trump appointee did, eventually, go to "listen," he/she is excoriated by Lewis as being under qualified or ideologically riven to Conservative dogma. So much good was happening in these government departments, according to Lewis, that Trump must be an idiot for showing lack of interest in what was going on.

Wait a minute! Is Trump so bad? Let's remember that, in large part, Trump was elected to "clean the swamp." It should not be surprising, even to Lewis, that government departments should expect a different tone from the new administration. Voters elected Trump for the very purpose of disrupting Washington's business-as-usual ways.

Each president puts his stamp on his new administration... perhaps Trump more than most. Didn't Obama make some "disruptive" appointments? How about Charles Bolden, Obama's NASA head, who said the president told him one of NASA's top priorities was to reach out to the Muslim communities around the world?

Credit Trump for neutering the beast, as he said he would do. Successive presidents and congresses have expanded government power to the point where it has become over-obtrusive. For 188 years the US did without an Energy Department... until 1977, when Jimmy Carter created it to deal with an energy crisis brought on by big government's federal price controls.

But, he (Lewis) also shines...

Lewis, excels as he interviews various men and women who held important government posts in the Obama years. The interviewees are successful public servants... no villains.

Lewis writes about Ali Zaidi, the young Pakistani American who went to Harvard an impassioned Republican and came out the other side applying for a job in the Barack Obama administration. Kathy Sullivan, the oceanographer who became a NASA astronaut and then went on to become a high-ranking official in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Zaidi, Sullivan and others treated in the book are dedicated civil servants who believe in the potential of a functioning federal government to do good works. Most Americans, of whatever political stripe, would be impressed by these appointees, their personal stories and their contributions to the nation's well being.

Lewis talks about the improvement, over the years, in tornado warning at the NOAA; the reason, implemented by Department of Energy, eastern North Carolina didn't get obliterated by a rogue hydrogen bomb in 1961; how The Department of Agriculture keeps geese off runways at major American airports.

Yesterday, TIMDT and Mwah (sic) had our own experience, a positive one, with "big government." We visited the Salt Lake County Health Office to update our vaccinations in anticipation of an upcoming trip to West Africa. In addition to the vaccinations, we received a very thorough briefing, along with a hand-out summary, of specific health risks, country by country, we are to visit. The points on the list had been provided by the Center For Disease Control (CDC).

So, what about the "fifth risk?" The "fifth risk" is the risk of civil service failures... due to short term budget thinking... in the face of a crucial challenge. Trump has been in office for two years and the government still functions. Methinks the "fifth risk" is a bit overrated by Lewis.