The Fifth Risk by Michael LewisMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a short, brisk read that is both entertaining and informative. Highly recommended.
The purpose of this book is to do two things: first, to highlight some of the most effective and under-appreciated programs and agencies in our government, especially within the departments of energy, agriculture, and commerce; and second, to show how naive, ill-informed, inadequate, and unprepared the Trump administration was when it took over those agencies (and how quickly they turned to corrupt practices). Or, more succinctly: how government can function when working well, and how it suffers with Trump in office.
Much of this is told as personal stories or as part of the give and take of an interview. The author is part of these stories as he recounts how he heard them, which gives this book the breezy feel of long-form journalism. It turns out to be the best way to understand the government, seeing it as we do from the perspective of many individuals, learning from their experience, getting a feel for the important work they do, usually without any of us knowing about it. We see, in the first instance, government and its agencies serving the people, improving continuously, and then we see government being corrupted to serve to the private interests of Trump and his cronies. Ironically, it isn't their corruption that is most shocking and disheartening but their incompetence.
The author recounts the experience of several different agencies which each, individually, went to considerable trouble to prepare the incoming administration for the huge job of running enormous programs. They set up trainings, created binders of documents, wrote memos, arranged tours, and the like, but all had the same disappointing experience--no one from Trump's campaign showed up. For days and weeks. The Department of Energy, for example, cleared thirty desks, arranged for thirty parking spaces, readied giant 3-ring binders, and waited for Trump's people to arrive after the election so they could train them up as Bush's people had done (effectively, it is reported) for Obama's. No one came. Two weeks later, a Koch lobbyist was named to head up their "landing team," but still didn't show up until a full month after the election. Then he came alone, for an hour.
This incompetence, this negligence, was repeated in real life (and in some detail in this book) over and over, in agency after agency. Then we see efforts to undermine those agencies, including stories familiar from the news as well as things most readers probably had never heard of. I didn't know about most of it.
For me, one of the biggest takeaways from the book was learning that there are so many agencies filled with so many dedicated public servants doing so much important work, work that I had never heard of but fully support once I know about it. The stories of individuals and how they came to be involved with such work is really encouraging. And the way Trump and his corruption threatens to destroy so much of it is really disheartening.
The author does well to write such an engaging, readable account of what probably should make for dry reading. I not only feel informed but better equipped to understand the work our government does for us and fight for it to complete that mission.
Well done. You should take a look.
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