Book Review - The Fifth Risk

 Michael Lewis is a very respected author who truly does his research.  He wrote Moneyball about the mathematics of baseball  -now a recognized science and a Brad Pitt movie. In the Fifth Risk he explores a very scary proposition – What are the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works?

Seriously – we are screwed.  Folks think they don’t want government.  But do you realize how much is really done and with our taxpayer money? And by not filling key jobs, not just at cabinet level – there is a lot being lost.  NOAA – this agency follows weather and patterns. It affects if you are warned about hurricanes, tornadoes, and it saves lives.  USDA. Dept of Commerce. FDA.  Nutrition for our school kids. Health and safety. Feeding old and young. Food stamps – it’s not waste. It saves lives.

We are not talking bleeding heart waste. There are legit scientists, legit data computer gatherers, folks who truly can give data that saves lives. They study soil in the Midwest and monitor rainfall. They save millions of dollars for farmers who can plant at the right time, use fertilizer at the optimal time, and are operating at truly key planting times.

If you do not fill government posts, there is a whole lot that affects regular lives, that will cause a lot of future damage. If you fill posts with people who have no knowledge and experience – you are committing suicide. If you fill posts with folks who gave campaign money, who have business that make money off other folks suffering, you are a fool.

You get what you voted for and there is a lot of ignorance that has been supported.  Read Michael Lewis’s book The Fifth Risk and draw your own conclusions.  Wow. 

Movie Review - The Big Short

The Big Short is an excellent movie. Who knew a movie about the housing bubble could be hysterical? This movie is frenetic, serious, comical, fast paced, irreverent, and brilliant in its scathing wit. Michael Lewis wrote the book – it is calm and clearly incisive in explaining how making bets against the housing industry seemed insane, and that banks were too big to fail. The movie throws calm out the window and with a wide range of characters played by Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt, and more – we see math and economics come to life as certain individual investors calculated the folly of the subprime mortgage industry.

This movie explores the folly of humans and the trust they put into the financial system. The hubris of Wall Street and the billion dollar money flow proved explosive. The movie explains some of the more esoteric terms (collateralized debt obligations or synthetic CDOs) with examples by chef Anthony Bourdain creating a new stew from three day old halibut, or Selena Gomez at a Vegas gaming table. The movie is splashy and scary as we hear Melissa Leo (an official at Standard & Poor’s) explain away ratings because she can’t have the customer go down the street to Moody’s. As the Wall Street Journal movie review says, “high dudgeon gives way to heightening disbelief, followed by horrified belief, about rampant deception, self-deception, and the system’s frailty.”

Great acting all around. Clever film making about a darn tricky subject. The Big Short is smart and sharp, and as a movie will not sell you short.  Expect to see a lot of Oscar buzz on this one. And unfortunately do we learn from our mistakes? Alas, money makes the world go round, and up and down, and bubbles burst. 

Moneyball Review: Catch It

Moneyball, based on Michael Lewis' fascinating book, is about the science of baseball and how the anemic Oakland Athletics in 2002/2003 managed to win games with an unlikely team and lousy payroll. Sound boring? Nope. Brad Pitt fills a perfect role. He's Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A's.

Beane was a young gun with a full Stanford scholarship, who skipped college to play in the big show for the New York Mets. Unfortunately, he could never get all of his skills to connect. But he became a talent scout, thrived, and moved up the ladder. Now, as a forty-something GM, he was facing the loss of three big players (free agents) and had no money to buy replacements.

However, he did recognize some other talent - a young Yale economist graduate - Peter Brand (unassumingly played by Jonah Hill in a breakout role for him). This kid had statistics to back up player picks, looking at on-base percentages,etc. No picks based on physical looks, girlfriends, or star wattage. Strictly numbers. Billy rolls with the new method, is almost laughed out of the ballpark, until ... the A's start winning, and winning, and winning some more.

Moneyball is a modest, talks a lot film. It watches Pitt ponder and then sweat out his team's games. He battles the coach, played by a gruff Phillip Seymour Hoffman (always fabulous), and he helps Brand understand the glory of baseball, the dream, and that the key is winning that last game. Plenty of chuckles, angst, and baseball in this film. Brad Pitt ambles through it all with grace and all-American heart.

Here's to the start of a home-run hitting fall movie season.

(review published for the Little Paper of San Saba - a town without a theater)

January Jolly Reads

Alice Munro is a smooth writer covering complex emotions and the unpredictability of life. If you are looking for happiness, this book might make you feel better, since her characters are rather miserable. I enjoyed the writing in these stories - descriptions, dialogue, and quirky twists of entangled lives kept me interested and yet not entertained. Each little world of thirty pages, fraught with anger, sadness, and pain, left me bereft of feelings, hollowed out inside and anxious. So, for reading pleasure, I can't recommend this book. For a master class in writing, Alice Munro's Too Much Happiness gets an A plus.

Michael Lewis' Home Game is heartfelt, well-written, and at times appallingly funny. He kept a journal as his kids were born. Instead of sunny delight and enthusiasm for fatherhood, Lewis discusses why it is parents don't hurl babies off balconies after many sleepless nights. His exhaustion, his descriptions of reality - his two girls arguing over everything, and his realization that he's more of the third string quarterback kept me chuckling throughout the book.

P. 42 At some point in the last few decades, the American male sat down at the negotiating table with the American female and - let us be frank - got fleeced. The agreement he signed, foisted all sorts of new paternal responsibilities on him and gave him nothing of what he might have expected in return. Not the greater love of his wife, who now was encouraged to view him as an unreliable employee. Not the special love of his child, who, no matter how many times he fed and changed and wiped and walked her, would always prefer her mother in a pinch.

p. 108 Small children are also a mood altering substance with financial consequences

p. 109 I know for a fact that my children are insane

p. 154 I've sometimes felt that we are using the wrong manual to fix an appliance - that say we're trying to repair a washing machine with the instructions for the lawn mower. But my wife presses on, determined to find room enough for three children's happiness.

Home Game is a quick, entertaining read and Mr.Lewis' love of his three kids, wife, and life shines through. I relished his exasperation, trials, and down home astonishment at family life in general.

p.187 Like dreams, these fatherhood moments are easily forgotten, and no doubt also a lot more interesting to the teller than to anyone else.

Michael Lewis' writing will keep you interested.