The Forever War
Author: Dexter Filkins 2008 342 pp
My rating: 4*
Started March 06 2009, Finished February 09 2009.
Filkins accounts of his time in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2001 to 2007 come in the voice of an eyewitness reporter, almost completely devoid of political and big picture analysis, instead conveying what it’s like to be a soldier or civilian in the midst of the nihilistic maelstrom that the battlegrounds of the GWOT became. While the writing is uniformly powerful, the sections where Filkins is embedded with marines during the crushing of the Falluja insurgency being the standouts for me, I thought the book could have been even better with some changes. I found the early chapters on Afghanistan, a small part of the book, did not really mesh with the Iraq chapters and that the book probably would have been stronger without them. Also the book lacked an overarching narrative or emotional theme and reads as a series of very strong dispatches, a bunch of newspaper features rather than a book written towards a single purpose. The book’s main character is Filkins himself though he remains a cipher; beyond that he is a determined runner, we learn little about him, particularly how the years of extreme carnage and exposure to personal peril affected him. Both of these weaknesses could have been remedied in a single act by recasting the book as a memoir.
This book could serve as a rebuke to anyone who thought the trillion dollars the US has channeled into the GWOT was money well spent. A virtual case study in the cost effectiveness of the US approach to the GWOT is the section that describes how a single insurgent sniper in Falluja pinned down an entire platoon and survived attempts to kill him by air, artillery and tanks. (200-3)
The insurgents were brilliant at that. They could spot a fine mind or a tender soul wherever it might me, chase it down and kill it dead. The heart of a nation. The precision was astounding. (82)
Colonel in the Iraqi army in the early stages of the invasion: “I believe Saddam is an American agent”. (89)
You had to accept your ignorance; it was the beginning of whatever wisdom you could hope to muster. (124)
“They really hate us here.” (127)
The Iraqis lied to the Americans, no question. But the worst lies were the ones the Americans told themselves. They believed them because it was convenient -- an because not believe them was too horrifying to think about. (130)
If you multiplied the raid on Abu Shakur a thousand times, it was not difficult to conclude that the war was being lost: however many Iraqis opposed them before the Americans came into the village, dozens and dozens more did by the time they left. The Americans were making enemies faster than they could kill them. (153)
[Filkins asked an Iraqi woman why she risked voting]
“I voted in order to prevent my country from being destroyed by its enemies,” she said. …
What enemies? I asked …
She began to tremble.
“You -- you destroyed our country,” Saadi said. “The Americans, the British. I am sorry to be impolite. But you destroyed our country, and you called it democracy.” (244)
The marines were still using Vietnam era Sea Stallion helicopters which were much slower and less night capable than the Black Hawks used by the army. The army flew at night in safety, the marines during the day and were shot down. (paraphrase from 278)
[Commenting on the quick destruction of a park the US built in Baghdad] Everything was like that in Iraq: anything anyone ever tried turned to black. (293)
Running at night: it was madness. I was courting death, or at least a kidnapping. The capital was a free-for-all; it was a state of nature. There was no law anymore, no courts, nothing -- there was nothing at all. They kidnapped children now, they killed them and dumped them in the street. The kidnapping gangs bought and sold people; it was like its own terrible ecosystem. One of the kidnapping gangs could have driven up in a car and beat me and gagged me and I could have screamed like a crazy person, but I doubt anyone would have done anything. … The kidnappers had more power than anyone. (294)
Monday, March 9, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Glorious Cause
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789
Author: Robert Midlekauff 1982 664 pp
My rating: 3*
Started January 20 2009, Finished February 20 2009.
This book is the fourth volume of The Oxford History of the United States which I’ve read, and by far the least satisfying. While the others (Battle Cry of Freedom, What Hath God Wrought and Freedom From Fear) where characterized by a straightforward, succinct and fact-filled-I-have-to-restraint-myself-not-to-make-a-note-on-every-single-page style, The Glorious Cause was just the opposite: unlike the others, it could have been much shorter and I found its prose style, which seemed to slightly mimic the rhetoric of the period it described, generally long winded and confusing. Why I can unhesitatingly recommend the other three volumes as supremely informative, engrossing and authoritative histories, after I finished this one I felt like I hadn’t learned that much about the era. One thing I did come away from the book with, in a lesson that reverberates today, was the notion that the British, hampered by long supplies lines and lack of local support, even from crown loyalists, lost the war despite winning most of the battles.
What seems like a common complaint of mine: I didn’t like the maps.
Of interest to fans of the series: the book jacket contains the original publishing schedule for the OHOTUS indicating the series which still is missing several volumes should have been completed more than a decade ago and that several of the original authors have been replaced.
Chapter Three’s explanation of the sugar act is confusing.
The Connecticut charter which was issued in 1662 provided that the colony’s western boundary should be the Pacific Ocean. (104)
With army horses and wagons scarce, civilians-- merchants, drayers, and others -- hot to be relied on, and these men, in business for themselves, frequently had better paying uses for their transport. (414)
[During the march to Monmouth Court House] Their soldiers carried packs of at least sixty pounds, weight made especially difficult to bear by sandy roads, woolen uniforms, and cumbersome muskets. The Hessians, who wore even heavier clothing than the English, suffered the most, several dying of sunstroke along the way. (422)
A virtuous people, most Americans agreed, were a people who valued frugality, despised luxury, hated corruption, and preferred moderations and balance to extremes of any sort, especially in the orders of society. (651)
Author: Robert Midlekauff 1982 664 pp
My rating: 3*
Started January 20 2009, Finished February 20 2009.
This book is the fourth volume of The Oxford History of the United States which I’ve read, and by far the least satisfying. While the others (Battle Cry of Freedom, What Hath God Wrought and Freedom From Fear) where characterized by a straightforward, succinct and fact-filled-I-have-to-restraint-myself-not-to-make-a-note-on-every-single-page style, The Glorious Cause was just the opposite: unlike the others, it could have been much shorter and I found its prose style, which seemed to slightly mimic the rhetoric of the period it described, generally long winded and confusing. Why I can unhesitatingly recommend the other three volumes as supremely informative, engrossing and authoritative histories, after I finished this one I felt like I hadn’t learned that much about the era. One thing I did come away from the book with, in a lesson that reverberates today, was the notion that the British, hampered by long supplies lines and lack of local support, even from crown loyalists, lost the war despite winning most of the battles.
What seems like a common complaint of mine: I didn’t like the maps.
Of interest to fans of the series: the book jacket contains the original publishing schedule for the OHOTUS indicating the series which still is missing several volumes should have been completed more than a decade ago and that several of the original authors have been replaced.
Chapter Three’s explanation of the sugar act is confusing.
The Connecticut charter which was issued in 1662 provided that the colony’s western boundary should be the Pacific Ocean. (104)
With army horses and wagons scarce, civilians-- merchants, drayers, and others -- hot to be relied on, and these men, in business for themselves, frequently had better paying uses for their transport. (414)
[During the march to Monmouth Court House] Their soldiers carried packs of at least sixty pounds, weight made especially difficult to bear by sandy roads, woolen uniforms, and cumbersome muskets. The Hessians, who wore even heavier clothing than the English, suffered the most, several dying of sunstroke along the way. (422)
A virtuous people, most Americans agreed, were a people who valued frugality, despised luxury, hated corruption, and preferred moderations and balance to extremes of any sort, especially in the orders of society. (651)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Anathem
Anathem
Author: Neal Stephenson 2008 935 pp
My rating: 4*
Started January 25 2009, Finished February 4 2009.
A challenging novel which could so annoy many readers that they give up well before finishing it, Anathem comes reminded me of good Arthur C. Clarke, Lord of the Rings and, of all things, The Magic Mountain. The book is set far in the future on an earth like planet where those who wish to live a life of the mind are segregated into monastery-like, math-based communities called concents which have almost no contact with the “extramuros” ignorati who comprise the bulk of society. The book is somewhat schizoid as its heart is a rollicking sci-fi adventure (the LOTR/Clarke components) which is rendered somewhat inaccessible by the distracting lexicon of the concent world -- the glossary is twenty pages long -- and frequent, extended, momentum killing discussions about math, logic and philosophy (ala Magic Mountain). The problem for the reader who is more interested in the adventure/plot component of the book is that these often tedious discussions -- one near the climax of the book runs at least twenty stupefying pages -- is that they tend to quickly and obliquely reveal important plot elements, requiring the reader to pay close attention when he/she may be lost, confused or bored.
Ultimately Anathem’s rewards and its ambitious, uncompromising nature won me over, earning it a high rating. In fact, I could see rereading it, mainly to see how much more I would pick up the second time around. That said, here are some caveats for the potential reader:
Why do the fraas and suurs of the highly advanced Maths -- where clothing is made of “new matter” which improves upon physics as we know it by reengineering the atomic nucleus -- use the English system of measurement instead of the metric or something even better?
Glossary is 20 pages and is followed by almost 30 pages of proofs.
About money extramuros: … most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators. (262)
Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs … We have a protractor. (320)
Author: Neal Stephenson 2008 935 pp
My rating: 4*
Started January 25 2009, Finished February 4 2009.
A challenging novel which could so annoy many readers that they give up well before finishing it, Anathem comes reminded me of good Arthur C. Clarke, Lord of the Rings and, of all things, The Magic Mountain. The book is set far in the future on an earth like planet where those who wish to live a life of the mind are segregated into monastery-like, math-based communities called concents which have almost no contact with the “extramuros” ignorati who comprise the bulk of society. The book is somewhat schizoid as its heart is a rollicking sci-fi adventure (the LOTR/Clarke components) which is rendered somewhat inaccessible by the distracting lexicon of the concent world -- the glossary is twenty pages long -- and frequent, extended, momentum killing discussions about math, logic and philosophy (ala Magic Mountain). The problem for the reader who is more interested in the adventure/plot component of the book is that these often tedious discussions -- one near the climax of the book runs at least twenty stupefying pages -- is that they tend to quickly and obliquely reveal important plot elements, requiring the reader to pay close attention when he/she may be lost, confused or bored.
Ultimately Anathem’s rewards and its ambitious, uncompromising nature won me over, earning it a high rating. In fact, I could see rereading it, mainly to see how much more I would pick up the second time around. That said, here are some caveats for the potential reader:
- The first hundred pages are quite slow
- Referals to the glossary are recommended whenever an unfamiliar term is encountered.
- Character development continues to not be Stephenson’s strong suit. The four fraas at the heart of the story never seemed to me to be distinct individuals.
- The reader has to tolerate and even decipher many, many passages such as the following: “But there was nothing about Evendric or datonomy on the wall of your cell for Fraa Jad to see. Just material pertaining to Orithena, and a chart of the Lineage.” (533)
Why do the fraas and suurs of the highly advanced Maths -- where clothing is made of “new matter” which improves upon physics as we know it by reengineering the atomic nucleus -- use the English system of measurement instead of the metric or something even better?
Glossary is 20 pages and is followed by almost 30 pages of proofs.
About money extramuros: … most of it gets spent on pornography, sugar water and bombs. There is only so much that can be scraped together for particle accelerators. (262)
Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs … We have a protractor. (320)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Freedom From Fear
Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945
Author: David M Kennedy 1999 858 pp
My rating: 4.5*
Started January 9 2009, Finished January 15 2009.
Another excellent volume in the Oxford History of the United States, this work is essentially a history of the Roosevelt years with a surprisingly sympathetic prelude on Herbert Hoover’s failed administration, which despite its length could well have been much longer -- perhaps even two volumes one covering the depression years and the other World War II -- as it leaves the reader wanting to know more about FDR. While Freedom From Fear clearly depicts the enormous struggles and accomplishments of FDR’s presidency, the man himself remains something of a cipher as when in describing Roosevelt’s death, the author mentions in passing that he was attended by the mistress he had renounced 27 years earlier. The book’s greatest strength is its straightforward clarity but I docked it half a star for some editorial sloppiness such as incorrect diction e.g. immanent used where imminent was meant and the dubious claim that the Hood was larger than the Bismarck.
Recent Social Trends, a scholarly report on social conditions commissioned by Hoover and published in 1933 “feared that the old-stock, white, urban middle class would be demographically swamped by the proliferation of the rural and immigrant poor, as well as blacks.” (28)
Together with expenditures for veteran’s benefits … interest payments composed more than half the federal budget through the postwar decade. Expenses for a modest army of 139,000 men and a navy of about 96,000 sailors accounted for virtually all the rest. (30)
Hoover on 25 Oct 1929: “the fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities , is on a sound and prosperous basis” (39)
As the depression thickened in 1931 and 1932, the main purpose of Garner, Robinson, and Raskob [leaders of the opposition Democrats] was to obstruct the president and prepare to reap the political reward in the upcoming presidential election. (62)
Talk was Roosevelt’s passion and his weapon. None of his associates ever knew him to read a book. It was in conversation that he gained his prodigious, if disorderly store of information about the world. (112)
Gross national product had fallen by 1933 to half its 1929 level. (163)
Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930, Long refused to vacate the governorship for nearly two more years, holding both offices simultaneously. (236)
Roosevelt’s dream was the old progressive dream of wringing order out of chaos, seeking mastery rather than accepting drift, imparting to ordinary Americans at least some measure of the kind of predictability to their lives that was the birthright of the Roosevelts … (247)
[In 1938] Louisiana’s Allen J. Ellender declared: “I believe in white supremacy and as long as I am in the Senate I expect to fight for white supremacy.” (343)
[The New Deal’s] cardinal aim was not to destroy capitalism but to devolatilize it, and at the same time to distribute its benefits more evenly. (372)
“Let us turn our eyes inward,” declared Pennsylvania’s liberal Democratic governor George Earle in 1935. “If the world is to become a wilderness of waste, hatred and bitterness, let us all the more earnestly protect and preserve our own oasis of liberty.” (386)
P430 Refers to 1935 Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig as Malin.
Re US strategic bombing of Germany: Accidents claimed nearly as many airmen’s lives (approximately thirty-six thousand) as did combat (approximately forty-nine thousand) (606)
Only 18.1 percent of American families contributed at least one member to the armed forces. (636)
All told, American war plants delivered some 18,000 B-24s … while building 12,692 B-17s and 3,763 B-29s … (654)
Every American combatant in the last year and a half of war in the Pacific islands could draw on four tons of supplies; his Japanese opponent, just two pounds. (668)
(703) Incorrect diction: use of immanent where imminent is the correct word. “… sensing the immanent vindication of the airmen’s cherished strategic doctrine …”
Wartime cartoons and posters routinely depicted the Japanese as murderous savages, immature children, wild beasts or bucktoothed, bespectacled lunatics. (811)
The Japanese army’s Field Service Code [1941]: “Never give up a position but rather die.” (812)
Okinawa: In early June what was left of the Japanese garrison tried to mount a counterattack. Some six thousand men, armed only with sidearms and bamboo spears, Banzaied forwards. They encountered “millions of shells from the enemy’s formidable fleet, planes, and tanks,” Yahara recorded. “All vanished like the morning dew.” (834)
[Upon notification of final Japanese surrender] Among the American troops on Okinawa, unconditional jubilation broke out. The fired every available weapon skywards. The subsequent rain of shell fragments killed seven men. (851)
Author: David M Kennedy 1999 858 pp
My rating: 4.5*
Started January 9 2009, Finished January 15 2009.
Another excellent volume in the Oxford History of the United States, this work is essentially a history of the Roosevelt years with a surprisingly sympathetic prelude on Herbert Hoover’s failed administration, which despite its length could well have been much longer -- perhaps even two volumes one covering the depression years and the other World War II -- as it leaves the reader wanting to know more about FDR. While Freedom From Fear clearly depicts the enormous struggles and accomplishments of FDR’s presidency, the man himself remains something of a cipher as when in describing Roosevelt’s death, the author mentions in passing that he was attended by the mistress he had renounced 27 years earlier. The book’s greatest strength is its straightforward clarity but I docked it half a star for some editorial sloppiness such as incorrect diction e.g. immanent used where imminent was meant and the dubious claim that the Hood was larger than the Bismarck.
Recent Social Trends, a scholarly report on social conditions commissioned by Hoover and published in 1933 “feared that the old-stock, white, urban middle class would be demographically swamped by the proliferation of the rural and immigrant poor, as well as blacks.” (28)
Together with expenditures for veteran’s benefits … interest payments composed more than half the federal budget through the postwar decade. Expenses for a modest army of 139,000 men and a navy of about 96,000 sailors accounted for virtually all the rest. (30)
Hoover on 25 Oct 1929: “the fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities , is on a sound and prosperous basis” (39)
As the depression thickened in 1931 and 1932, the main purpose of Garner, Robinson, and Raskob [leaders of the opposition Democrats] was to obstruct the president and prepare to reap the political reward in the upcoming presidential election. (62)
Talk was Roosevelt’s passion and his weapon. None of his associates ever knew him to read a book. It was in conversation that he gained his prodigious, if disorderly store of information about the world. (112)
Gross national product had fallen by 1933 to half its 1929 level. (163)
Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930, Long refused to vacate the governorship for nearly two more years, holding both offices simultaneously. (236)
Roosevelt’s dream was the old progressive dream of wringing order out of chaos, seeking mastery rather than accepting drift, imparting to ordinary Americans at least some measure of the kind of predictability to their lives that was the birthright of the Roosevelts … (247)
[In 1938] Louisiana’s Allen J. Ellender declared: “I believe in white supremacy and as long as I am in the Senate I expect to fight for white supremacy.” (343)
[The New Deal’s] cardinal aim was not to destroy capitalism but to devolatilize it, and at the same time to distribute its benefits more evenly. (372)
“Let us turn our eyes inward,” declared Pennsylvania’s liberal Democratic governor George Earle in 1935. “If the world is to become a wilderness of waste, hatred and bitterness, let us all the more earnestly protect and preserve our own oasis of liberty.” (386)
P430 Refers to 1935 Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig as Malin.
Re US strategic bombing of Germany: Accidents claimed nearly as many airmen’s lives (approximately thirty-six thousand) as did combat (approximately forty-nine thousand) (606)
Only 18.1 percent of American families contributed at least one member to the armed forces. (636)
All told, American war plants delivered some 18,000 B-24s … while building 12,692 B-17s and 3,763 B-29s … (654)
Every American combatant in the last year and a half of war in the Pacific islands could draw on four tons of supplies; his Japanese opponent, just two pounds. (668)
(703) Incorrect diction: use of immanent where imminent is the correct word. “… sensing the immanent vindication of the airmen’s cherished strategic doctrine …”
Wartime cartoons and posters routinely depicted the Japanese as murderous savages, immature children, wild beasts or bucktoothed, bespectacled lunatics. (811)
The Japanese army’s Field Service Code [1941]: “Never give up a position but rather die.” (812)
Okinawa: In early June what was left of the Japanese garrison tried to mount a counterattack. Some six thousand men, armed only with sidearms and bamboo spears, Banzaied forwards. They encountered “millions of shells from the enemy’s formidable fleet, planes, and tanks,” Yahara recorded. “All vanished like the morning dew.” (834)
[Upon notification of final Japanese surrender] Among the American troops on Okinawa, unconditional jubilation broke out. The fired every available weapon skywards. The subsequent rain of shell fragments killed seven men. (851)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Free Lunch
Free Lunch
Author: David Kay Johnston 2007 293 pp
My rating: 3*
Started December 31 2008, Finished January 7 2009.
While this book’s accounts of how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us is nearly guaranteed to outrage the reader, and while I often reacted that way to tales of, say, how George W Bush made his fortune almost entirely through tax breaks that were only available to him and his fellow owners of the Texas Rangers, much of the indignation I felt while reading this was at the book itself which I found a pretty slapdash affair, anecdotal and weakly sourced. I was expected the book would reveal a systematic assortment of recently enacted policies designed to transfer wealth to the wealthy and which could be reasonably remedied, but instead the examples it provides cover such a broad range from state business incentives, quirks of municipal laws, lack of federal regulation and even court interpretation of existing laws that the conclusion I was left with is that of course the system isn’t perfect.
Chapter One, the introduction, felt unfocused, wandering and extemporaneous.
Chapter Four doesn’t demonstrate that US government policies are responsible for job migration overseas.
Chapter on home security claims that the local police force responds to home security alarms; this is contrary to my experience which is that home security companies have their own agents.
Chapter on title insurance states that Iowa has a unique system which is “better and cheaper” but the rate he lists for title insurance in that state is more than I paid for the title insurance on my house.
Chapter 18, on the west coast electricity crisis of a few years back stirs outrage which is undercut but its simplistic inference that market manipulation by Enron was fully responsible for the crisis.
Chapter 21, a summary of the deficiencies of the US health care system (which the author points out exists as a business, not a service, contrary to most other first world countries) is concise and effective.
Chapter 22 is 20 pages long and filled with factual assertions, yet has only three foot notes.
Cites Alpha magazine as reporting that in 2006, the top 25 hedge fund managers averages $570 million in salary. (246)
Author: David Kay Johnston 2007 293 pp
My rating: 3*
Started December 31 2008, Finished January 7 2009.
While this book’s accounts of how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us is nearly guaranteed to outrage the reader, and while I often reacted that way to tales of, say, how George W Bush made his fortune almost entirely through tax breaks that were only available to him and his fellow owners of the Texas Rangers, much of the indignation I felt while reading this was at the book itself which I found a pretty slapdash affair, anecdotal and weakly sourced. I was expected the book would reveal a systematic assortment of recently enacted policies designed to transfer wealth to the wealthy and which could be reasonably remedied, but instead the examples it provides cover such a broad range from state business incentives, quirks of municipal laws, lack of federal regulation and even court interpretation of existing laws that the conclusion I was left with is that of course the system isn’t perfect.
Chapter One, the introduction, felt unfocused, wandering and extemporaneous.
Chapter Four doesn’t demonstrate that US government policies are responsible for job migration overseas.
Chapter on home security claims that the local police force responds to home security alarms; this is contrary to my experience which is that home security companies have their own agents.
Chapter on title insurance states that Iowa has a unique system which is “better and cheaper” but the rate he lists for title insurance in that state is more than I paid for the title insurance on my house.
Chapter 18, on the west coast electricity crisis of a few years back stirs outrage which is undercut but its simplistic inference that market manipulation by Enron was fully responsible for the crisis.
Chapter 21, a summary of the deficiencies of the US health care system (which the author points out exists as a business, not a service, contrary to most other first world countries) is concise and effective.
Chapter 22 is 20 pages long and filled with factual assertions, yet has only three foot notes.
Cites Alpha magazine as reporting that in 2006, the top 25 hedge fund managers averages $570 million in salary. (246)
Friday, January 9, 2009
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
The Trillion Dollar Meltdown
Author: Charles R Morris 2008 169 pp
My rating: 4*
Started December 18 2008, Finished December 22 2008.
A concise and convincing explanation of the credit crisis that precipitated our current economic woes and a good primer on things like CMOs and CDOs. This book which blames the crisis on deregulation and prolonged easy credit gets points for prescience as it was written in November of 2007, well before the shocks of September 2008 when the extent of the financial rot became apparent to most of us. Note on the severity of the crisis: the author has written a new edition scheduled to be published in February of 2009; that edition is going to be entitled The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown.
“ … relative values funds ‘eat like chickens, shit like elephants.” (50)
“The relentless deregulation drive that started during the Reagan administration steadily shifted lending activities to the purview of nonregulated entities, until by 2006, only about a quarter of all lending occurred in regulated sectors, down from about 80 percent twenty years before.” (54)
William McChesney Martin, Chairman of the Federal Reserve for eighteen years from Truman through Nixon, “The function of the Federal Reserve is to take away the punch bowl just as the party is getting good.” (62)
“Refis jumped from $14 billion in 1995 to nearly a quarter-trillion in 2005, the great majority of them resulting in higher loan amounts. (67)
Suprime lending jumped from an annual volume of $145 billion in 2001 to $624 billion in 2005, more than 20 percent of total issuances. More than a third of subprime loans were for 100 percent of the home value -- even more when the fees were added in. (69)
The notional value of credit default swaps -- that is the size of portfolios covered by credit default agreements -- grew from $1 trillion in 2001 to $45 trillion by mid-2007. (75)
Almost all the top one-tenth’s share gains, in other words went to the top 1 percent, or the top ‘centile’ who doubled their share of the national cash income from 9 percent to 19 percent. (140)
It is the transparency and integrity of American financial markets that has made them such a magnet for foreign investment … (161)
Author: Charles R Morris 2008 169 pp
My rating: 4*
Started December 18 2008, Finished December 22 2008.
A concise and convincing explanation of the credit crisis that precipitated our current economic woes and a good primer on things like CMOs and CDOs. This book which blames the crisis on deregulation and prolonged easy credit gets points for prescience as it was written in November of 2007, well before the shocks of September 2008 when the extent of the financial rot became apparent to most of us. Note on the severity of the crisis: the author has written a new edition scheduled to be published in February of 2009; that edition is going to be entitled The Two Trillion Dollar Meltdown.
“ … relative values funds ‘eat like chickens, shit like elephants.” (50)
“The relentless deregulation drive that started during the Reagan administration steadily shifted lending activities to the purview of nonregulated entities, until by 2006, only about a quarter of all lending occurred in regulated sectors, down from about 80 percent twenty years before.” (54)
William McChesney Martin, Chairman of the Federal Reserve for eighteen years from Truman through Nixon, “The function of the Federal Reserve is to take away the punch bowl just as the party is getting good.” (62)
“Refis jumped from $14 billion in 1995 to nearly a quarter-trillion in 2005, the great majority of them resulting in higher loan amounts. (67)
Suprime lending jumped from an annual volume of $145 billion in 2001 to $624 billion in 2005, more than 20 percent of total issuances. More than a third of subprime loans were for 100 percent of the home value -- even more when the fees were added in. (69)
The notional value of credit default swaps -- that is the size of portfolios covered by credit default agreements -- grew from $1 trillion in 2001 to $45 trillion by mid-2007. (75)
Almost all the top one-tenth’s share gains, in other words went to the top 1 percent, or the top ‘centile’ who doubled their share of the national cash income from 9 percent to 19 percent. (140)
It is the transparency and integrity of American financial markets that has made them such a magnet for foreign investment … (161)
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Hearts of Darkness
Hearts of Darkness
Author: Frank McLynn 1992 359 pp
My rating: 3*
Started November 31 2008, Finished December 3 2008.
“To face hostile tribesmen, to witness the horrors of the slave trade, and to endure Africa’s diseases would have pushed to the limit the mettle of the bravest adventurer alive. When we add to this the ordeal by wild animals faced by the white pioneers in Africa, it is hard not to conclude that in their insouciant disdain for danger, the explorers were either a genuine breed of supermen or perhaps clinically insane.” (300)
This study of the history of African exploration is organized as and reads like an academic monograph which is a shame as this approach results in details of the explorations themselves receiving short shrift. The first section of the book covers each of the significant explorations in a prosaic fashion (“explorer X went from A to C via B”) omitting most of the details of the attendant adventures which are what make such accounts compelling; the maps that accompany this section leave much to be desired, lacking captions, dates and track arrows. The in-depth examination of the difficulties encountered by Stanley in his three year long crossing of the continent, the subject of the chapter entitled “An Object Lesson in Obstacles” provided the level of detail and human drama that I desired and was for me the highlight of the book. The chapter on “Explorers and Imperialism” seemed particularly muddled.
In spite of these major shortcomings, I give this book an overall positive grade because it still manages to convey a sense of the continuous hardship experienced on virtually every expedition and instill a strong sense of disbelief in the reader that anyone who survived such an ordeal would be willing to have any more to do with the continent, let alone return for ever more ambitious explorations, as nearly every explorer did.
Galton’s Art of Travel, published in 1855 “advised mountaineers to carry a cat with them as a barometric gauge, since felines were alleged to go into convulsions at precisely 13,000 feet about sea level”. (56)
Livingston’s last journey in 1873: “The crossing of the Chambezi brought torments from mosquitoes, poisonous spiders and ants to compound the pain from dysentery and haemorrhoids.”
Stanley’s 1874 expedition “ … saw a veritable roll-call of African diseases: dysentery, bronchitis, pneumonia, ophthalmia, rheumatism, sciatica, asthma, dropsy, emphysema, erysipelas, elephantiasis.” (99)
The first coast to coast crossing of Africa, completed by Stanley in 1877 took 999 days. (101)
Cloth, beads and wire were the staples of African commerce … (138)
For Africans labour’s role was primarily social: that of strengthening a kinship group by shared experiences or consolidating a hierarchy for reasons of social system. (155)
Stanley would not even allow his porters to stagger away into the jungle to die of smallpox; he insisted that they carried their loads until they dropped dead. (155)
In the eighteenth century it was estimated that between 24 and 75 per cent of the military died in their first year on the Guinea coast. (228)
Author: Frank McLynn 1992 359 pp
My rating: 3*
Started November 31 2008, Finished December 3 2008.
“To face hostile tribesmen, to witness the horrors of the slave trade, and to endure Africa’s diseases would have pushed to the limit the mettle of the bravest adventurer alive. When we add to this the ordeal by wild animals faced by the white pioneers in Africa, it is hard not to conclude that in their insouciant disdain for danger, the explorers were either a genuine breed of supermen or perhaps clinically insane.” (300)
This study of the history of African exploration is organized as and reads like an academic monograph which is a shame as this approach results in details of the explorations themselves receiving short shrift. The first section of the book covers each of the significant explorations in a prosaic fashion (“explorer X went from A to C via B”) omitting most of the details of the attendant adventures which are what make such accounts compelling; the maps that accompany this section leave much to be desired, lacking captions, dates and track arrows. The in-depth examination of the difficulties encountered by Stanley in his three year long crossing of the continent, the subject of the chapter entitled “An Object Lesson in Obstacles” provided the level of detail and human drama that I desired and was for me the highlight of the book. The chapter on “Explorers and Imperialism” seemed particularly muddled.
In spite of these major shortcomings, I give this book an overall positive grade because it still manages to convey a sense of the continuous hardship experienced on virtually every expedition and instill a strong sense of disbelief in the reader that anyone who survived such an ordeal would be willing to have any more to do with the continent, let alone return for ever more ambitious explorations, as nearly every explorer did.
Galton’s Art of Travel, published in 1855 “advised mountaineers to carry a cat with them as a barometric gauge, since felines were alleged to go into convulsions at precisely 13,000 feet about sea level”. (56)
Livingston’s last journey in 1873: “The crossing of the Chambezi brought torments from mosquitoes, poisonous spiders and ants to compound the pain from dysentery and haemorrhoids.”
Stanley’s 1874 expedition “ … saw a veritable roll-call of African diseases: dysentery, bronchitis, pneumonia, ophthalmia, rheumatism, sciatica, asthma, dropsy, emphysema, erysipelas, elephantiasis.” (99)
The first coast to coast crossing of Africa, completed by Stanley in 1877 took 999 days. (101)
Cloth, beads and wire were the staples of African commerce … (138)
For Africans labour’s role was primarily social: that of strengthening a kinship group by shared experiences or consolidating a hierarchy for reasons of social system. (155)
Stanley would not even allow his porters to stagger away into the jungle to die of smallpox; he insisted that they carried their loads until they dropped dead. (155)
In the eighteenth century it was estimated that between 24 and 75 per cent of the military died in their first year on the Guinea coast. (228)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)