What are the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works? "The election happened," remembers Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, then deputy secretary of the Department of Energy. "And then there was radio silence." Across all departments, similar stories were playing out: Trump appointees were few and far between; those that did show up w What are the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works? "The election...
| Title | : | The Fifth Risk |
| Author | : | Michael Lewis |
| Rating | : | |
| Genres | : | Nonfiction |
| ISBN | : | The Fifth Risk ISBN |
| Edition Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 219 pages pages |
The Fifth Risk Reviews
Once again Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Big Short, chooses as his protagonists a few ingenious manipulators of data, but this time he does so with a difference: the self-effacing statistical warriors he singles out for praise are bureaucrats of the United States federal...
(4.0) Really enjoyed this, more for the eye-opening look at what various pieces of the executive branch actually do Yes, there are several episodes of Trump transition teams never showing up, showing contempt for the government employees welcoming them and eager to teach them what t...
This book is about three important but little-understood government agencies. And, the book is about the willful ignorance of the Trump administration, and its attempts to dismantle the agencies before even having the slightest idea, what these agencies do. After the two major polit...
One of the most dangerous things said by a politician in recent memory was Reagan?s quip that went something like this: the most scary sentence is ?I?m from the government and I?m here to help.? What Lewis has gone here is snow exactly how the government helps us even when ...
This is the most disturbing account of the Trump presidency I have read. Lewis simply writes about how the current administration has dealt with vital parts of our government which we all benefit from each day. I've watched it happen in my legal practice with the Consumer Financial Pro...
This book is kind of maddening. I'm giving it 3 stars. One could make a case for 2, 4, or (if I had a different worldview) 5 stars. In my view, parts of this book seem right on and really important. Other parts belie the author's bias, therefore, makes me question how much of this book...
I've read many, many books on disasters--both natural and man-made--and I don't think any of those have scared me more than what I read in this book. My first thought after reading about the non-existent transition team for President Trump's new administration was, "Surely this can't b...
America: please read this book. In a nutshell, the book asks the question: "What are the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works?" Not surprisingly, the consequences are, potentially, disastrous. But the whole point is that too many...
Lewis is such a remarkable writer that I sometimes find myself envious of his ability to forge a compelling story where there doesn't seem to be anything. It's useful to contrast The Fifth Risk with Bob Woodward's Fear, which I inhaled last month. Woodward's book ferrets out things th...
Do you think you know what the US Department of Agriculture does? Or the Department of Energy? How about the EPA? Michael Lewis spends a big part of his book, The Fifth Risk, enlightening the reader about what these and other US government agencies actually do. He also provid...
What happens when the people responsible for running our government have no idea how it works--and don't really care? This is a look at how complex the actual workings of our government really are, what the federal agencies actually do, why it matters, and how completely unprepared ...
(view spoiler)[I fucking hate each and every person who voted for 45. The gigarich tech bros who enabled 4chan and Cambridge Analytica. And, of course, all you jackass libertarians and white supremacists. (hide spoiler)] This book explains why there is no hope for reconciliation be...
"What are the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works?" This is the opening sentence in the book summary and also the first sentence inside the book jacket. Lewis takes us inside a few Departments of our federal government, talking to t...
What does government do for us? Do we really need it? What happens if government ceases to do those things? These are the questions Michael Lewis comes to grip with in his powerful little book, The Fifth Risk. By drilling down into the day-to-day realities in a handful of little-recogn...
We don't really celebrate the accomplishments of government employees. They exist in our society to take the blame. Our recent government shutdown, the yugest, most tremendous, and longest shutdown in history, served, if nothing else, to demonstrate just how nice it is to have someo...
The cover photo of Michael Lewis?s latest book, ?The Fifth Risk?, is the game of Jenga, painted to look like the American flag. For those not familiar with the game, it is an alternating set of three wooden rectangular bricks, roughly eight or nine rows high. The point of the gam...
Didja know the US gov?mint is a complicated beast? Trump didn?t! And now we?s all gonna DIIIIEEEE! But not really. Michael Lewis? The Fifth Risk is the latest in a long line of Trumperature hurriedly bundled together and booted out the door to cater to the surprisingly ...
The United States employed two million people, 70 percent of them one way or another in national security. It managed a portfolio of risks that no private person or corporation was able to manage. Some of the risks were easy to imagine: a financial crisis, a hurricane, a terrorist att...
For readers who are cynical about the operations of the U.S. government generally, and even more cynical about the (mis)operations of the current administration specifically, there's a lot in these pages to make even your worst fears about public sector project mismanagement seem tame ...
I'll do a longer review of this at some point. For now, Lewis makes it abundantly clear that the Government roles that Trump has shown zero interest in filling (forgetting all his friends, family and numerous goonish hangers-on who have been given roles they've no intention of even vag...
This looks very interesting based on this excerpt from The Guardian. The review from The New York Times suggests that this will be very interesting as well. ...
I'm enough of a Michael Lewis fan to have ordered The Fifth Risk months ago without knowing what it's about. At that time, I assumed the title was Lewis's typical, enigmatic key to the book's meaning (think Lewis titles like Moneyball, The Blind Side, and Flash Boys). Having now read t...
Holy shit. I read the excerpt at The Guardian and everything that's gone wrong up 'til now (starting just before the election) makes total sense. Also, if that small bit is any indication, the writing is really engaging. I mean, how in the hell did Michael Lewis manage to make me fe...
By taking a dive into the Commerce, Agriculture, and Energy departments, this is a love letter to big government - the behind-the-scenes federal employees who keep our nuclear weapons safe, feed the poor, help farmers grow their crops, and feed our weather apps with data. I generally t...
Government agencies with boring titles like the department of energy, the department of agriculture, the department of commerce that hide their vital functions for US citizens and even the basics of what they do. The department of energy keeps track of spent reactor fuel and nuclear wa...
Was reading The Fifth Risk in the tube. A well-dressed man got in, noticed the American flag Jenga on the cover and immediately exclaimed ?The Fifth Risk, what do you think?? Before I had a chance to respond, he added in a polite American accent ?I love the guy, I devour his book...
"It's the places in our government where the cameras never roll that you have to worry about the most." - Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk I've read several books about President Trump and his administration in the last couple years. They all depress me a bit. I feel like I'm read...
This book is a must read. It's only a little over 200 pages but is so so important if one wants a glimpse, told by those who truly know, of our current administration dismantling our democracy and parting out the federal government. The willful ignorance and lack of care is staggering....- Michael Lewis is an astonishingly good writer, with a particular talent for making complex or seemingly boring topics human and exciting. The Fifth Risk is no exception. The premise of the book is basically that the Trump administration, aside from all of its active depredations of the...
Insightful and informative. Lewis' new book sheds light on the goings-on inside numerous government departments and agencies, particularly the DOE, DOA, and Commerce Department. I confess to ignorance on many of these departments, so there was value to me in that regard alone. But "The...
