Open:  The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital –  Kimberly Clausing

The author is Professor of Economics at Reed College. She is one of the nations leading expert on taxation of multinational corporations. In this book she promotes the value of international trade, liberal immigration, and free flow of global capital.

Dr Clausing makes the case that international trade is critically important to the long term health of the US economy in general and good for the American middle class in particular. Similarly she defends the free flow of capital across international boundaries as good for business and labor. At the same time she promotes the national benefit of liberal immigration policy.

While supporting relatively open trade, capital, and immigration strategies she makes clear that US trade terms as well as tax and immigration policy must be re-designed for and adapted to global economic reality. That means providing support for workers displaced by international trade, implementing policies that reduce income inequality, and adopting tax policies that prevent multi-national corporations from hiding income in offshore “tax havens”. She also endorses income protection and retraining programs for workers hurt by international trade.

The author provides the statistical data that supports each of her positions. However, the thing I liked most about this book is that the author offers workable solutions for the myriad challenges facing our nation in this time of increasing globalization. They are common sense, many are imaginative, and all should appeal to both left and right leaning citizens and politicians. Of course it doesn’t hurt that her views are almost identical to my own!!

Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and It’s Lessons – Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson

The authors were the key players in managing the financial crisis of 2008. The book is a historical review of what caused the crisis, how it unfolded, and what was done to hold the global financial community together and contain the damage.

I followed the unfolding financial crisis in 2008 and thought I understood the character of the problem and the basic government effort to managed it. This book demonstrates how utterly ignorant I was of the complexity of the crisis, how long it took to unfold, and the extraordinary and imaginative management it took to contain it. If you think you knew what was going on with the 2008 financial crisis I encourage you to read this book. You will be surprised.

Beyond the Call – Lee Trimble and Jeremy Dronfield

This is a compelling true story of an American World War II hero who laid his life on the line in covert operations to bring his fellow soldiers as well as other men and women home to safety and freedom.

Captain Robert Trimble (father of author Lee Trimble) was a bomber pilot in the European theater. After finishing 35 bombing missions over the Third Reich he was assignment to recover downed bombers in Poland. Though unknown to him at the time of assignment that was a ruse for clandestine efforts to recover American POWs and aircrews.

The story chronicles his experience in that effort, including his saving literally hundreds of people. It exposes the inhumane treatment of American POWs and those of other nations by the Soviets (supposedly our ally). And the ugly politics of appeasing the Red Army is just a bewildering breach of American justice and defense of our soldiers by our own military and political leaders. It left me feeling ashamed of how the leaders of our country behaved at the time.

R.I.P.  G.O.P. – Stanley Greenberg

The author is an internationally known poling advisor as well as Democratic Party political strategist. As the title of his book suggests he predicts that the Republican Party will implode in the 2020 election. He has endless statistical data to backup his views. While it is hard to argue with his data he is certainly not an objective observer. And his wife is Connecticut Democratic Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro.

The thrust of his argument is that the Republican Party has failed to recognize and/or to accept that America is changing rapidly; there is a “New America”. That New America is increasingly secular, racially diverse, sexually liberated, and immigration friendly. He says that the GOP has fought nontraditional family structures, attacked the social safety net, tried to stop women from being independent, and pitted rural Evangelicals against the younger more liberal and dynamic populations of cities.

Through focus groups of real people and his poling results he tries to show why the GOP is loosing the battle for the hearts and minds of the American public. He is confident that his research shows the 2018 election was not a fluke but represents a fundamental change in the electorate. He says that the GOP cannot hope to win or even survive if it continues to promote intransigent views of family, society, religion, sex, and white supremacy.

To Build a Better World – Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice

This book is essentially a review of European political history between 1988 and 1992. It deals with the collapse of the Soviet Union, establishment of the European Union, unification of Germany, and the associated political crisis management by the US and European governments. The authors were both senior staff members of the US Bush Administration in that historic time. They were witnesses to and intimately involved in the high level US and European government efforts to prevent economic, political, humanitarian, and military catastrophe on the European continent during that transition period.

The authors provide a clear account of the efforts to manage the political and economic instability in the face of the epic changes occurring, particularly in eastern Europe. They give a candid view of what was going on at the highest levels of the US and the major European governments – the goals, actions, and fear that leaders were wrestling with at the time.

I found this book especially interesting to me on a personal level. In that exact timeframe I was pursuing investment opportunities and development of business relationships in the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellite countries. Of course I did not know, and I doubt the senior bureaucrats I was working with knew, about the turmoil in their own governments and all the secret activities going on at the highest levels. My experience 25 years ago makes more sense now in light of the revelations in this book.

The Forgotten 500 – Gregory A. Freeman

This book documents the history of Operation Halyard, the greatest rescue mission of World War II. The achievement is little known today because US and UK politics kept it classified for 60 years. It was so secret that Yugoslavian General Mihailovich, who protected our downed airmen from the Nazis until they could be rescued, was secretly awarded the Legion of Merit for his service by President Truman but never even told. The award was finally presented to his daughter in 2005.

During the war the allies repeatedly bombed the major Axis oil refining facilities in Ploesti, Romania. Because those facilities provided a third of the fuel that powered the Nazi war machine they were a prime target for bombing raids. For that same reason they were heavily defended by the Germans. The result was literally scores of allied bombers were shot down. Many crashed in Yugoslavia with as many as 10 airmen bailing out of each.

Between August and December of 1944 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency, with support of the 15th Air Force rescued 512 downed airmen from German occupied territory in Yugoslavia with no loss of American lives. In retrospect it seems like a miracle.

Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor – Yossi Klein Halevi

As the title suggests the author has structured his book as a set of letters he would write to his Palestinian neighbor. The neighbor is not a specific person but an anonymous Palestinian individual with whom he would like to have a dialog.

The book has two primary themes: the first is a brief history of the trials and tribulation of the Jewish people over the past hundred years culminating in the creation of the state of Israel; the second is a discussion of the relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians since the establishment of Israel in 1948. He explains how that history has influenced the collective Israeli attitude and how they see the conflict between themselves and the Palestinians today.

The author clearly writes from an Israeli point of view. However, he makes a serious effort to try to understand and acknowledge the conflict between their two peoples from the Palestinian perspective as well. He recognizes under Israeli occupation Palestinians suffer constant frustration, humiliation, and even sometimes physical abuse.

The most valuable part of this book in my mind is the author’s discussion of the painful choices facing Palestinians and Israelis since both peoples have legitimate claims on the same land. He offers practical, though not necessarily popular, solutions to their conflict so they may live side by side peacefully in two sovereign states.

Tyrant:  Shakespeare on Politics – Stephen Greenblatt

The author explores the social, psychological, and political aspects of tyranny as represented in Shakespeare’s artistic works. He dissects several of Shakespeare’s plays (Richard III, MacBeth, Lear, Coriolanus, and the societies they rule over) in an effort to illuminate the ways Shakespeare exposed the lust for absolute power and the catastrophic consequences of its execution.

In these plays Shakespeare presents economic misery, political classes in disarray, fragile institutions, and populist anger of the disenfranchised. He shows how people will put up with knowingly being lied to, partisan rancor, and fundamental indecency of those in power rather than risk taking action to stop a tyrant.

The book certainly represents Shakespeare’s work as I remember it. But reflecting on it within today’s context is especially interesting. The single most striking aspect of the book for me was Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III. Those around him rushed to praise everything he did or said, supported his pathological rage and cruelty, and accommodated his narcissism. If I did not know who was being characterized I could easily believe the author was writing about Donald Trump.

The Immoral Majority – Ben Howe

Ben Howe is an evangelical Christian, a conservative writer and filmmaker. In the 2016 election he was one of a few “never Trump” Republicans who couldn’t bring themselves to support Trump’s candidacy but felt Clinton did not represent their values either. He says he voted for a third party candidate.

The central theme of his book is that the evangelical Christian community has essentially sold its collective soul to gain political power. He discusses how evangelical leaders rationalized Christian values in order to support electing Donald Trump. Their goal was not strengthening Christianity but gaining political influence. He revisits evangelical leaders’ expressed outrage over Clinton’s immoral behavior 20 years ago; at the time they said he must resign because “character matters”. In Trump’s case they applied relativism to excused his immorality on the grounds that he is achieving a greater good.

Though I do not share Howe’s faith I do have a wealth of experience with evangelical Christians’ attitudes and behavior. I agree with the author’s assessment that evangelicals tend to lack empathy and are relatively intolerant, judgmental, and hypocritical. The book is well worth reading. If you are not acquainted with evangelical Christian dogma you will be enlightened by one of their own. If you already think evangelicals represent the more un-Godly elements of the faith, the author provides ample factual evidence. 

The Fifth Domain – Richard Clarke and Robert Knake

The focus of this book is security in cyberspace. The title of the book itself is the term the Pentagon uses to describe war in cyberspace. Of course the other four domains are land, sea, air, and space.

The authors discuss in detail the potential for nation-states or criminals to destroy or severely alter the very foundation of our 21st century civilization through cyber attacks. They describe several cases where attacks have already been carried out to disrupt civil society, steal intellectual property, and/or hold corporate data hostage for ransom. They also say that Russia and China currently have the capability to shut down much of our power grid, oil and gas pipelines, and water systems if they choose.

The authors make it clear that we know how to defend from such attacks but are not taking the threat seriously enough. They also make the case that the responsibility for security lies mostly with the private sector and not with the federal government; the government’s role should be to prosecute criminals and act against nation-states for abuses when they do occur. The authors say that the intrusion into business operations and individual privacy that the government would need to successfully prevent cyber attacks would be totally unacceptable to Americans.

Though written by different authors with different professional experience and focus, Fifth Domain in many ways is a companion volume to The Shadow War by Jim Schiotto which I wrote about earlier. Both deal with the potential for adversaries to wreak havoc in our whole society including our ability to defend ourselves against determined attack from nation-state actors or well organized criminal cartels.