Name: The Fifth Risk
Rating: 4.173076923076923 (52 reviews)
ISBN: 9780141989600

Michael [VNV] Lewis

Undoing Democracy

The Fifth Risk

Michael Lewis

"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 were shockingly uninformed about the functions of their new workplace. Some even threw away the briefing books that had been prepared for them.Michael Lewis's brilliant narrative takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its own leaders. In Agriculture the funding of vital programs like food stamps and school lunches is being slashed. The Commerce Department may not have enough staff to conduct the 2020 Census properly. Over at Energy, where international nuclear risk is managed, it's not clear there will be enough inspectors to track and locate black market uranium before terrorists do.Willful ignorance plays a role in these looming disasters. If your ambition is to maximize short-term gains without regard to the long-term cost, you are better off not knowing those costs. If you want to preserve your personal immunity to the hard problems, it's better never to really understand those problems. There is upside to ignorance, and downside to knowledge. Knowledge makes life messier. It makes it a bit more difficult for a person who wishes to shrink the world to a worldview.If there are dangerous fools in this book, there are also heroes, unsung, of course. They are the linchpins of the system--those public servants whose knowledge, dedication, and proactivity keep the machinery running. Michael Lewis finds them, and he asks them what keeps them up at night.

Eitan Hershkovitz

Well written as usual by Michael Lewis. A book filled with information on government agencies that reads like a thriller novel. 

This book does such a great job explaining all the things the government does, to let us live the lives we want to live, that we don't even think twice about and, it emphasizes why the inaction by president Trump is hurting millions of Americans and putting many more American lives at risk for no other reason than "ThE BiG BaD GoVeRnMenT iS Bad AnD AnYtHiNg OBUMMER ToUcHeD iS BaD!"

"[Michael Lewis's] most ambitious and important book." --Joe Klein, New York Times

Stella Tran

Informative and short read. I learned a lot about the various government agencies and what exactly it is that they do, and Lewis made it entertaining to learn. I've never been more interested in the weather and weather data. It's frightening that such critical services that maintain the quality of life for people in the U.S. and national security in our country are managed by civic-minded public servants, and that can all change with the change of an administration. Understandably, that's how a democracy should function, but it calls into question for me if executive departments of the federal government, which must react to the ebb and flow of politics, should control what amounts to be fundamental public services. All in all, Lewis could've covered this topic in a longform New Yorker article, and I wish he spent the extra pages exploring potential solutions or ways to mitigate these risks.

Cristian Garcia

Reminded me a lot of Malcolm Gladwell - in the best possible way. The books is filled with amazing stories of anonymous people (I specially remember the story of Art Allen at the end of the book) and the mind blowing work they do at the government. That part of the book was filled with hope, entrepreneurship spirit and even magic. But when you see the actual context and destruction the Trump administration brought with its ignorance, arrogance and greed, you scared to think all of this could be delayed in a major way. 
This is a wonderful short book that you can easily read on a weekend. Is the 1st book I have read by Michael Lewis and I can't wait for the next one.

'Will set your hair on end' Telegraph, Top 50 Books of the Year 'Life is what happens between Michael Lewis books. I forgot to breathe while reading The Fifth Risk' Michael Hofmann, TLS, Books of the Year The phenomenal new book from the international bestselling author of The Big Short 'The election happened ... And then there was radio silence.' The morning after Trump was elected president, the people who ran the US Department of Energy - an agency that deals with some of the most powerful risks facing humanity - waited to welcome the incoming administration's transition team. Nobody appeared. Across the US government, the same thing happened: nothing. People don't notice when stuff goes right. That is the stuff government does. It manages everything that underpins our lives from funding free school meals, to policing rogue nuclear activity, to predicting extreme weather events. It steps in where private investment fears to tread, innovates and creates knowledge, assesses extreme long-term risk. And now, government is under attack. By its own leaders. In The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis reveals the combustible cocktail of wilful ignorance and venality that is fuelling the destruction of a country's fabric. All of this, Lewis shows, exposes America and the world to the biggest risk of all. It is what you never learned that might have saved you.

This book is fascinating, heartfelt in places and renders one incredulous, touched and horrified all at the same time. I really enjoyed the focus in on stories and people who love their work and do so much good, seemingly unnoticed or unheard of. Art Allen and Kathy Sullivan’s stories - just wonderful. Ignites faith in humanity. 

Laura Gill

Bill Mazza

Another one that should be required reading. Please give this to anyone you know who thinks the government is useless and needs to get out of our way, or that the private sector should be doing a lot of things the government does. 

Really helps put into perspective just how much the American government does for its citizens on a daily basis and how awful some things would be if it suddenly stopped doing it (and we had to rely on private enterprises to step in). 

The Fifth Risk Undoing Democracy

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