The Fifth Risk
Michael Lewis
(Penguin Random House, $50) Charles Cole
If you’re driving through a poor town in the rural United States and you see a flash new fire station, you can bet that it’s been funded by the Rural Development arm of the US Department of Agriculture. In The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis shows that many of the far-reaching functions of the federal government are little known, particularly by the incoming Trump administration of 2016-17. The USDA works anonymously to preserve poor rural communities through the channelling of low-interest-rate loans. So, when a boastful smalltown businessman is basking in media attention at a ceremony organised by his bank, he turns white as a sheet when he meets the government representative and discovers the inconvenient truth: ‘‘Who are you?... What are you doing here?’’ – ‘‘Well, sir, we supplied the money you are announcing.’’
Across the US, for the security and wellbeing of its people, the government steps in where the private sector will not, from school lunch and food stamps programmes, to the clean-up of nuclear waste at Hanford, Washington. Its funding to encourage risky innovation enabled Tesla to build a factory in California, and its weather forecasting data helps to warn people of natural disasters.
Lewis shows that such government is managed by well-meaning public servants, committed to protecting and improving the lives of Americans. His interviews with a selection of former government officials provide the substance of this extremely interesting narrative, full of anecdote and detail (and much in the form of an extended essay). His digressions outlining their unique career paths provide further proof that they are motivated not by money but by public service – and, like the biography of astronaut Kathy Sullivan, are very interesting in themselves.
The real value of The Fifth Risk lies in its insight into the importance of considered, apolitical, long-term government, but its impetus lies in the risk of losing that under an uninformed Trump administration. The antiTrump angle is strong, the prologue setting out how, the day after Trump’s election, government departments were ready to brief the new administration but many heard nothing for days, if not weeks, and when representatives did appear, or when appointments were made, many had little knowledge of or interest in the areas to which they were assigned.
The consequent threat is the de-funding – or the elimination – of important government functions. Lewis provides little conclusive evidence of this, though he hints at a reorganisation of ‘‘Rural Development’’.
There is a fundamental difficulty in writing about current events like this, especially when it involves a transitioning government, and especially when outcomes are yet to be determined. Nevertheless, The Fifth Risk is still very effective in outlining the unappreciated workings of benign government, whatever the risks to it might be.