Michael Lewis has a gift for identifying seemingly dry, inaccessible subjects, such as the sub-prime mortgage market (The Big Short) or baseball statistics (Moneyball), and spinning them into epic stories with Hollywood appeal. His latest book, The Fifth Risk, excavates a tale that was easy to overlook in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election. The day after Donald Trump’s victory, government officials waited to brief the incoming administration on the complex and vital task of running the United States of America. No one turned up.
Instead, Trump fired his transition team, deciding to fill thousands of government vacancies himself. Even the president’s anarchic chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was stunned. “Holy fuck, this guy [Trump] doesn’t know anything. And he doesn’t give a shit,” he said. Outgoing officials, expecting to brief dozens of new appointees, might eventually meet one, who was usually inappropriate, underqualified and fundamentally uninterested in the job. The department of energy, which among other things protects the US nuclear arsenal, is now headed by former Texas governor Rick Perry, who once said he wanted to abolish the entire department. The Fifth Risk explores the hazards of entrusting a country to an administration that loathes government and is motivated by avarice.
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