Book Review – Wrong by Richard Grossman

My dear friend Ed – “Edayyy!” after we split a sixer of Narragansett – says most business books are two-thirds good, with typically the last 50 – 100 pages simple reiteration and regurgitation. Fair point. Be that as it may, you can’t really say that about Wrong by Richard Grossman. Chunking his new book to illustrate nine economic policy disasters from the past 200 years, each chapter starts anew, which is refreshingly different. Here’s the problem: at just 185 pages, it’s still a slog to get through. It’s not Grossman’s fault, really; when you choose to write a book that spans the rise and fall of the world’s first central banks, German reparations after World War 1, and credit default swaps, you’re begging most readers to pick up the latest Harlan Coben yarn instead. It’s important stuff, just really heavy, you know? But if you’re feeling badly about how rusty you’ve gotten on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930, the search for your next business book to gobble up just ended.

Let’s talk potato famine, shall we? A million dead Irish in the mid-nineteenth century pales in comparison to the even more horrific starvation in Russia and China since, but with a full 12% of the Emerald Isle’s population having perished, clearly this was one of the world’s worst calamities in recent history. Grossman lays the bulk of the blame at the feet of one Irish Prime Minister Lord John Russell, who along with his fellow Whigs was known for laissez-faire economic policy. Russell, in an effort to position against his predecessor (named Peel – seriously), oversaw the shift away from government-purchased food so that “trade would not be disturbed.” The author makes plain that Ireland’s famine endured due to misguided ideology, that indeed all such policy failures result from politicians’ unwillingness to stray too far from the single-mindedness of the party platform. One imagines Lord Russell didn’t stray too far from the backstage catered spread either, doubtlessly retiring satisfied each night, his belly full as he drifted off under the blanket of belief that he knew best. Nicely done, pal. A shame there were no 360-degree feedback consultants running around the countryside back then.

As disturbing as much of what is outlined in Wrong is, there is mercifully one – count ’em, one – good laugh. With German hyperinflation hitting absurd levels in the 1920’s, legend has it that a suitcase full of money left carelessly by its owner on the sidewalk was promptly emptied… with the thief making off with the much lighter suitcase! Grossman goes on to suggest that the practice of double-fisting began in the same era, not so much because one wanted to get blitzed more quickly, rather that the cost of alcohol could rise during any given evening out in Berlin. But that’s it for lightheartedness here. His accounting of last decade’s subprime meltdown is particularly maddening, especially given “the veritable alphabet soup of derivative securities” at the root of the problem. Of course, we now know that not every citizen was truly qualified to receive the mortgage for which he/she was eagerly approved. Today, reasonable people hope to shrink the ever-widening income gap; however, if we learn anything from this book it’s that we must be cautious with ideology. If Walmart’s labor costs go up sharply, surely their prices will as well, hurting the very bargain-hunting folks minimum wage advocates aim to help. Lesson learned: Stop and look both ways before crossing. And as Sr. Francis Anita warned us, don’t have a one-track mind, smarty pants.

Good (luck) reading (all of this one)!