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Book Review: The Big Short

I remember sitting in my office at Lehman Brothers sometime around September 15, 2007 and telling one of my coworkers that I couldn’t wait to read the book that someone wrote about the entire financial mess.   Lehman had just declared bankruptcy and the entire financial system looked like it was about to collapse.  I was working in the Investment Management Division of Lehman in their IT department at the time, but had a perspective of an outsider.  I had started looking for a new job a few months before and as the firm melted down, I was able to slip out of the office for interviews without anyone noticing.  I resigned later that week.  I didn’t feel too much guilt since I felt like my company’s management had really let us all down.  A storied Wall Street bank had collapsed due to greed and a lot of poor decisions.

I finished reading (or rather listening to) Michael Lewis’ book, The Big Short, about a week ago, and I think it is the book I was waiting for.  My timing couldn’t have been better.  Since finishing the book, Dick Fuld testified before congress, Goldman Sachs was charged with fraud by the SEC, Greg Lippmann (featured in the book) is out at Deutsche Bank, and the media is all over the subprime mess with some great reporting.  I have heard several senators mention the book as they grill the witnesses from these failed institutions.

Michael Lewis does a great job in selecting a group of interesting characters to tell the story of the financial collapse.  He develops the characters and then describes in detail how they came to recognize the pending collapse.  In hindsight, it’s hard to believe that more people didn’t see it coming, but that’s how it usually works.   The two main characters in the book would probably be Steve Eisman and Michael Burry, two hedge fund managers with unique personalities who saw the subprime troubles a long way off.  Lewis uses their history to tell the story of how mortgages were packaged into bonds, then those bonds packaged into CDOs, and then the real killer, the synthetic CDO was developed by our dear friends at Goldman Sachs.   The subject matter is approachable by someone with no experience in the industry, but those inside the industry really like the book as well.

The two annoying things about the audiobook edition were the mispronunciation of  Lehman (Lee-man not Lay-man) and tranche (like raunch, not ranch).   There is a nice intro and wrap-up interview featuring Michael Lewis as well.

I think this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to have a real conversation about the financial industry and its problems.  I am glad to see that congressmen are reading it and taking it seriously.  Maybe this book will be the impetus for congress and the general public to find a way to clean up the mess for good (or at least for a while).

Book Review: Respectable Sins

I received a copy of the venerable Jerry Bridges’ latest book Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate as a gift from my parents recently and slowly but steadily made my way through it. This is a very practical book that attempts to point out to Christians the sins that we have allowed to take root in our lives and accept. He starts the book with a discussion of sin and how it has disappeared not only from the vernacular of the country, but from most churches as well. When sin does come up in many Evangelical churches today, it is used to describe the actions of others instead of the actions of Christians. The first five chapters deal with a discussion of sin, how it separates us from God, and how the gospel is the only remedy for sin.

Chapter six is where the book begins to be very practical, providing some directions for dealing with sin. For example, Bridges recommends that once we identify that we struggle with a certain sin we should internalize scripture that deals with this sin, recognize the place of the Holy Spirit and pray regularly and specifically about the area of sin, and finally bring along others to help us in accountability and prayer.

The rest of the book deals with individual areas of sin: ungodliness, anxiety and frustration, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, selfishness, lack of self-control, impatience and irritability, anger, judgmentalism, envy, jealousy, sins of the tongue, and finally worldliness. Seeing a long list like that would make just about anyone want to put the book down, but Bridges does a good job making the discussion encouraging and practical, often including examples from his own life.

I found that as I worked through the chapters I was really convicted in areas that I have ignored or not spent time thinking about. For example, the chapter on unthankfulness helped me to realize how little time I spend being thankful for the things that I have received in life. The chapter also dealt with the topic of being thankful in difficult circumstances, not just being thankful when everything is going well. The chapter on self-control helped me realize how a lack of it can wreak havoc in so many areas of life, and that overindulgence in any area can bring unhappiness.

In the chapter on impatience and irritability, Bridges describes impatience as a strong sense of annoyance at the (usually) unintentional faults and failures of others. I found this to be a very good definition that helped me to put some perspective on my irritability. I take the train to work, and I have turned into a typical experienced commuter who gets irritated with people who talk on the train. In almost all situations, the person doing this is not doing it intentionally, so if it is bothering me it is my problem.

The chapter on anger was also interesting. Bridges addresses the issue of righteous anger, something that many Christians use as an excuse for their anger over the actions of others. It seems to me like many Christians are very angry about political issues in the United States, and many may feel it is justified as righteous anger. He says:

“The fact that we may be reacting to another person’s real sin does not necessarily make our anger righteous. We are more likely more concerned with the negative impact of the sinful actions on us than we are that it is a violation of God’s law. Or we may even use the fact that it is a violation of God’s law to justify our own sinful angry response.

I would recommend this book for individuals, but it might work even better if read in small groups where there can be some discussion and accountability.

Bridges finishes off with some recommendations of putting some of the lessons of the book into practice, and ends with a very appropriate verse, 1 Peter 5:5: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”.

Book Review: Revolutionary Parenting

I finished George Barna’s Revolutionary Parenting a few months ago, but wanted to look at it again recently. Like most Barna books, it takes the research from Barna’s company and turns it into a book that attempts to show what the survey evidence supports. As a parent of a toddler, I’m very interested to find out what parenting actions I should be taking now to help my child grow into a mature Christian.

Like Barna’s earlier book, Revolution, he attempts to distinguish between ordinary Christians (or in this case, Christian parents) and “Revolutionary” ones using his research. He defines a Revolutionary Parent as one who applies biblical commands, principles, and narratives, using the Bible as the guide to raise a child. The goal of a revolutionary parent is to raise their children to make their faith in God their highest priority in life, living as servants of God.

This book is a pretty quick read at 158 pages in the hardcover, although the size is quite small with large print. Each chapter has a quick review at the end, along with a few “hands on” questions. The book is broken into three parts, Reasons, Research, and Relevance. The first covers how the research was started and why Barna was motivated to write the book. He is raising children of his own, and thus personally interested in the research. The second part of the book covers the research, with seven chapters that focus on different areas such as the best conditions for raising children successfully and the behaviors found most commonly in revolutionary parents. These chapters include a number of excellent quotes from both the adult children of revolutionary parents and the parents themselves, along with a number of great suggestions and ideas. The final section consists of two chapters. The first gives a set of rules for revolutionary parenting gleaned from the research, and the final chapter is a personal one by Barna describing how this approach changed his parenting. I think that is book is one that I need to review, perhaps yearly. It would be a good book to use in a group discussion, especially in a group with new and experienced parents in dialogue.

Book Review: The Return of the Prodigal Son

Henri Nowuen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son was recommended to me by my dad. Nouwen describes his interaction with the Rembrandt painting Return of the Prodigal Son and its impact on him over a period of about 10 years. Nouwen starts with a detailed description of the painting and the details he observed when he was able to spend an entire day observing it on display in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Then the book is broken into three main sections, corresponding to the three main characters in the story from Luke 15:11-31, the prodigal son, the elder son, and the father. Since first seeing the painting, Nouwen has seen himself in all three roles – and has progressed in his self-identification from one to the next.

This is the first book that I have read that provides a detailed look into one piece of art. I enjoyed the background information on Rembrandt and how his lifestyle and life tragedies affected his work. But what really sticks out is how Nouwen opens up about his own life and the humility he shows. At this point in his life, Nouwen was moving from a professorship at Harvard to a position caring for those with mental handicaps. His initial reaction to the painting was to see himself as the prodigal son, welcomed home by his father, forgiven of his terrible sin and selfishness. This is a comfortable place to be as a Christian, I think, and is definitely the place where we all start out, and in some sense, the position we always have when we consider our sin. But we can’t stay there forever. A friend pointed out to Nouwen that he felt he was the elder son, the one who had always done the right thing and deserving of preferential treatment, jealous of others who had not done what he had. He eventually came around to see this as truth. The final step for him was to be the father, caring for the spiritual needs of those around him at Daybreak, the community he joined.

This is a book that will probably be worth reading again. It would also be interesting to be able to see this painting in person. I would like to see more books like this – going into such depth on a single story and piece of art.

Book Review: The Audacity of Hope

After reading Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, I feel like I could vote for this man for president. I think the book did a good job of laying out his overall goals and tendencies as a legislator. He seems to be reasonable on most issues, taking a stance that would be similar to my own. There are a few things that he brought up in the book that stick out to me as reasons to vote for him.
* He was against the war from the beginning. This doesn’t mean that he has all the answers, but he has the credibility to say it was always a bad idea. Not many of the candidates can say that, especially Hillary. This gives him credibility on the major issue of the campaign.
* He is against the current policies of the Bush administration to cut taxes on the rich. He makes a good point that it is unheard of for a president to cut taxes and go to war at the same time. If we really are at war, then we need to pay the price as a nation.
* He is a reasonable man from reasonable beginnings. Unlike most recent presidents, he hasn’t lived a luxurious life up to this point. Compare that to Al Gore and George W. Bush – two prep school millionaire’s kids. As a black man, he has faced discrimination. As a son of a divorced couple, he has seen the pain of a broken family. He has lived overseas. This is a bit different from our current president. I saw an interview on the Daily Show with Joe Biden (about 5 mins in) where he talked about how George Bush, during his first term, asked Senator Biden to brief him on Europe before his first trip. Biden thought this was his first trip as _president_, but turns out it was his first trip ever. How did he ever get elected? And to think people say Obama doesn’t have enough experience. Bush didn’t have enough experience to lead a class trip to Europe.

The chapter on faith was a little weak. I think that he has reasonable perspectives on faith, but the impact of his faith on his life seems very general and not as personal as I might expect. He describes how he became involved in his church due to his involvement in community organizing. It almost has a feeling of being something that completes his image as opposed to something that is the driving force behind what he does. But he is not running for high priest, but rather president.

After reading the book, I wonder if the United States is really going to be able to elect a black man, or a woman, or a Mormon as the next president. I think we are ready, and this will be an interesting election – with race, gender, and religion less of a factor than ever before.

Finally, it seems that the country is headed for a time when we need to invest heavily in domestic programs – education, infrastructure, the environment – and we need to figure out Iraq. Obama looks like he has plans for these areas that will work. We’ll have to see how the race goes.

Book Review: Joy at Work

Joy at Work, by Dennis Bakke is the story of energy giant AES and their unique way of doing business. Bakke was an original founder and served as CEO until 2002, when he retired after the company’s stock went down the tubes during the Enron scandal. I admit that I had a very hard time taking most of what he said seriously once I knew that he was forced out of his own company, but now that I’ve read the entire book, I think that he spoke with credibility and authenticity in the book.

The last page of the book, and on Bakke’s site, he lists his Top 10. Number 2 is “The purpose of business is not to maximize profits for shareholders but to steward our resources to serve the world in an economically sustainable way.” I think that this really resonates with me, as I think most companies today will do anything they can to maximize profits, and do not see a company as a means for serving the world. If you are a person who wants to serve the world, you will probably look to a non-profit or government job, companies don’t seem to fit that description. Number 3 is “Attempt to create the most fun workplace in the history of the world”. This idea was one that got Bakke in some trouble with investors and his board. Most investors don’t like the idea of a company being a place where people have fun, since they must be wasting money.

I heard about this book from an advertisement on a Christian web site, but most of the book was written without direct reference to the Bible or Christian principles. In fact, AES operated in a number of countries where a majority of the employees did not come from a Christian background. He seems to appeal to a general audience throughout most of the book. However, in the postscript, Bakke talks about a number of personal examples from his church. For example, he discusses the common segmentation in Evangelical churches where “full-time” Christian work is elevated above public sector work which is elevated above private sector work. As a result, most Christians see the 2-10 hours a week they put in at church as the work that has a spiritual impact, and the 40+ hours a week they spend at work as having no spiritual impact. Pastors should learn how to help their congregations see their work as their calling, and that God can and will use them in business roles to have an impact for the kingdom.

One other idea that was quite interesting is for churches to consider commissioning individuals into their business jobs. We commission missionaries and pastors, but why not people in industry and business? Bakke had asked his church for accountability for how he ran his business, and he didn’t get a response from his elder board. I wonder if my church would be any different? I think we demand a lot of accountability for the stewardship of all money given to our local church, but do we hold ourselves and our own companies to the same standards? I think Christians should be in willing and churches should be ready to help with accountability in these areas.

The book dragged on a bit longer than I think was necessary. I really liked the first few and last chapters. There was quite a bit of repetition, I think an editor could have trimmed 25-30 pages pretty easily. There is also a lot of good reference material in the appendices for anyone thinking of using the book as a reference for implementing some of the ideas presented.

I would recommend this book for anyone working in the business world and who is disenchanted with the way most companies are run. Whether most people will be able to change their organizations enough to implement these ideas is probably another matter, however I think individual managers and workgroups can use many of these ideas to make work a more joyful place, and Christians can see how their work in business can help redeem this world. If someone is thinking of starting a new company and wants to create a workplace that is fun and fulfilling for its employees, this book might be a good source of ideas.