For many years I was mesmerized by the might of the U.S. government. The size and the lush inside Air Force One and Marine One was beyond anything I could have imagined. That plane was larger than our house and with technological equipment not even James Bond had. The same is true with the Secret Service, the CIA or the diplomatic ceremonies of the State Department. In my mind everything inside the U.S. government glittered.
I was in for an unexpected surprise while reading the book, “On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System” written by Hank Paulson, former Treasury Secretary under George W. Bush’s administration.
In his book, Paulson wrote the following words about some of his findings at the Treasury Department shortly after he was sworn in as Treasury Secretary on July 10, 2006:
“There was plenty to do. Treasury needed desperately to be modernized. Its technology infrastructure was woefully antiquated. For one critical computer system, we depended on a 1970 mainframe. In another instance, an extraordinary civil servant named Fred Adams has been calculating the interest rates on trillions of dollars in Treasury debt by hand nearly every day for 30 years, including holidays. And he was ready to retire.”
No wonder the former Treasury Secretary, John Snow, nor the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, had the faintest idea that a perfect storm was developing under the surface of the financial landscape.
“To support unprecedented consumer spending and to make up for its slow savings rate, the U.S. was borrowing too much from abroad, while export-driven countries—notably China, other Asian countries, and the oil producers—were shipping capital to the U.S. and inadvertent fueling its spend-thrift ways.
Their recycled dollars enriched Wall Street and inflated tax receipts in the short run, but undermined long-term stability and, among other things, exacerbated income inequality in America. How long could this situation last?”
Obviously to answer this question, you need at least a desktop computer or even an Apple iPad. Manual calculations just won’t work.
Surprise…surprise. Good Day.
Hi Omar,
I too thought that same way until I joined the corporate world that serves the US government. Not only does the private sector have better stuff, they do a much better job of controlling the empire building that hinders sharing data and talent. With the 911 anniversary approaching, here is an excellent example that in this case caused people to lose their lives. It is supposed to be better now that yet another agency has been created to “connect all the dots” but I remain dubious.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/
jim
fort worth
nena
panama
Hello Jim and Nena:
I was really shocked with Hank Paulson’s story about the guy who was calculating the interest on Treasury Bonds worth trillions of dollars manually. It is beyond me that this was happening in the most advanced economy in the world in 2006; only five years ago.
Thank you for the link on the story of John O’Neil of the FBI. This appears to another breach of security inside a most reputable security agency. Probably will write about him in the future. Our governments are full of totally incompetent people, and that situation seems to repeat itself over and over.
I remember reading all the mistakes that were made at Pearl Harbor before the Japanese attack. Even though there were many evidences of an imminent air attack at the naval base, no actions were taken, and we all know the sad events of that Sunday morning which got the U.S. into the war.
Thank you for your usual comments,
Regards,
Omar.-