Customer Reviews

Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now

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I lived through the bankruptcy of New York City. It was a very disturbing experience. At one point garbage was piled high on the streets.

The author of this book helped save New York City. He chaired what was called the Municipal Assistance Corporation ("Big Mac") that forced all parties, including rich bankers, to sacrifice to save New York. It worked.

This book should help bury once and for all the fantasy that "big government" played no role in U.S. history. It details how government intervention again and again shaped U.S. economic policy.

Today, as the author points out, America is literally falling apart as result of a 28 year fantasy that "government was the problem".

Read this book. It's not written by an abstract intellectual. It's written by somebody who actually worked with real people to help one of America's biggest cities recover from a disaster produced by excessive government borrowing. American has had "credit card government" since 1981. Now we face a day of reckoning. This books gives insights on a way out of today's mess.

"Bold encounters" tells of ten large and transformative public initiatives in American history, often unpopular at the time, but later proven visionary. Those included are the Louisiana Purchase - doubled the size of the country, the construction of the Erie Canal - opening a water route to the West, Lincoln's strong support for the transcontinental railroad, creation of Land Grant colleges and the Homestead Act, building the Panama Canal, bringing electricity to rural America, the G.I. Bill, and creating the interstate highway system.

The underlying purpose of "Bold Endeavors" is to present an urgent call to rebuild America's infrastructure - roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, ports and dams, water, sewer, and electric lines. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $1.6 trillion will be needed to make our infrastructure dependable and safe. Doing so will also create tens of thousands of new jobs, and reduce the estimated 13,000 deaths attributed to poor highway maintenance.

Rohatyn contends that the ten stories in this book demonstrate that large-scale public investments can work, and with remarkable long-term success.

The federal government is spending $73 billion/year on infrastructure, without a system to objectively prioritize. Rohatyn proposes a National Infrastructure Bank to both issue bonds for their funding and to rank proposals. Interestingly, Rohatyn, a former Wall Street investment bank leader, also believes that these problems are due to investment having been replaced by speculation, and that capitalists are killing capitalism.

Finally, Rohatyn reminisces on his earlier service helping New York City avert bankruptcy - unfortunately, irresponsible leadership since then has brought the problem back through overly generous funding of public employee wages and retirement benefits. Meanwhile, China is investing $200 billion in railroads over 4 years, starting in 2006.

As a fellow European in the U.S., I share Mr Rohatyn's admiration for the ability of this country to conceive of great projects and to carry them out to the benefit of future generations. I also share his concern for the sorry state of the nation's infrastructure and the urgent need to address its shortcomings.

The puzzling question is why it was so difficult to develop an effective response to this crisis. A number of recent bills before Congress to increase spending on infrastructure have all run into a brick wall. Last year's report by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Commission attracted little attention and prompted no action. I would have been interested in Mr Rohatyn's analysis of this situation.

The book was probably written before the financial crisis and the reaction of the Obama administration developed. It could not have anticipated the stimulus package that the President signed into law a few days before publication.

The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" includes $45 billion to spend on transportation infrastructure projects, doubling the federal budget for this purpose. This part of the plan benefited from strong and mostly bipartisan support in Congress.

Hopefully this initiative opens the way to further and more stable funding, in the context of the aviation and highway reauthorizations that will be before Congress later this year.

It's rare to find a book from an investment banker that represents a call to action in the form of government activism. Former Lazard Freres leader Felix Rohatyn's new book is titled Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now. Rohatyn provides ten examples of how the government has been the indispensible investor in our nation. It's not often fun to read about infrastructure, but Rohatyn makes the call for investment one that's backed by facts, and lively to read. Those believers of the view that government is the problem will find a contrary position in this book.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

Felix Rohatyn starts this fascinating book, "The nation is falling apart - literally. America's roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, airports and railways, ports and dams, waterlines and air-control systems - the country's entire infrastructure - is rapidly and dangerously deteriorating."

Levees failed to hold New Orleans' floodwaters, a Minnesota bridge collapsed during rush-hour, three-quarters of America's school building are outdated and inadequate, more than a quarter of its bridges are obsolete or deficient, and half the locks on its waterways are obsolete. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the USA needs to invest $1.6 trillion in the next five years to make America's infrastructure safe.

He shows how large-scale public investments have worked in the past: the Louisiana Purchase; the Erie Canal; the transcontinental railroad, Land Grant colleges and the Homestead Act - all backed by Abraham Lincoln; the Panama Canal; FDR's Rural Electrification Administration and Reconstruction Finance Act; the G.I. Bill; and the interstate highway system.

Rohatyn argues that the USA needs a National Infrastructure Bank to select, finance and manage the needed investments in infrastructure. "America needs to rebuild its infrastructure. It is a critical national priority, a costly long-term investment, and a visionary enterprise. It is a program that can provide tens of millions of much needed jobs. And it is an undertaking that can only succeed if it is directed, coordinated, and largely financed by the federal government."

I think this book should be sent to the White House. In this book, the author presents a case that our country desperately needs investment in infrastructure. Our roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, roadways, ports, dams, water lines, and air control systems are deteriorating. Spending money on infrastructure would not only decrease the potential risks of collapse, but it would also create jobs. There is nothing more important at this moment than jobs. The administration can fix healthcare, offer all types of incentives and credits, but unless people are working, the economy will not improve. This is a great book and everyone should read it.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Bold Endeavors will whet you appetite to dig into the long list of books on each of the 10 "bold endeavors" the author provides in the back of the book. Each chapter of the book gives a very brief history of the original idea and implementation of a major American project, ranging from the Louisiana Purchase to the Interstate Highway System. The book is a whirlwind of famous projects and some not so famous names. For example, who knew that a Congressman named Morrill was responsible for the Land Grant Colleges? In fact, if you did know than this book is not for you because you need something a bit more in depth.

The author's epilogue endorses an existing proposal for a national infrastructure bank, partially to cure the nation's economic woes. But the book demonstrates that America needs to invest regardless of the gyrations of the stock market or home prices. Because imagine if we hadn't done some of the major investments in the book:
No Panama Canal-Less US role as a global economic and naval power.
No GI Bill-Less US role as a higher education leader.
No transcontinental railroad-A much less united nation in the post-Civil War years.

The list goes on. Check out the book.

Yes, there are times when, with vision, government can use its unlimited power to print money to make great things happen. This book documents the back stories of many such projects.

This is a very interesting history book covering ten of the events that transformed the United States. If you have any interest in History or Finance, you will find these stories to be of great interest. Mr Royhatyn writes in an easy flowing style, that is clear, concise, and to the point. It makes you want to know more.

A detailed summary of some excellent examples of government officials working for the long range benefit of our nation.