The Oval Office has been renovated, and five quotes chosen by President Obama now ring the circle in the new carpet. One of those quotes is "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself," Franklin Roosevelt's declaration in his second inaugural address that irrational fear is the biggest bogeyman of all. How appropriate that this quote is literally stitched into the fabric at the center of arguably the most powerful office in the world. So much of what is decided there, and so much of what we do in our own individual daily lives, is driven by fear, the conscious name we give to the overpowering subconscious animal imperative to survive.
But may I humbly suggest to the current team that works in the Oval Office that Roosevelt was only half right. We do have to fear "fear itself", but we have to fear too much, and too little fear. We have to be afraid of being too afraid, yes, but we also need to beware of not being wary enough. What we really need to fear is getting fear wrong, worrying too much about relatively smaller threats and not enough about the bigger ones. It's not quite as pithy as what Roosevelt said but, in the gap between our fears and the facts lies perhaps the greatest danger.
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I don't know about you, but I'm tired of two things: Articles about aging women that shout about being "Fantastic at 40!, "Fabulous at 50!," Sensational at 60!" And articles about aging French women along similar lines. Several pieces have made recent headlines in the latter category, with familiar fare about how the older French woman ages gracefully thanks to her life-long beauty regime, her au-naturelle make-up routine, and her Royal Don't-Get-Fatness. Invariably, they all miss the point.
After living over a decade in France, I've learned that the point is as much about us as it is about French women. While older French women do, indeed, generally enjoy lives of accrued sensuality, we American women are often busy whipping ourselves into shape with a vengeance (or feeling guilty for not doing so). And that's because a wicked feel-good paradox sears its way through our culture. Take a look at any American magazine for women forty-plus. Celebrations of age usually come with a clarion call for emulating youth in all its age-defying Fantastic-at-Forty-Plus firmness. As we age-defy (which, let's face it, is just shorthand for age-deny), we can finally "Be Ourselves," because after all those decades we've earned it, right? We've finally figured out who we are. We can finally not give a damn, as long as we still look Absolutely Fabulous!
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To have been editor of the Harvard Law Review and a Professor of Law, President Obama is a slow learner. By the time President Obama raised his hand to take the oath of office, President Bush and the Federal Reserve had increased the debt $7 ½ trillion in eight years and household debt had increased $7 trillion in the same period. The economy had been stimulated $14 ½ trillion and we were still losing 799,000 jobs a month. Stimulation was spent. Everybody was saving, not about to consume. But President Obama stimulated the economy $1.3 trillion last year and already this year $1.1 trillion. Last month we still lost 125,000 jobs. President Obama proposed stimulation to Congress, which Congress promptly killed. But off to Canada goes the President, insisting on stimulation. The rebuff of stimulation by the G-20 countries in Canada has finally taught the President that stimulation is spent. Stimulation saved China profits for Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, AIG, and Citicorp - not the economy.
There's no mystery to the loss of jobs. Princeton economist, Alan Blinder, in February 2007, long before the recession, estimated that in ten years the United States would be losing on an average of 300,000 jobs a year to off-shoring. But President Obama has yet to learn to compete in globalization. He furiously bails out the economy boat with stimulation but fails to plug the off-shoring hole in the bottom.
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Today the hate is raining on Lebron James, and make no mistake, on one level, he has earned every drop. The self-proclaimed King turned his free agent journey into reality television with all the subtety of Paris Hilton. He abandoned his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, gutting the value of the franchise, not to mention the economy surrounding the stadium. And he did it all to join superstar Dwyane Wade in Miami, becoming Robin to Wade's batman, A-Rod to Wade's Jeter, and telling the world he is forfeiting the chance to be recognized as the greatest to ever play the game. His ambitions are now capped at becoming Scottie Pippen 2.0. Short of sporting an "I Love BP" t-shirt, it's difficult to imagine how James could have handled this in worse fashion. Yet, this morning, many of us woke up feeling far more sympathetic than we felt when we went to sleep. That's because on the day after "the decision," we were all introduced to the odious man behind the Cavs, team owner Dan Gilbert. After Lebron made his announcement, Gilbert took to the Internet and penned a deranged open letter to Cleveland fans that would have made the Unabomber proud. Written in a creepy comic sans font, Gilbert wrote,
Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers supporters wherever you may be tonight;
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