Two Leaders, Two Books

I’m currently working through Mark Carney’s book Value(s), and I’ll confess it’s a tough read. Takes me back to postgrad economics classes, almost that kind of textbook reading. Interesting and valid, but not Tom Clancy, either. You really have to read, stop, contemplate, then move forward.

Carney lays a careful bedrock of the history of economic thinking and philosophy, then moves into current economic and social problems and issues, and suggests solutions.

And then there’s Donald Trump’s Art of the Deal. To be sure, he didn’t actually write the book, he sat and chatted with Tony Schwartz, who then went away and tried to make coherent sense of what he’d been paid to hear.

In general, Trump says that if you self-promote enough, success will follow, perception creates reality. I suppose it’s hard to argue with his being elected President twice. On the other hand, that may be as much a comment on the American electorate as it is on the Donald.

In terms of leadership, it’s still too early to give a full assessment of either, although we do have Trump the First to go on. Carney takes over after eleven years of Government by Drama Teacher, over a decade of treading water at best, a sad period in Canada’s history.*

That said, in little over a year in power, Trump has gotten into two attacks on sovereign nations and threatened two more, unleashed his storm troopers on his own people, and overseen an economy in rapid decline**. His “bedrock” popularity of 40% has broken through the floor and he’s now in the 30s, and everyone other than his declining MAGA crowd either despises him or is fleeing the sinking ship. But, to his personal credit, he’s lining his own pockets and those of his family and cronies. The outcome is still uncertain, American democracy hangs by a thread, but the trends for America are looking better, and for Trump looking worse.

Carney, to date at least, is making it clear what his priorities are and seems to be out there making friends with the people we need as trading and defence partners. He preaches a broad “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” economic philosophy, and he is out there pounding the pavement to implement that. In fact, after his Davos speech, he’s almost become the apostle of middle power alignment.

Trump’s personal record of economic success is also consistent. Serial bankruptcies, flimflam, and snakeoil enterprises – Trump University, Trump Airline, Trump Casinos – and even in power, he can’t help selling gold-painted sneakers, coins, bibles, and cellphones. You have to hand it to him – the man is consistent.

While Carney was in turn Governor of the Bank of Canada and Governor of the Bank of England, in each case steering a country through a serious financial crisis, Trump was starring in a “reality show” called The Apprentice and pushing “birtherism”.

One of them made his mark by yelling “You’re fired!” and the other by quietly working for “You’re hired.”

One I hold up as an example of professional success, the other as a buffoon. You can guess.

* An argument can be made that Carney’s government is more nearly a continuation of Harper’s “government by technocrat” than that of the interegnum, but that’s for another day.

** The national debt has grown from $37 trillion to $39 trillion in the last six months. Do the math over a 48 month term.