Eric Gardner

I am a management consultant that works in consumer goods. I write about the intersection of politics, retail, and technology.

Classic Reads: Simon Johnson’s “The Quiet Coup”

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In May 2009 The Atlantic Magazine published an article by Simon Johnson titled, “The Quiet Coup.” Today, “The Quiet Coup” stands as one of the watershed articles on the 2008 financial crisis. Johnson, the former Chief Economist of the IMF, argued that roots of the financial crisis was not interest rates or poor people taking out loans they could not afford, but that financially and politically the United States had more in common with Russia than Germany.  “Elite business interests,” he wrote, “played a central role in creating the [financial] crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse. More alarming, they are now using their influence to prevent precisely the sorts of reforms that are needed…”

To put this in entertainment terms, the closest thing to Johnson’s pronouncement would be if Meryl Streep suddenly gave up serious acting and began producing hard-core pornography.

It is also the exact reason it is a classic article.

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5 Life Philosophies from Harold Ramis

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Harold Ramis, a writer, director and actor who shaped American culture more than perhaps any comedic figure died this week of an autoimmune disorder. Listing his credits is similar to listing the Beatles discography; nearly every modern variation of comedy can trace itself to one of Ramis’ creations. “His work is the reason why so many of us got into comedy,” Judd Apatow said, “…He literally made every single one of our favorite movies.”

Ramis was much more than the creative force behind Groundhog Day or Animal House, he was a guy trying to understand the world. ““When I was twelve, I read the line, ‘An unexamined life is not worth living.’ ” He told a Buddhist Publication, “I took it seriously to heart. And literally. Like it was a requirement in life, akin to the Buddha’s suggestion that we maintain ‘sufficiently inquiring minds.’ ” Like many people I spent the last few days reading up on Ramis’ life. What struck me was not his accomplishments or sense of humor [1. Which are amazing], but the level of wisdom he articulated. After reading a handful of features and interviews a number of themes became evident. I curated them below.

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Income Inequality: Why Conservatives are Wrong

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[drop_caps]I[/drop_caps]n 2012 the top 1 percent of Americans took home over 20 percent of the income generated in the country. According to Annie Lowrey of the New York Times, this level of income equality was one of the highest rates since 1913, when the federal income tax became law. Think about that for a minute. Things are more unequal today than when John D. Rockefeller was alive. “That should offend all of us,” President Obama remarked in a December speech addressing the topic.

In a lot of ways income inequality is like climate change. Both are happening, both are exacerbated by our current system, and both threaten to upend the entire world.  Deniers of both situations create an environment where facts become debatable. Despite 97 percent of climate scientists agreeing “that climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities,” it is still acceptable for a mainstream American politician to argue if it is even happening. The same holds true for income inequality. “In far too many countries the benefits of growth are being enjoyed by far too few people,” Christine Lagarde a managing director at the IMF told a group at the World Economic Forum. If a leader at an organization whose answer to every economic problem is tax cuts and trade liberalization says income inequality is a problem, it is a problem.

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Hypothetical History: Talking Points with Eisenhower

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The below is a history hypothetical. Inspired by Chuck Klosterman’s HYPERthetical’s, the following asks a seemingly ridiculous question rooted in historical fact. Remember, the premise is not 100% true, but is meant to stimulate an absurd conversations. In this case, Mamie Eisenhower did not make an emergency stop in Europe during WW2, but Eisenhower and Summersby were certainty involved. 

[drop_caps]I[/drop_caps]t is May 1944 and you just joined the army. D-Day is weeks away and planning is in full throttle. One small mistake could upend months of secret logistics and strategy. To your surprise you are assigned as General Dwight Eisenhower’s personal driver for the initiative. In an odd bureaucratic maneuver, you don’t report to the General, but rather Kay Summersby, a beautiful Irish girl who is his Senior Assistant and takes fencing classes every day from 6:30-7:30pm. You’ve been told it is a tremendous opportunity. You are responsible for chaperoning the leader of the invasion, and making sure his life runs smoothly. A fresh Eisenhower means a fresh commander, which means the Allies have a shot at winning the war.

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Climate Change and Supply Chains

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[drop_caps]L[/drop_caps]i & Fung’s client list reads like a phonebook of discount stores in Omaha, Nebraska. The Hong Kong based enterprise helps Wal-Mart, Sears, Macy’s and Kohl’s bring $7.99 sweatshirts to Americans. [1. When asked about Li & Fung, Cathy Feingold the director of international affairs for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. referred to them as “the sherpa showing companies the fastest route down that slope.” The slope was of course a race to the bottom.] Since 1906 Li & Fung has acted as a middleman between cheap Asian labor and the developed world. The company began by bringing Chinese toys to the shores of America and now handles all aspects of supply chain management. The New York Times called them the, “most important company that most American shoppers have never heard of.” My guess is that they like it that way. Li & Fung revolutionized modern commerce by connecting over 15,000 suppliers in 60 countries and has 8,000 words less in their Wikipedia page than Gangnam Style [2. Li & Fung clocks in at about 1,000 while Gangnam style almost hits 9,000.]

Li & Fung handles over 2 billion items and doesn’t own a single factory. Their network is the company’s sole value. They can find you a factory to make 10,000 custom socks in a week. They can make sure the crate gets on a boat without hassle. Hell, they can probably get you a toe by 3:00 this afternoon. With nail polish. In 2012 the company utilized their network to generate over $20 billion in revenue. To put that in perspective, if Li & Fung were an African country they’d be nestled right between Mozambique and Namibia in terms of GDP.

It also has a businesses model that climate change will turn obsolete.

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President Johnson and Thurgood Marshall: The Art of Persuasion

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The following is the transcribed conversation of President Johnson asking Thurgood Marshall to become the first African-American Solicitor General of the United States.  The Solicitor General is essentially America’s lawyer, representing the Federal Government at the Supreme Court. It’s a remarkable display of persuasion. President Johnson: I have a rather big problem that I wanted to talk … Read more

Obama, Thurgood Marshall and the Importance of a Long Term Vision

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Today marks the 21st anniversary of the death of Thurgood Marshall.  He was a complicated man and perhaps the person most responsible for ending segregation in America; first as Chief Counsel of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and then as a Supreme Court Justice. Marshall had immeasurable courage, once saving an innocent plaintiff from certain execution by interrupting a poker game between the President of the United States and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. When asked by Marshall to sign a stay of execution Chief Justice Fred Vinson remarked, “I’ll tell you one thing, if you’ve got guts enough to break in on this, I’ve got guts enough to sign it.”

For those interested in learning more about Marshall I’d recommend Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove a Pulitzer Prize winning investigation into the 1949 Groveland Four Trial. The book offers a history of the civil rights movement, a biography of Thurgood Marshall, and a parallel to Obama’s second term strategy. [1. All unattributed quotes in this post are from King’s book]

Overturning 100 plus years of institutional racism needed not only courage, but a legal and strategic genius. Marshall was both. If he found out that a judge liked English precedents he would craft a brief overflowing with English cases from the 1700s. If he needed help from federal officials he would release a well-placed memo condemning communism. If he needed information from a rival he would take them out drinking. “He’d get a lot of outside lawyers together in a room, and he’d be talking and laughing and drinking along with the rest of them and getting everybody relaxed and open, and he’d seem to be having such a good time with them that you wouldn’t think he was listening.” Franklin Williams a former NAACP lawyer turned diplomat later recalled, “But after they’d left, there it all was—he’d had the benefit of all their brains, which was his strategy in the first place.”

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Today marks the 21st anniversary of the death of Thurgood Marshall.  He was a complicated man and perhaps the person most responsible for ending segregation in America; first as Chief Counsel of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and then as a Supreme Court Justice. Marshall had immeasurable courage, once saving an innocent plaintiff from certain execution by interrupting a poker game between the President of the United States and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. When asked by Marshall to sign a stay of execution Chief Justice Fred Vinson remarked, “I’ll tell you one thing, if you’ve got guts enough to break in on this, I’ve got guts enough to sign it.”

For those interested in learning more about Marshall I’d recommend Gilbert King’s Devil in the Grove a Pulitzer Prize winning investigation into the 1949 Groveland Four Trial. The book offers a history of the civil rights movement, a biography of Thurgood Marshall, and a parallel to Obama’s second term strategy. [1. All unattributed quotes in this post are from King’s book]

Overturning 100 plus years of institutional racism needed not only courage, but a legal and strategic genius. Marshall was both. If he found out that a judge liked English precedents he would craft a brief overflowing with English cases from the 1700s. If he needed help from federal officials he would release a well-placed memo condemning communism. If he needed information from a rival he would take them out drinking. “He’d get a lot of outside lawyers together in a room, and he’d be talking and laughing and drinking along with the rest of them and getting everybody relaxed and open, and he’d seem to be having such a good time with them that you wouldn’t think he was listening.” Franklin Williams a former NAACP lawyer turned diplomat later recalled, “But after they’d left, there it all was—he’d had the benefit of all their brains, which was his strategy in the first place.”

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Average is Over and Obama’s New Manufacturing Initiative

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[drop_caps]L[/drop_caps]ast week President Obama announced plans to build a high tech industrial institute in Raleigh, North Carolina. The public/academic/private partnership will produce next-generation semiconductors, and is the first of 3 planned manufacturing projects by the Administration. “We’re not going to turn things around overnight,” President Obama told the crowd, but “we are going to start … Read more

The Problem with Thought Leadership

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With shrinking tenure rates the impact that higher education has on the intellectual landscape of America is uncertain. What’s even more petrifying is it’s replacement. Ann Friedman’s “All LinkedIn with Nowhere to Go” is one of my favorite articles of the year, precisely because what it questions and addresses one of the problems of one of … Read more