“Finally, I plan to act on another lesson that the Chinese have taught us. That government does not necessarily know best even though it thinks it does. That the free-market system offers the best path to prosperity. Government rules and regulations of every facet of American life have simply exploded over the past few decades. Many, indeed, most, of these regulations are well intended. But as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
“Washington has created too many building blocks for that road. So I have directed my chief of staff, Roger Lombardi, to assemble a competitiveness council to review all government regulations. The council will be comprised of my senior economic advisers and the members of the Cabinet whose departments are responsible for those regulations. Each and every rule needs to be examined to make sure it passes a rigorous cost-benefit analysis.
“Washington must no longer make rules for the sake of making them or because the bureaucracy needs something to do. Each and every rule we promulgate must have a purpose, and that purpose must assure that the American economy is the best in the world.
“My fellow Americans. Thank you for inviting me into your homes tonight to discuss the events of the last week. I want you to know that we have responded successfully to the challenges that have been thrown at us so far. We will continue to respond to make sure that your livelihoods are safe. And that we will prepare for the future to make sure that the United States of America remains the world leader that it has become.
“We do this not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren, and indeed for all the people of the world. Freedom and prosperity are what all the people of the world strive for and America offers the best hope for all mankind to achieve those noble goals. Thank you. Good night. And God bless the United States of America.”
CHAPTER TEN
“HEY THERE, BEAUTIFUL. HERE’S YOUR coffee.” Ben handed Bernadette the black mug emblazoned on one side with I’m the Boss. It wasn’t randomly picked.
Bernadette sat up and stretched, a huge grin on her face. Memories of the night before went through her head. “How are you feeling this morning, Mr. Stud? Enjoying the freedom from your stitches?”
“Yes. And I’m looking forward to a rematch. Unfortunately, this stud still has to get to work. My car gets here in forty-five minutes.”
“Forty-five minutes? What time is it?” She noted it was six fifteen. “My ride will be here then too.”
“Still have to one up me, huh?”
“Blame it on Hector. He decided it’s easiest if they position the Company’s car in with your motorcade and be part of it until we get to an Agency exit. No one will notice one more car in with the Chairman’s procession.”
“Spycraft.” Ben rolled his eyes. “Listen, if that’s the case, why can’t we ride in together? We could drop you off.”
“Sweetheart, that would be fun, but having your entourage pull through security at Langley wouldn’t exactly keep things a secret.”
“Well, our motto at the Fed is ‘transparency.’ Guess you guys haven’t gotten on board.”
“Well, there are some agencies where transparency works and others, not so much.” Bernadette finished her coffee and put the cup down. “I’m not sure what you’ve gotten me into with your new friend the President but having a day job now is going to put a crimp in my life as a novelist.”
Ben gave her a look. “Don’t give me that. You love the idea of being back in the game.”
“I got out at the right time, and I don’t regret it.”
“But I have at times. Usually when your latest book comes out. All I have to do is read it to see how much you miss your old life. Besides, when I read your books, I realize that you never really left the game, did you? At least not the part where you have a desk in a corner office.”
Bernadette’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think that?”
He smiled. “You’re not the only one around here who knows things.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Enjoy your day at work, my dear.”
* * *
Both Coleman cars in the motorcade were stocked with the same newspapers: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. The front-page stories were all about the President’s speech. But what really mattered were the editorials. They would be shaping journalistic opinion all day long, particularly for the nightly news shows.
Although their work was in separate realms, knowing what America was thinking and hearing was key to their strategy. Bernadette knew that intelligence did not exist for its own sake, but to inform politicians. Politics was the art of the possible. No point in providing intelligence that was only useful in some theoretical Neverland.
Ben’s challenge was more direct. He and George Steinway had been crafting a reform that the President did not mention: a currency and financial reform that would be the biggest since the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. So Ben was checking the papers with the same objective—to see what the art of the possible really meant.
Although in separate cars, out of habit both reached for the same paper first: The Washington Post. Washington was a company town, and the Post was the company billboard. The Post not only shaped other journalists, it shaped what the bureaucracy thought. And of course, as the lead newspaper in the city of government, it leaned toward the idea that what was good for the government was good for its readers. This meant leaning left on domestic issues. The more money that flowed through Washington-run programs and employed bureaucrats, the better. But it also meant leaning center or slightly right on foreign policy. A strong and assertive foreign policy was good for Washington too.
Today there was only one editorial. It took up the whole editorial space, two columns wide, top to bottom. The headline was encouraging: “Turner Steers toward the Middle.” In the Post’s worldview, the middle is where you wanted to be. Of course, their middle wasn’t really the middle. It was to the left on domestic spending and assertive on foreign policy. In the press, words such as moderate and middle went back to what is good for Washington.
Each of them read quickly, slowing to absorb the highlights.
President Turner pledged national unity as the best way of confronting the destabilizing actions of the Chinese…
Perhaps as important, he steered clear of the bellicose language he has sometimes been associated with, pledging that America hopes for prosperity for the people of China…
He also made clear that hope was not, by itself, a foreign policy…
Turner made some proposals that reflected his ideology: budget cuts, tax reform, and deregulation. But he also promised to move forward on these in a bipartisan fashion. For now, at least, we and all of Washington should not only take him at his word, but hold him to it.
It left them both with the same opinion: Not bad for a paper that endorsed Turner’s opponent. They would be opposing him on those items that reflected his ideology because budget cuts, tax reform, and deregulation meant a smaller Washington. That was not moderate. It was ideological. Still, it was as good as Turner was going to get from them.
They split on their next read. Ben went for the Journal, Bernadette for the Times. The two could not be more distant ideologically on their editorial pages. Ever since the days of Bob Bartley in the 1970s, The Wall Street Journal editorial page has been the focal point of conservative and free market opinion. Sometimes it was a lone voice in a media establishment that overwhelmingly tilted left. Again, a single editorial covered the entire editorial space. The headline read, “The Return of the Reagan Cowboy—Finally Someone Talks Sense.”
While we have had our doubts in the past about President Turner’s commitment to the principles that made our country great, last night’s speech laid those to rest.
It started off discussing initial doubts about Turner’s commitment to basic principles of leadership, but the remainder of the editorial was downright glowing. It praised his demands for economic reform, concluding that Turner was a re
freshing cure for Washington’s decidedly immoderate ways: greedy, officious, perhaps a bit dangerous.
One would hardly know that The New York Times editorial board was a little over three miles from where their compatriots at The Wall Street Journal sat. Both were describing the same speech given on the same night, but it didn’t sound that way. The title of the Times editorial was “Turner Wraps His Ideology in the Flag.” It accused the President of trying to roll back social reforms and protection for American workers and the environment by beating the drum against a supposed Chinese menace. Ultimately it played the moral equivalence card by drawing a line between China’s government induced financial woes and the times when U.S. financial institutions defrauded citizens or bilked shareholders with their fraudulent policies.
Ben blanched at that. Turner was calling for reforms, but Ben knew that there would have to be even more far-reaching ones in the monetary realm. This was a period to wait, watch, and prepare. His preparation would be a lot of hard work at persuading. If Turner was running into this kind of flack, what would he face? Had he misjudged the mood of the country?
Finally, Ben flipped to USA Today. Its editorials were intellectually slimmed down versions of the Post’s—targeted to the middle. But their middle was different from the Post’s. It wasn’t Washington who read USA Today, but the business traveler—a key part of Middle America. It was the safe, easy-to-digest way to get news while away from home. One really didn’t want to read the local paper in a strange city. Too much of the content was simply irrelevant. USA Today delivered headlines you would have gotten from your local paper less the local content. So the paper geared its editorials to reflect this broad and inherently centrist readership.
The editorial title was, “Turner Tells It Straight: Compromise to Build Consensus.” It praised Turner for striking the right tone in the time of a new kind of warfare, and for acknowledging the nation’s chronic spending problem. It called for unity of purpose in facing the new challenge and affirmed the President’s resolute strength as conveyed in the speech.
Ben wanted to stop by the USA Today building on his way into work and give them a big kiss. Best to wait. But maybe their editorial board, looked down upon by their more upscale peers, would be a good place to start to sell the financial reform package once he got it through the administration.
As they made their way down the parkway past Spout Run, his media strategy began to gel in his head. His instincts were that the Post would be helpful if it were sold in an institutional way. The Fed was one of the premier members of the Washington establishment, so it would have to be, ‘This is good for the Fed and good for Washington—therefore it is good for the country.’ The Journal would be an easy sell. They had been calling for changes for decades. The Times would have to be influenced through its readership. Then he realized how much he was jumping ahead. Unless he made a mistake, or something leaked, the press would not catch wind of what he was up to for another month. Best to focus on today’s challenge.
* * *
Bernadette’s car pulled up to the elevators at seven thirty-five. She proceeded to the same conference room on the eighth floor and was not surprised to see it more than half-full even though the Director would not be there until 8 a.m. People were standing around chatting in hushed tones and enjoying the coffee and donuts on the sideboard.
The Director entered and motioned everyone to take their seats. As if by magic they were in exactly the same seats they had occupied at Bernadette’s first meeting.
Hector got straight to the point. “Okay, folks, how are the Chinese going to interpret what the President said last night?” He turned to Monica Jenkins and indicated that she should lead off.
“Mr. Director, the Chinese aren’t going to know what to think. They won’t like it, of course, but in their hearts, they know it is true. And some of them know it in their heads as well and have been advancing that argument for quite some time. In the short run those elements, who for the sake of brevity we will call ‘Reformers,’ will have to keep quiet lest they be called traitors and running dogs of America. But in the long run it will strengthen their hand.
“No reaction from the public at large since their media blocked out the speech, but it will still circulate around the internet. But they’re going to be the natural ally of the Reformers.
“The military are going to be holding their breath. Most of their leadership does not want an outright war with America. They know they might lose. They also know that even if they won, the cost would be dear. Now there is a faction within the People’s Liberation Army that wants war for all the usual reasons, but they’re in the minority.
“My bet on the Politburo is that they’re confused and arguing among themselves. That’s a good thing. It is exactly where we want them to be. An adversary who is uncertain is not one who is going to take precipitous action. We are not ready to respond to precipitous action, so our stance is to watch, wait, and prepare. It was brilliant. And as everyone here knows, I am not necessarily one to give that kind of praise, particularly when it has anything to do with President Turner.”
“Mr. Director,” Bernadette said, “I agree with Monica. Tactically it was a brilliant speech. And not just from our perspective vis a vis China. It was brilliant from a domestic perspective as well. We’ve all read the morning papers. With the exception of the Times, reaction was quite positive.
“My suspicion is that our counterparts in Chinese intelligence will see Turner as feeling he needs to unify his country. I suspect they will read the media reaction as him having largely succeeded in that effort, at least for now. That is decidedly not good news for them if that unity persists. The right response from their perspective is to figure out how to create fissures in the American political scene.”
“What’s your take on how they would go about doing that?” asked Lopez.
“The speech left two obvious avenues to do this,” Bernadette said. “The first was on the domestic front, and that was apparent from the Times editorial. Make Turner look like a right-wing ideologue on domestic policy. Trouble for them is there really isn’t an elegant way to do so. Any direct attack on this score will be read by most of the public, and most of Washington, that Turner is right. And the Chinese leadership has too much on its plate now to worry about getting involved in America’s domestic social policy.
“The other natural fissure is between hawks and doves. Although America is far more united on foreign policy than on the domestic front, that is where they have the most leverage to manipulate our opinion. So if I were them, I would start a combination of a charm offensive on people they think they can influence and a not-so-subtle message that they view Turner as being far too bellicose.
“That latter point will be an extension of views that are already held, even though the speech last night largely papered them over. The goal will be to get that portion of elite opinion that they can influence to force the President to backpedal on his comments on China. Of course, if they succeed in forcing us to retreat on the foreign policy front, then they will have scored a major victory that will help them regionally and also on the home front.”
“And what do you feel is the position we should take in this situation?” Lopez said.
“The position of the Agency should be to advise consumers of our analysis to take care and make sure that doesn’t happen. Let the domestic political battles go on. The President opened the door to letting domestic disagreements be the safety valve for dissent. His language on compromise not only invited that but also provided a means to contain it and channel it constructively.
“But with that safety valve, the country can come together more easily across the political spectrum on the need to take a firm line with China. Monica was absolutely correct. To the Chinese, the President’s theme of pitying the Chinese people was highly subversive. As long as we keep advancing that line and making it clear that it is the American line and not just President Turner’s, then we are going to keep the
Chinese off guard.”
Hector Gonzales nodded and turned to Richard Wei and asked for his analysis. Bernadette congratulated herself on her still having game, even after eight years of inactivity. For a brief moment, she let her mind wander to how her husband was doing.
At that exact moment, across the river, Ben was getting a phone call that would confirm Bernadette was indeed right about the Chinese reaction.
* * *
Ben had been at his desk for about forty-five minutes, going through his emails, when he heard the phone ring in Peggy’s office. They tended to keep the door open when Ben wasn’t in a meeting so they could communicate directly. “Mr. Chairman, Governor Li on the phone.”
“Thanks, Peggy. Would you mind closing the door?”
Of course, Ben thought. The Chinese arrived at the office to hear the President’s speech. Beijing must have been buzzing all day about what he said and what he actually meant. Li was about to give him what the Party wanted Ben to think.
Once the door was shut, Ben picked up the phone. “Governor Li, what an unexpected surprise.”
“Mr. Chairman, we are getting to know each other quite well. And remember, please call me Xue.” The voice on the other end of the phone was gentle, but Ben knew he was a man that commanded authority in a quiet way.
“Very well, Xue. And please remember to call me Ben.” He could tell this was the start of a charm offensive. Nothing wrong with a bit of charm. It made communication more pleasant, as long as one knew that one was being charmed.
“Thank you, Ben. Please, may I be frank?”
“Of course. Central bankers should always be frank with one another, even if we are not always so frank with others.” Given that what Li Xue was about to say was scripted, it would be anything but frank. Ben pictured Li sitting at his desk with his prepared conversation.
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