Speaker Review: Andrew Ross Sorkin

Recently, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a lecture by Andrew Ross Sorkin, the author of the famous book, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the FinancialSystem--and Themselves.  The following morning, I was privileged to be present at a breakfast sponsored by the Association for Corporate Growth in downtown Kansas City where Andrew spoke again.  As many of you know, Sorkin is a financial columnist for The New York Times, co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box, and the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news service.  

Sorkin started his lecture by stating he wants to have a conversation about the U.S. economy, the financial crisis, and where America is headed in the upcoming years.  Before the conversation started, Sorkin shared the impetus for his book--after a conversation with his wife at 2:30 A.M. amidst the downfall of Lehman Brothers and the bailout of AIG, she told him, “This is like a book.”  During the writing process, Andrew met with an employee from the New York Federal Reserve, who showed him projections of what would happen to unemployment if the government did not pump billions of stimulus dollars into the economy.  The statistics were sobering, with unemployment reaching 24.6% within a year.  As a result of this encounter, Sorkin identifies himself as a Keynesian with regard to economics.  He believes the government needs to spend more infrastructure to stimulate demand.  

He then spoke extensively about the sovereign debt crisis facing Europe.  If Europe’s financial system collapses, the effect will be a global recession.  I’ll be very interested to see how the situation in Greece affects global markets, and whether Portugal, Spain, and Italy will receive bailouts as well. 

As any good speaker does, Andrew ended his speech with a call to action.  He believes Americans need to become more patient, and cited statistics to support his theory that Americans are terse people.  Unquestionably optimistic, Sorkin also believes Americans need to take responsibility for how we got here.  

-The average shareholder is in a company for 2.8 months.

-The average CEO holds the job for 2.1 years    

Sorkin was certainly articulate, and he has a strong command of the English language supplemented by an impeccable ability to recall details.  His journalism background and interest in finance have worked together in tandem to give rise to one of the leading voices of the business world.