The Powerful And The Damned
Lionel Barber
What struck me most about this book was the incredible rolodex you get by being a newspaper editor. There is a moment when Barber receives a phone call from Ben Bernanke during the early days of the financial crisis - unbelievable! He has many meetings with UK PMs, Chancellors, Bank of England Governors, as well as an exceptional number of foreign leaders including Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin.
He describes how he started turning the FT around. One of the centrepieces of his plan is building the FT’s online subscription model. He knows that purely focusing on digital without an accompanying focus on quality journalism won’t work. This is summed up nicely in this quote:
“Content will drive value. Value will drive subscriptions”.
On Hillary’s campaign
”Obama comprehensively out-organised Clinton in Iowa… her campaign slogan amounts to little more than ‘It’s my turn’“.
On a call with Bernanke
Bernanke quotes a conversation between Churchill and Stalin:
”Once upon a time villagers were being terrorised by a bear which was stealing their chickens. They tried shooting the bear but failed. So the villagers decided to make some poison powder and blow it in the bear’s face. ‘But’ said Stalin, ‘the bear blew first’“.
Obama’s verdict on UK PMs
Blair: Sizzle and substance
Brown: Substance
Cameron: Sizzle
Brown during the recession
Mervyn King is irritated that the banks are pushing Brown around.
”King favours a message of coercion (‘Mrs Thatcher would have called them all into a room and told them: this is what is happening’).”
Rupert Murdoch
”I spot Rupert standing on the lawn, well apart from the crowd. Politicians are lining up to kiss the patriarch’s ring.”
Obama
”Obama doesn’t care much for a cigar on the porch with Republicans. Hell, he’s barely reached out to Congressional Democrats. Maybe he’s a little too cool, too cerebral for grubby Washington politics. Sometimes I think he would be better on the bench of the US Supreme Court.”
Reagan
”Reagan used to say: ‘Jim I’d rather get 80% of what I want than go over the cliff with my flag flying’“.
Paul Kagame
”The father of the nation is tall and reed-thin, speaking in a hushed voice. I’ve always found that truly powerful people rarely raise their voices, preferring to force the listener to crane forward and hang on their every word.“.
Theresa May
On a lack of progress in Brexit talks:
”May’s government spends 1% of its time negotiating with Brussels and 99% negotiating with itself“.
On Facebook
Clegg rings Barber to say he’s joining facebook:
”My first question is how much influence he will really have in a company where ‘Zuck’ and Sheryl Sandberg run the show… I’ve watched Zuck on stage and he’s tone deaf. I’ve dealt on and off with Sheryl for almost 20 years and she’s worse than tone deaf… she assumes, sometimes correctly, that she’s 10 times smarter than everyone else in the building.”