Review: The Coming Storm

The Coming Storm by Michael Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I feel like Michael Lewis is a genius at finding interesting topics in nooks and crannies others would have never thought to look. This is another one, showing how basically Barry Myers, slated to be the next head of NOAA, could (and is likely to) suppress weather data, thereby literally killing people, if he is confirmed.

I don't doubt that Myers is basically a gangster. From what little I've read about him (aside from this book), it sounds like he is, and wouldn't flinch at trying to gain personally at the expenses of citizens. However, this book would have been more interesting if Lewis had interviewed someone else at Accuweather. He mentions that Myers declined an interview, which is understandable actually, but there are other board members and employees (and former employees).

I always figured the NWS collected the data, and then companies, like Accuweather, could run their analyses on it (as well as on other data from other countries), and come up with their products. Like market research agencies use demographic data. If Accuweather comes up with good info (or can convince people they do), then they can sell it.

Of course, saying idiotic statements like 'we don't need the NWS because Accuweather is better' is like saying we don't need the census data because Nielsen has more useful reports, but that doesn't mean the private company has no use.

Anyway, a lot of the information was maddening, and Myers is most likely a terrible choice for head of NOAA, but I also think this book could have used more input from the other side.


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