A comment today on a book and a film

---Courtesy of Netflix, "The Intouchables" was seen here tonight.  This 2011 French film, a combination of humor and drama, was a huge hit in France and Germany, but less so in the rest of the world.  We enjoyed it, just relaxed and suspended critical abilities.  Based on a true story, one of an extremely wealthy quadriplegic and his free spirit French African caretaker, the film has the design of a soft tearjerker, but the many laughs plus the foibles of the wealthy man's entourage and the caretaker's background and family can push that thought out of mind.  It is, after all, a true story.

---It appears that at some point I will need to read "Stress Test", Timothy Geithner's reflections on the financial crisis, or on financial crises in general.  On CNBC and on Bloomberg radio it has been difficult over the last few days to find any pundit who is not trashing the book.  In their opinions Geithner is making himself look good at the expense of others and failing to understand many aspects of the 2008-2009 time period, and beyond that in his tenure as Secretary of the Treasury.  On the contrary, the book's cover blurbs are from Warren Buffet, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Walter Isaacson, all heavy weights, and they could not be more positive.  With advance copies, it is likely that they actually read the book, while it is unlikely that even half, at most, of the media snipers read anything more than a few chapters.  They already had their opinions of Geithner and were just looking to find a few sentences for reinforcement.  And that's why I eventually need to read the book, or at least a few chapters.