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They are defending the country and they spend their own money; they ’ re not spending other people ’ s money. Although this is a very different type of war, one of the reasons the American people are so upset with both political parties is that they see there ’ s no fi rm hand on the tiller in Washington. They read about bridges to nowhere. Here we ’ re asking young people to go to Iraq and Afghanistan, sometimes without the equipment they need. Yet we ’ re spending money on frivolous stuff because a politician thinks it ’ s going to help him win reelection.

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252 The

Interviews

People are willing to do what is necessary to defend the country, but we as a free people now have to take the next step. It ’ s not enough to be upset or angry at these characters. Instead, we have to say, “ Who are they? Let ’ s challenge them in a primary, ” just as they did with Pennsylvania state legislators who abused the public trust. Even though the challengers had very little money and weren ’ t well known, they won. We have to take on these folks and say, “ Here ’ s what you did. You have no good explanation for it. ”

We as a free people have to say, “ It ’ s time for you to fi nd new opportunities. ”

Q: How can people better understand all the statistics that are thrown at them?

Steve Forbes: The key to understanding statistics is not to get lost in them. It ’ s like getting lost in a jungle. To understand statistics is to cut to the chase. For instance, don ’ t get into a debate about whether the Social Security system is going to go broke in 2050

or 2030 or 2018. Just say, “ Who should own your Social Security money, you or the politicians? ” Talk about it on your own terms.

Don ’ t get caught up in numbers. Discuss the basic concepts.

Whose country is this? What do we have to do?

Q: Does the amount of debt service that ’ s in the budget every year concern you?

Steve Forbes: The debt service concerns me in relation to how much of our budget goes to debt service. It ’ s like a consumer.

Let ’ s say you earn $ 40,000 a year. If your debt service on your house is $ 10,000, historically that ’ s okay. If you ’ re paying $ 35,000

on debt service and you ’ re only making $ 40,000, you ’ ve got a big problem. And so it ’ s not the number per se. It ’ s that you are spending all your money on credit cards and mortgage. You don ’ t need to know what your income is to know you ’ ve got a problem. That is the way, again, you ’ ve got to fi ght it. Don ’ t focus on numbers per se because you might get confused. Get to the essence the way Ronald Reagan did, the way Ben Franklin did.

People remember those things.

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Q: From your point of view, what did Alan Greenspan do in the last 25 years that was great? What will people look back on and say, “ What was he thinking? ”

Steve Forbes: Well, Alan Greenspan was a good crisis manager, especially when things went wrong in Asia and Russia. When we had a stock market crash in 1987, he was right in there making sure that panic didn ’ t spread. But his greatest failure was he was like a pilot who didn ’ t fl y with instruments. He had good instincts, but if you ’ re fl ying by the seat of the pants and you get some adverse weather, sometimes you ’ re going to hit a tree. As a result, he left no legacy to a successor on how to properly conduct monetary policy. Imagine driving a car without a speedometer and without a fuel gauge. You ’ re always going to be wondering if you are okay. Well, your instincts may be pretty good on when you ’ re running low on gas or when you may be going too fast, but not always. So he didn ’ t provide the speedometer, he didn ’ t provide the fuel gauge.

What ’ s the best speedometer, fuel gauge for monetary policy?

Look at the price of gold. If it ’ s zooming up, that means you ’ re printing too much money. If it ’ s crashing down in price for a period of time, it means you ’ re printing too little money. Gold refl ects the markets. Let markets tell the Federal Reserve whether it