Going to Windward: A Mosbacher Family Memoir

Epilogue

Epilogue Already Where I Want to Be Many, many years ago—almost half a century ago—my friend and banker, Ben Love, came to see me regarding a loan I wanted to take out. “Bob,” he said somewhat coyly after we exchanged pleasantries, gesturing to my loan application in his hand, “I need a statement before we can complete this transaction.” Ben, of course, meant a financial statement—but Mosbacher Energy was a privately-held company, and Ben was aware that we never shared our internal numbers. As advised by Pop more than half a century ago, I also never put my name on a loan. I would pledge certain properties as collateral, but not the entire “nut.” “I’ll give you a statement,” I said, as Ben braced himself. “I’m confident!” My statement did not go over well with Ben, who was one of the strongest, toughest, most successful bankers I have known. As a person, he was a great friend, and when he liked you—and believed in you—he would go the extra mile for you. Ben had been in the Air Force as an elite navigator, he had been shot at and almost shot down. He was a hard-driver on his employees, but he never asked them to do anything he wouldn’t have done himself. As a young businessman, my outlook tended to be optimistic. Much of that was due to the fact that I was blessed early in my career with some success, and a great deal of good fortune. Even when we hit an expensive dry hole or some other setback, I always felt better days lay ahead if we worked harder than everyone else. In that regard, I was a little different than Pop. His life experience taught him always to worry about survival, about the future. As Emil Mosbacher’s fortunate son, in contrast, I had the comparative luxury of taking calculated, manageable risks, confident of my family’s welfare. Now in the autumn of life, my confidence in the future is undiminished, which is not to say I believe that future will be free of new troubles and travails . After the hard-fought 2008 campaign, like all Americans, I wish the fortyfourth president of the United States well. We face some serious economic and geopolitical challenges, and President Obama must succeed in leading our nation in addressing them. 306 夝 Epilogue As important as anything, I hope America will not turn inward, and away from the world, as we continue to confront those threats to our shared future. The U.S. economy can, and will, remain the world’s leading economy throughout the twenty-first century, provided we not heed the protectionists and isolationists , and withdraw or pull back from the global market. The United States is, generally speaking, a free-trade nation because it is a policy that has worked demonstrably well for us. Much of our economic growth in modern times has been tied to our exports. For free trade to succeed, however, it must also be fair—a two-way street. Remember the outcry in the late 1980s when the Japanese bought a majority interest in Rockefeller Center? There was both great fear that they would end up controlling the United States, and widespread anger that they had been able to buy a symbol of New York and America. As it turned out, it was a good sale for the American owners—and, for those who are interested, the property is back under American ownership. Sharing a laugh with President George W. Bush during a Free Trade Agreements push on Feb. 26, 2008, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC. From the left are former Defense Secretary William Cohen, yours truly, former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley, the president, and former White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty. (White House photo by Chris Greenberg) Epilogue 夝 307 More recently, when the China National Offshore Oil Company offered in 2005 to buy the American oil company, Unocal, a backlash erupted over the concept of a foreign company controlling one of our energy producers. The critics were worried that China could then potentially drive up the price of oil and start an invasion of our energy supply. Never mind that Unocal was a midsized energy company—certainly not a critical cog in our national energy machine. A year later, in 2006, a similar furor quickly emerged...