Book Review: Tuxedo Park

Since it was a book on design and innovation, and on sale, I picked up a copy of the story of Alfred Loomis a bright fellow who did well in the stock market, indeed perhaps one of the top three players, in the 1920's and then went on to do well in science, developing radar and many other innovations just in time for WWII. He even contributed to the atomic bomb, all from his private estate 40 miles north of New York City, a place called Tuxedo Park, where people were so rich they dressed for dinner, the men in a suit we now know as the Tuxedo.

He was born wealthy, and an obviously bright fellow, but the various descriptions of him, from many sources, make him sound the classic ADD/ADHD type. I observed while reading this, happily for him, he was rich and also sent to the best schools, so there were no parents to have him drugged nor had the drugging kids with the gift of ADD begun back then. The description of Loomis on page 70 by his wife is spot-on sketch of the ADD beneficiary (well, we are all beneficiaries of the ADD people).

Loomis was related to all the top families back East in his day, and went into law first and distinguished himself, but got bored and went into Wall Street in the 1920's. Smart enough to write rules that benefitted him and his firm, he got rather wealthy, and spent his weekends doing science with the brightest minds in the world, who were only all to happy to visit his private laboratory in a mansion and share, and often have their most promising work underwritten by Loomis. He was also able to buy the best equipment in the world, a benefit most scientists were keen to avail themselves of by visiting his tuxedo Park laboratory. The book is particularly good since it is composed by, as near as I can figure, a grand niece of Loomis, who was free to simply go into the attics of various relatives and pull out source documents in the forms of letters, ledgers and in one case, roman a clef novels.

As I read all of this, I am even more sorry we do not have free markets. There are countless people with the gift of ADD, but without the money to start projects, contribute, and pass them off as Loomis did. There are extremely few people who can buy and install test equipment, and run experiments as Loomis did. Without his wealth, it is unlikely. Of course, in a free market, everything gets better and cheaper, so everyone eventually has access to all goods and services, but sadly, we are not there yet.

Loomis saw the stock market crash coming, and got out with all of his money, and made money on the depression itself. He left the world of the markets, unhappy at the lawlessness of the Roosevelt administration. It is amusing to read today of policies floated and agreed to... such as allowing failed banks to repopen having put their "toxic assets" in a separate account, as related on page 82. Due to timing and politics, this plan was never implemented during the depression. What is intriguing to me is the possibility that since this is exactly the policy we are doing today, is Bernanke, the scholar of the depression era, implementing this policy today as some sort of esoteric knowledge that gives him the insights that will pull us out? Of course, it is still lawlessnes, and cannot work in principle... but so what.

The inside discussions leading up to the policy of the criminal confiscation of gold in 1933 are recounted here, with Loomis with the bad guys, and on page 88, a argument over the unconstitutional formation of the TVA, with loomis with the good guys, via his proxy, his uncle, Secretary of State Stimson.

Having the gift of ADD myself, I will try a new technique for writing book reviews. I will post note, as I do here, as I progress through a book. I have a dozen book reviews backed up, with no time to review a whole book. Perhaps I can get the book reviews out this way. Of course, I could just take ritalin, but then I would lose my gift. And be of no value to you.

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