ALL THE PRESIDENTS' MONEY

A survey of the financial successes and failures of American presidents, as seen through a contemporary personal-finance lens.

Gorman, who has an extensive resumé of “working with successful high-net-worth individuals” as the founding partner of Chequers Financial Management, combines presidential history and personal finance. The author draws upon her professional experience to illuminate such concepts as the modern scale of financial fragility (the inability to quickly cover an unexpected expense) and financial resilience to analyze presidents’ personal finances. The author to show how several factors shape financial resilience and often success. She also argues that many elements can affect how one handles money, such as marrying the right person or pursuing a particular education, and it involves qualities like grit or confidence or risk tolerance anecdotes from research in presidential and historical archives illustrate all these financial insights and create a brisk pace. One chapter covers examples of how education affected the finances of John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Barack Obama, whereas another delves into two examples of financial anxiety and financial well-being (Harry Truman and Gerald Ford). Here, stories of failures (Thomas Jefferson spending too much on wine, or Franklin D. Roosevelt making a bad lobster-farming investment, have as much to teach as successes. This is history in snippets, not in-depth biography, but by refusing to get too bogged down in details, Gorman presents an engaging take on both presidential history and personal finance. The afterword calls for greater availability of financial literacy for all Americans, and this book may be useful for the historically and financially inclined. However, many readers may be left with lingering questions. As Gorman points out twice, “more than a quarter,” or 12 presidents, were enslavers; however, only James K. Polk, George Washington, and, only briefly, Jefferson receive any attention on this important, problematic point. Also, what specific metrics were used to categorize the last 10 presidents’ financial ability in a chart as “excellent,” “above average” or “average”?

A historical, if selective, trip through the presidents’ checkbooks.