Alas for countless pundits and inspirational speakers, it is
apparently not the case that the Chinese word for crisis is
spelled by joining the characters for danger and opportunity.
But that common fallacy nevertheless captures an important
metaphorical truth: whatever the perils it brings with it, a
crisis can be a grand opportunity. Among those who have
understood that truth was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Writing to his
fellow Democrats in the 1920s, Roosevelt noted that their party
could not hope to return to power until the Republicans led the
nation "into a serious period of depression and unemployment."
The Great Depression soon brought a far longer and deeper period
of woe than F.D.R. foresaw. But the crisis of the 1930s also
provided an object lesson in the relationship between economic
danger and political opportunity a lesson Barack Obama is now
trying to follow. Obama, too, came to office in the midst of an
economic crisis, and in the solutions he has offered, it appears
he has often looked to the exa