The Foreign Service Journal, March 2009

reached the point where 12 years of di- versity is a threat to white males. If it is, then we have not accomplished very much at all. John W. H. Gravely Department of State, retired Washington, D.C. Hills on Trade It was disappointing that Carla Hills was tapped to contribute an article to the Journal on trade policy (December 2008). There are exciting opportuni- ties for a new U.S. approach, but Hills seems wedded to the past. She correctly acknowledges that “the gains from trade do not make every citizen a winner.” But she turns to stale bromides when she proposes retraining programs and wage insur- ance as the way to help the “losers” from our trade policy. Most American workers would be surprised to learn from Hills’ statistics that “the past 60 years of international trade has made average American households richer by $9,000 per year.” Most feel a lot poorer — especially in recent years. The timing for the article was par- ticularly awkward in light of this past fall’s debacle in our financial markets. A Google name check reveals that Hills served on the board of the Amer- ican International Group until the end of 2006. Given that taxpayers have provided more than $125 billion to rescue AIG from its wayward ac- counting and its greedy bets on de- rivatives, it is disconcerting to learn that Hills served on the committees overseeing the company’s auditing and governance. Dennis J. Ortblad FSO, retired Seattle, Wash. M A R C H 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 9 L E T T E R S Send your letters to journal@afsa.org .