Great inventions.

• Author: Galeano, Eduardo
• Position: The Upside-Down World

The Revolving Door

The revolving door was invented in Berlin in 1881 for protection against cold, snow, dust, and noise. More than two centuries later, it also serves as a personnel recirculation system among business and politics and war.

Robert McNamara headed the Ford Motor Company, where he did all he could against nature and against distracted pedestrians until a spin of the door landed him at the helm of the killing in Vietnam for a few years. His career peaked exterminating countries as chief of the World Bank.

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Donald Rumsfeld was Gerald Ford's White House chief of staff and Defense Secretary before becoming CEO of G.D. Searle Company. There he presided over the manufacturing of aspartame and then sold the company to Monsanto, which patents seeds and traffics in pesticides. Bush Jr. rewarded him with the post of Defense Secretary. In 2003, Rumsfeld led the effort to conquer Iraq for its oil.

Dick Cheney ran the Pentagon when Bush-the-father was President and gave luscious military contracts to Halliburton, where he decamped. In the administration of Bush-the-son, he took charge of the demolition and reconstruction of Iraq to benefit Halliburton, ever close to his generous heart.

In mid-2009, President Obama placed Michael Taylor as the senior adviser to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Taylor had already worked there: He'd been the one to give the "all clear" to cancer-causing transgenic hormones for milk cows. He authorized the sale of this milk without any warning on the label. Monsanto expressed its gratitude to Taylor by awarding him the position of vice president. Now Obama has rewarded him again.

The Parachute

T he parachute was invented in twelfth-century China. Early versions consisted of a cloth cone stretched over a wood frame, though with time the material used became more refined. In the late 1700s, pleated silk was the chosen fabric. But it was the twentieth century that saw the introduction of the most extravagant material: the golden parachute. It was engineered to protect corporate executives from the perils of a fall from grace and employment.

These are the numbers involved in rescuing some of the corporate brass:

Robert Eaton, the CEO of Chrysler, received a $70 million package;

Lee Raymond of the oil giant Exxon got $350 million;

Robert Nardelli of Home Depot received $210 million;

Hank McKinnell of the Pfizer pharmaceutical company, $200 million;

Lloyd Blankfein of...