Who Are You Calling a Bully?
Bureaucracy is the application of power in the most tedious possible manner.
Closest Point of Approach is about helping decision makers predict bureaucratic action. The more of these cases we see, the better our pattern recognition becomes.
Biden stalling rural broadband buildout; Washington’s bureaucratic bullying must stop
Administrative agency dictates policy, explicitly violating the legislation.
“Though the federal statute authorizing the grant money expressly forbids the NTIA from regulating rates through a preset price or formula, NTIA is doing exactly this — insisting on a preset price, and rejecting VOB’s entirely rational proposal to define a “low cost” option to broadband through data-driven and applicable market conditions.”
The Lesson of History: AI’s Potential Depends a Lot on Avoiding Regulatory Pitfalls
There’s a reason we don’t live in the Jetsons’ world.
“We might well be standing on the precipice of an AI revolution. So it’s crucial that we learn from the unintended consequences of past regulatory failures and overcorrections. Policymakers must strike a delicate balance between ensuring the safe development of AI while avoiding the pitfalls of excessive bureaucracy that could stifle innovation and hinder progress. Do no harm, Washington. We can’t allow well-intentioned but misguided regulations to derail the potential of this wildly promising technology. We don’t want to find ourselves, decades from now, still grappling with the unintended consequences of our regulatory choices.”
Dimon blasts regulation, proxy advisers in annual letter
Amazingly, despite the explosion in regulation of the financial sector, we had bank failures a year ago for what appear to be very basic risk management mistakes. With the degree of regulatory scrutiny, this was just as much a regulatory failure.
“He pointed to the thousands of rules and reporting requirements added by at least 10 regulators since the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act – some of which are ‘duplicative, inconsistent, procyclical, contradictory, extremely costly and unnecessarily painful both banks and regulators,’ he said.
“Dimon expressed a desire for a thorough and candid review of those rules, as they’ve required increased attention from banks and regulators. Smaller and regional banks, in particular, may have a tougher time shouldering regulatory requirements, he noted.”
Biden Changes Course On A Major Power Grid Rule After Backlash
With massive shortages of transformers looming, the administration backs off on plans to unilaterally force manufacturers to use a specific type of steel
“The Biden administration’s initial proposal would have mandated that manufacturers make transformers with a type of steel that wastes less energy. This amorphous alloy of electrical steel is commonly used in transformers in parts of Asia that built their grid systems more recently. It’s also needed for electric vehicles, and the Energy Department had hoped that switching to amorphous steel transformers would streamline things for steelmakers.
“But factories already struggling to keep up with demand complained that spending millions on the machines to ramp up production of the existing transformers could spell financial ruin if those investments became worthless in just a few years.”
OPINION: How bureaucracy is slowly killing Germany
Fun tales of bureaucratic oddities from Germany.
“An audience member asked Scholz why the VAT rate on dog food is seven percent but on baby food it is 19 percent. Parts of the system “don’t seem very coherent to me,” the man said with obvious understatement.
““I don’t think you’ll find anyone who understands the list of VAT exceptions," Scholz replied with a grin, adding that "at any rate I don’t understand it.”
““But I can tell you that all attempts to change it have ended in a massive disaster," he continued. "If we were to lay an empty table today, we would definitely do differently. But the system is there now and I think we will have to live with it for a while yet.””
Zachary Spiro: A tidal wave of bureaucracy is swallowing up money, policies, and government time
On the “explosion” of paperwork volume in the UK.
“Official guidance gives that business cases are supposed to be no longer than 40 pages. But, according to Willetts, “DSIT business cases averaged 249 pages… though they can go up to 400 pages”. This is a startling fact: departmental paperwork is taking up to ten times as many resources as anticipated, implying that whole teams of civil servants are needed to do work that was intended to be manageable by just a few. This is also a recent phenomenon – the review adds that business cases “appear to be more extensive and bureaucratic than even five years ago”.
“This enormous amount of paperwork – approximately the length of each of the Lord of the Rings books – adds to the time needed for Whitehall to take decisions. One civil servant interviewed by the review “estimated the time from an original idea… to execution of a programme at over two and a half years”.”
Against Regulatory Gaslighting
In defense of regulators.
“Regulatory managerialism mirrors common gaslighting techniques by delegitimizing regulators and reinforcing false narratives about “inept and overbearing” regulation, according to Short. She argues that regulatory managerialism deliberately sets up regulators for inevitable failure—a classic gaslighting tactic.”
Upcoming SCOTUS Case Could Weaken the Impact of Regulation on Key Patient and Consumer Protections
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
“Overturning Chevron deference could have cascading effects starting with the likelihood that more agency regulations will be overturned by courts. Court decisions to overturn regulations will provide increasing incentive by litigants to challenge any and all regulations in court. The ultimate result is a chilling effect on the issuance of federal regulations needed to implement key federal consumer protections. Below we discuss these implications with examples of how they may affect patients.”