An Apple a Day
Deregulation is a massive task. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Milei Has Deregulated Something Every Day
The government has set up a site for the public to tattle on bureaucracy. They’re only too happy to help.
Interesting attempt by Cato here to quantify Milei’s progress.
‘What did we find? From December 10, 2023, when Milei assumed the presidency, to December 7, 2024, there were 672 regulatory reforms. On average, that means that during his presidency, Milei has been issuing 1.84 deregulations per day, counting weekends. Out of the total amount of reforms, 331 eliminated regulations and 341 modified existing regulations.’
Will Trump Really Close the Bureaucracies?
There may be unintended consequences of moving agencies out of DC.
When they get relocated back to DC under a new administration led by the opposition party, they then have footprints in two places.
This spreads the bureaucratic seed across the country.
Is that good?
‘So fans of the idea of shuttering government departments and agencies should hold their applause for a moment. Trump has consistently said that part of his plan to dismantle the deep state is relocating agencies, and in his video he’s very clear that he wants to end the ED in Washington, DC, and send it to the states.
‘In reality, rather than ending bureaucracies, Trump may be planning to make 50 little Washington DCs across the United States.’
A popular tactic in developing countries is the economic empowerment zone.
It is essentially a place that provides a holiday from taxation and regulation. The policy intention is to seed growth, with a view to then taxing and regulating once industry is in place, presumably.
Funny thing, though. It becomes impossible to re-tax and re-regulate. People like the growth.
Could we do the same thing in the US?
‘Donald Trump wants to create Freedom Cities. It’s a good idea. As I wrote in 2008, the Federal Government owns more than half of Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Alaska and it owns nearly half of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. See the map (PDF) for more [N.B. the vast majority of this land is NOT parks]. Thus, there is plenty of land to build new cities that could be adopted to new technologies such as driverless cars and drones.’
Tech modernization, civil service protection big priorities for Virginia's new House Democrat
There is an adverse selection problem when you’re doing layoffs.
The people you want to keep. The 5xers who keep the trains running are the most likely to leave. The duds are the least likely to take off for greener pastures until they get pushed.
There is also an asymmetric information problem.
The consultants who drive these layoffs don’t have sufficient information to distinguish productive employees from the dead wood. They cut indiscriminately.
This is a critical risk for Musk and Ramaswamy, especially given the complexity of the Machine.
‘Once seated, Subramanyam told GovExec in an interview this week that two of his priorities will be to improve the delivery of government technology and ensure the protection of civil servants and federal contractors. The 10th District is home to more than 34,000 federal employees and contractors, and boasts numerous tech company headquarters and satellite offices. Many of those jobs could be at risk if President-elect Trump makes good on promises to strip civil service protections for federal employees.
‘“One: I think that’s bad for our economy here in northern Virginia,” he said. “And two: If you think the government isn’t working well right now, wait until it’s falling apart because subject matter experts and career officials don’t want to be there anymore.”’
Navigating Over-Regulation In Cybersecurity
At some point, there are too many regulations and regulatory conflict inhibits the ultimate objective, in this case cybersecurity.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
‘The current regulatory landscape in cybersecurity is a proliferation of overlapping standards, sector-specific compliance mandates and prescriptive requirements. Financial institutions, healthcare providers, research organizations and other sectors all face distinct regulations that impose detailed compliance controls. These rules are aimed at strengthening security, but instead, their sheer volume often leads to confusion, redundancy and inefficiency.’
U.S. can become a crypto superpower with ‘sensible’ regulation, Eric Trump says
The SEC for the past several years has been operating either under the belief that the US should not be a crypto superpower (or power of any kind) or the sense that crypto was so potentially powerful it was impossible to sit on the sidelines and not intervene. In the latter case, the SEC would be able to take credit for creating the conditions of US dominance, a state that might have happened, in any event.
Crypto needs real-world applications for it to become truly interesting. This takes time and innovation and risk. Now, we’ll see what we can and cannot do.
‘“I think America will be the crypto capital of the world. I fully support it. My father fully supports it. Our family, you know, is fully embracing it. We believe in DeFi ... We believe that’s the way of the future. And again, America, you know, better lead the way, otherwise we’re going to leave a lot behind,” he added.’
NDIA POLICY POINTS: Bureaucratic Barriers Hinder Deployment of Counter-Drone Tech
Regulation and bureaucratic inefficiency combine to make the homeland less secure.
‘Foremost, the U.S. government currently lacks a comprehensive legal framework that would enable a large-scale, widespread deployment of counter-drone technology, at home or abroad, if a crisis were to warrant such a deployment. This, coupled with restrictions on foreign-sourced components, along with the notoriously slow speed of the federal procurement process, has hindered the government’s ability to adopt and deploy C-UAS technologies.
‘There are also unique regulatory and legal problems created when considering deploying these defensive systems over the homeland versus deploying them overseas. Airspace regulations imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration place strict limits on what airspace can be used for and by whom.’
DOGE has exposed the hypocrisy of those who rail against unelected bureaucrats
No political meddling in so-called independent agencies.
As the software crowd calls it, there is a real edge case here. You stuff the agencies with people sympathetic to the interests of one political party.
Once you’re successful, you specifically abjure political meddling because it can only dilute the power of your appointed colleagues.
There is a tautological dimension to the arguments in favor of the bureaucracy. The agencies are made up of selfless, apolitical experts. Therefore, they produce regulations that are pristine, non-partisan, and efficiency-maximizing. That is, the defenders of the administrative state define it as successful, so it must be successful.
Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?
‘But by the same token, there was never anything wrong with federal workers writing regulations based on laws passed by Congress, or with the president and Congress working together to create an agency that’s free from day-to-day political meddling, or with judges and other unelected officials making decisions. That’s how government has long worked, and the fact that Andreessen, Musk and Ramaswamy have suddenly dropped those concerns raises questions about how serious their complaints really were.’
Trump will need to hire new federal workers for trade war, former Cabinet member says
Irony.
‘During an interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump’s former secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, said that he doesn’t think it will take a long time to implement new tariffs but said that there might need to be some added staffing resources.
‘“If there are very wide-scale tariffs, there undoubtedly would be a need to hire more customs people,” Ross said. “Because if you’re having dozens and dozens of more products, and those products have hundreds of thousands of elements to them and 40 or 50 or 100 jurisdictions from which they’re coming, you’re gonna need more customs people.”’
China launches AI that writes politically correct docs for bureaucrats
It’s like Grammarly but for saying things consistent with the leader’s thoughts.
‘Reports from Hong Kong and China claim Baidu teamed with Xuexi to create a tool that Chinese bureaucrats can use to check documents they create to ensure they properly reflect Xi Jinping's thoughts – and that references to his ideas come from fact-checked sources.’
How Trump and Congress Could Reverse Biden-Era Regulations
Trump made good use of the Congressional Review Act in his first administration. So much so that the Biden team was sensitive to front load their activity in 2024.
We shouldn’t expect too much from CRA this time around. That was a one-off surprise.
‘It’s not yet clear which dates and thus which regulations will be included in this year’s lookback period. The answer depends on when this Congress decides to adjourn, since the 60-day period is measured by days that Congress is in session. Groups like Public Citizen estimate that the period likely began on August 1, 2024. If that date is correct, dozens of federal regulations could be subject to the CRA. Public Citizen lists them here.’
Iran Embraces Crypto Regulation to Counter Economic Sanctions
If ever a country needed crypto, it was Iran, in light of the scale of sanctions they face. Of course, they’re moving to regulation and not restriction.
‘Iran is shifting its stance on digital currencies, focusing on regulation rather than imposing restrictions, according to Minister Abdolnaser Hemmati. Speaking at a Tehran event, Hemmati highlighted the government’s plan to mitigate the economic risks of digital currencies while leveraging their potential benefits. He emphasized the Central Bank of Iran’s authority in managing digital assets and underscored their potential to foster youth employment, boost economic assets, and counteract sanctions. The initiative reflects Iran’s aim to align with global financial trends and capitalize on the advantages of cryptocurrency innovation.’
Measuring Milei’s Argentine Progress
Milei’s on a clock. He has a limited window to cut while an omnibus law is in place. With its expiry, he will have to go cap-in-hand to the legislature.
Trump’s on a clock, too. He knows it.
Can he make it happen in time?
‘Argentina is a regulatory nightmare in which red tape, growing like kudzu over generations, chokes off innovation and risk-taking. Mr. Sturzenegger is charged with cutting it down to size. He also leads the “transformation of the state.” But once the omnibus law expires, his super powers will go with it. If the government has to go back to negotiating with Congress—where Mr. Milei’s Liberty Advances party is in the minority—reform is likely to slow down at best. Thus the clock: Mr. Sturzenegger is a man on a mission.’
Ramaswamy cites legacy tech and fraud as early DOGE priorities
Upgrading technology is low-hanging fruit, but it presumably costs money.
‘As technology gets older, it costs more, doesn't always meet the needs of agencies and becomes dependent on an increasingly smaller pool of employees that know how to operate outdated technology like COBOL, a legacy programming language still used in parts of the government. Old tech can also open the government up to cybersecurity risks.
‘“A basic modernization of the software, of the technology, of the rails on which the federal government's information actually flows — that's low hanging fruit,” Ramaswamy said Wednesday after calling “COBOL on mainframes” the “norm” for the federal government.‘
The World War II Lesson for DOGE
When things become important enough, bureaucracy is an unnecessary luxury.
‘In 1940, faced with an America unprepared and unequipped for modern warfare, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to give American industrial leaders the lead in key decisions and strategic planning for mobilization. The man Roosevelt recruited to lead the effort, General Motors President William Knudsen, asked for 18 months and promised to mobilize enough of American industry to produce the greatest outpouring of modern weaponry the world had ever seen—from planes, tanks and machine guns to ships, submarines and aircraft carriers.’
A Simple Way to Cut NEPA’s Red Tape
The easiest way to block a large infrastructure project is with litigation that seeks to add on requirements where the law does not have any.
Here, a railway project ran into difficulty when litigation argued that it would have effects on people thousands of miles away, in addition to contributing to climate change.
The law does not require such analysis in environmental impact reviews. This is weaponized bureaucracy.
‘Eagle County sued under the National Environmental Policy Act, claiming that the Surface Transportation Board’s 3,600-page environmental-impact review was inadequate. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia agreed. It held that the board is required to analyze possible impacts as far away as the Gulf Coast, where the exported oil might be refined, and the environmental effects of “long-term employment and commercial activity” resulting from the railway. The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition contends that it shouldn’t have to analyze the environmental impact of anything not directly associated with railroads. It should be responsible only for the “proximate effects” of development over which it has regulatory authority.’
Iran Suffers Blow of ‘Historic Proportions’ With Assad’s Fall
Even terrorists have bureaucracy.
‘“Israel killed a generation of Hezbollah and IRGC commanders with Syria expertise, for example, and they took bureaucratic networks and coordination capacity to their graves,” Roule said. The Assad regime’s collapse, he said, was a “strategic blow of historic proportions” for Iran.’