Big Things
Why can't we do big things? (See also Ian Brodie's The Thursday Question.)
Why can’t we do big things?
‘The company trying to build high-speed rail in California gave up and moved to Africa, saying it was less politically dysfunctional. Within 7 years it had built high-speed rail in Morocco. The California project was approved in 2008 and is projected to continue into the 2030s.’
What is Project 2025? The plans for Trump's second term, explained
It’s unclear how much influence Project 2025 would have on a future Trump administration. But, it’s clear that Schedule F is central to its plans.
‘Trump previously tried this move toward the end of his presidency, signing an executive order to create the new job classification — known as "Schedule F" — in October 2020. President Joe Biden repealed that order when he took office and sought to add new protections for federal workers.
‘Many other Project 2025 plans rely on this broad new proposed power, as they would need federal workers to sign off on implementation’
Chevron Deference was used to protect big corporations from liability for the harm they caused.
Chevron started as the product of regulatory capture. Loper is liberating.
‘The Chevron v NRDC case started because the EPA changed the law's definition of "source of air pollution" to favor Chevron and other heavily-polluting companies. So the NRDC filed a federal appeal, claiming that the EPA was illegally re-writing the law. The DC Circuit Court ruled in the NRDC's favor. Then SCOTUS ruled that the EPA were the "experts", and therefore the courts (and the nation) had to simply defer to however they interpreted the law.’
IRS Crackdown Nets Enough Revenue To Fund the Government for 90 Minutes
What if rich people are paying their taxes properly? What if America’s fiscal problems defy easy solution?
‘Do the math. The United States spent about $6.1 trillion last year …. That translates to roughly $16.7 billion per day or about $700 million per hour. Against the federal government's insatiable appetite for spending, even unfathomably large figures like $1 billion are reduced to mere rounding errors.
‘That $1 billion was the result of what the IRS calls "stepped up activity" targeting about 1,600 individuals with incomes of over $1 million and who owed over $250,000 in known tax debt. The $1 billion in new revenue comes from payments made by about 1,200 individuals, according to the IRS.’
Meta won’t release its multimodal Llama AI model in the EU
Congratulations, Europe? Meta’s decision follows a similar decision from Apple.
‘Meta says it won’t be launching its upcoming multimodal AI model — capable of handling video, audio, images, and text — in the European Union, citing regulatory concerns. The decision will prevent European companies from using the multimodal model, despite it being released under an open license.
‘“We will release a multimodal Llama model over the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment,” Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin said to The Verge.’
Crowdstrike’s Reach Was Amplified by Regulation?
Government mandates antivirus software. Antivirus software benefits from scale because it is a fixed cost business. Everyone gets their government-required compliance checkoff by using Crowdstrike because of its scale. Presto! Everyone’s exposed to Crowdstrike. This isn’t exactly organic concentration risk.
We’re from the government and we’re here to help..
‘The most recent broad example: https://nist.gov/itl/executive-order-14028-improving-nations-cybersecurity… The implementation of this including many mandates to run AV software. Prior to this similar agency mandates at SEC, FAA, HHS, and so on in prior years drove similar behavior.’
AI companies promised to self-regulate one year ago. What’s changed?
It’s not clear how much of the promised self-regulation were things the AI companies planned to do in any event. Talking it up was a good way to steer the politics.
‘“One year on, we see some good practices towards their own products, but [they’re] nowhere near where we need them to be in terms of good governance or protection of rights at large,” says Merve Hickok, the president and research director of the Center for AI and Digital Policy, who reviewed the companies’ replies as requested by MIT Technology Review. Many of these companies continue to push unsubstantiated claims about their products, such as saying that they can supersede human intelligence and capabilities, adds Hickok.
‘One trend that emerged from the tech companies’ answers is that companies are doing more to pursue technical fixes such as red-teaming (in which humans probe AI models for flaws) and watermarks for AI-generated content.
‘But it’s not clear what the commitments have changed and whether the companies would have implemented these measures anyway, says Rishi Bommasani, the society lead at the Stanford Center for Research on Foundation Models, who also reviewed the responses for MIT Technology Review.’
This comes across as negative for the administration, as if they did this on purpose. But Hanlon’s razor tell us that we should never attribute to malice what is better explained by stupidity. In this case, stupidity describes the policy conflicts at work.
‘The Biden administration has quietly pushed more than a half-dozen countries to weaken, delay or rethink baby formula regulations aimed at protecting the public’s health — sometimes after manufacturers complained, a ProPublica investigation has found.
‘In the European Union, the U.S. opposed an effort to reduce lead levels in baby formula. In Taiwan, it sought to alter labeling that highlighted the health benefits of breastfeeding. And in Colombia, it questioned an attempt to limit microbiological contaminants — the very problem that shut down a manufacturing plant in Michigan in 2022, leading to a widespread formula shortage.’
Tougher regulation as data shows water companies underperforming
British water is an example of disastrous regulation in practice.
‘The report shows an improvement in star ratings under the Environmental Performance Assessment (EPA), but the majority of companies continue to underperform.’
Indian bureaucracy a curse on Indian democracy
Bureaucrats are only held accountable when things have gone absolutely pear-shaped. This is almost universally true. Even then, they hang on in the face of abject, unprecedented failure.
Are conditions in India unique?
‘The bureaucratic system in India often mirrors a feudal structure, where power is centralized and decision-making is opaque.
‘In 2012, a Hong Kong-based consultancy ranked Indian bureaucracy the worst in Asia. This perception persists, with bureaucrats rarely held accountable for their actions, fostering negligence and irresponsibility. The system rewards political loyalty over competence, discouraging meritocracy and promoting inefficiency. Political interference undermines impartial decision-making, favoring certain groups and persecuting opponents.’
Bureaucratic Rule Change Threatens Ag
Is this another example of rules-conflict, or is there a creeping attempt at shrinking the cattle industry, posing as regulation?
Is this a distinction without a difference?
‘A lawsuit filed on June 12, by the American Farm Bureau Federation and 11 other groups, challenges the lawfulness of the Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule, which threatens the future of ranching in the U.S. by destabilizing a decades-old tradition of grazing on federal lands.
Gary Heibertshausen, a sheep rancher in Montana and Farm Bureau member, says access to public lands for livestock grazing is crucial to the success of his ranch. “If Willow Creek Partners could not graze its livestock on federal land, we would be forced to sell our sheep and cease operating as a ranch.”
Heibertshausen and his partners hold six grazing permits covering several thousand acres of federal lands. He is supporting the case, saying the BLM rule creates substantial risk and uncertainty for ranchers, adding, “Under the rule, we can no longer be certain that the public lands on which we currently rely for grazing will remain available for grazing over the coming years.”
Five ways public sector changemakers can solve wicked problems
A festival called “Creative Bureaucracy” comes up with different ways to improve the public sector, including the novel concept of applying product management techniques in widespread use in the private sector.
‘When developing services, government agencies should embrace an iterative, product approach to building policies, processes, and services and move away from following standard processes.
‘This was what Montenegro’s former Minister of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media, Tamara Srzentić, shared, speaking about the need to build user-centred services that improve the lives of regular people.
‘“People experience governments through delivery,” she said.’