The World Championship of Bureaucracy?
Here are some links that I came across this week pertaining to regulation and bureaucracy. I’ll try and do this every so often, so that people can start to assemble more context for what we talk about at the Closest Point of Approach.
The Rough Years that Turned GenZ into America’s Most Disillusioned Voters
“When asked if they had confidence in a range of public institutions, Gen Z’s faith in them was generally below that of the older cohorts at the same point in their lives. One-third of Gen Z Americans described themselves as conservative, according to NORC’s 2022 General Social Survey. That is a larger share identifying as conservative than when millennials, Gen X and baby boomers took the survey when they were the same age, though some of the differences were small and within the survey’s margin of error.”
Why Private Developers Are Rejecting Government Money for Affordable Housing
Privately-funded construction of housing for the homeless in California eschews government funding … and the red tape that comes with it. “With private financing, ‘You’re cutting out millions of dollars just in soft costs,’ said David Grunwald, an executive at RMG Housing, which is developing the SDS fund’s projects.”
SEC Climate Disclosure Regulations Paused by Fifth Circuit
A fracking company asked for a stay while it sues the SEC over their recent climate change regulations, citing “irreparable injury in the form of unrecoverable compliance costs and constitutional injuries.” The Fifth Circuit granted the stay, disagreeing with the SEC rebuttal that characterized the company’s impact of the regulations as “speculative and remote assertions of harm.” There are more lawsuits in progress.
There’s a Hidden Way Politics Shapes Regulation
There is a tension between expertise and politics in the regulations that implement laws. For example, experts have imposed new restrictions on emissions from natural gas power plants. The President, by executive order, has delayed the implementation of these rules until after the election. Upcoming Supreme Court cases will weigh in on this tension and its current expression in the so-called Chevron Rule, with its perceived deference to the experts (and its practical effect of allowing politicians to mask their behavior as expertise).
Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts
In which, Thomas Friedman discovers bureaucracy and concludes that it is a bad thing.
“The growth of bureaucracy costs America over $3 trillion in lost economic output every year, Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini estimated in 2016 in The Harvard Business Review. That was about 17 percent of G.D.P. According to their analysis, there is now one administrator or manager for every 4.7 employees, doing things like designing anti-harassment trainings, writing corporate mission statements, collecting data and managing ‘systems.’”
Schedule F: The Phantom Menace
If a civil service position is reclassified as a Schedule F job, it becomes at-will employment and the President can fill the role without having to go through the rigamarole of the civil service hiring process. Can a 21st century spoils system be far behind? Is the current system a de facto spoils system given the unionization of large pockets of the civil service now? Will career civil servants be replaced by people lacking in expertise but who tow the correct political line?
Jim Ratcliffe Warns EU Bureaucracy Will Drive Away Industry’s Investments
EU bureaucracy is like a reverse type of beggar-thy-neighbor trade policy, encouraging projects to avoid the bloc in favor of environs less susceptible to the tax of red tape.
‘Patriot Entrepreneurs’ Fight against DOD Bureaucracy to Green Light Future Tech: Defense Expert
It is remarkably difficult for DoD to purchase innovative technology from small, trail-blazing firms. Acquisition reform is a Sisyphean task.
Germany Promises to Cut Down Paper Bureaucracy
Germany (!) is drafting a law to reduce the amount of day-to-day red tape its companies endure. This seems to be an across-the-aisle move with broad-based support, including from notable Greens Party members like Economy Minister Robert Habeck. This is remarkable given the country’s long-standing tendency to bureaucracy. The Justice Minister is quoted as saying that if there was a “world championship in bureaucracy,” that Germany would win the crown.