…the White House’s planned government-wide review of regulations could end up being a “distraction” for agencies already dealing with scarce resources.

“To the extent that analysis draws them away from enforcing the regulations and protecting the health and safety of workers, we think it’s a distraction,” Trumka said. “We think we would have rather not seen it.”

And there you have it – since the incentives to pass and sustain business regulations for the AFL-CIO are political and not about the workers, business regulation becomes and end in itself; with the means already justified.

Short sighted of course, as getting rid of regulations which work to stall economic growth (regardless of  the regulations’ initial intentions) would help more people get hired.

Additionally, the reduction in the number of regulations could in fact realign the scarce resources dealing with these issues towards the most important regulations instead of being bogged down with the more political regulations.

But when the incentives are more about political power than worker protection, this is the end result.  Just as Mr. Tumpka stated,   even working towards improving the balance between economic growth and worker protections, is by itself, by definition, wrong.

Wired reports on Darpa – that agency which built the internet, now wants a new mathematical language to describe everything (here):

The very first step? Create a unified mathematical language for everything the military sees or hears.

The armed forces are overwhelmed by all the data its various sensors are sniffing out. They want a single data stream that combines drone video feeds, cell phone intercepts, and targeting radar. Darpa’s solution, found in the brand-new Mathematics of Sensing, Exploitation, and Execution program is to design an algorithm that teaches the sensors how to interpret the world — how to think, how to learn and what data, accordingly to collect.

The Economist debates: This house believes that restricting the growth of cities will improve quality of life (here).  An interesting topic, with the debate revolving around whether size is a problem and if so, forcing a certain size or giving individuals freedom to choose.  Research, not (yet at least) discussed,  has been attempted in the past to find the perfect size for a city; meaning how large does a city get before standard city services such as garbage collection or policing become less effective with the addition or each new citizen.

Either way, I’m still for free choice.

SCOTUS Blog on an upcoming Supreme Court arguments about corporate “person hood” (here):

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Court will hear one hour of oral argument on a government appeal arguing that business corporations do not have a right of of “personal privacy” that shields from compelled public disclosure the records they turn over to federal agencies.

From Stratfor, especially needed in light of gun control regulation based upon a single incident, Separating Terror from Terrorism. The piece concludes with this:

Recognizing that terrorist attacks, like car crashes and cancer and natural disasters, are a part of the human condition permits individuals and families to practice situational awareness and take prudent measures to prepare for such contingencies without becoming vicarious victims. This separation will help deny the practitioners of terrorism and terror the ability to magnify their reach and power.

]]> http://detailedabstractions.com/2011/01/19/infinite-monkey-theorems/feed/ 0 http://detailedabstractions.com/2011/01/18/obama-calls-for-regulations-review-is-this-some-kind-of-a-joke/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=obama-calls-for-regulations-review-is-this-some-kind-of-a-joke http://detailedabstractions.com/2011/01/18/obama-calls-for-regulations-review-is-this-some-kind-of-a-joke/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:39:54 +0000 Michael S. Langston http://detailedabstractions.com/?p=1881 President Obama is planning to sign an executive order to review business regulations (via LA Times here):

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking another step toward mending his relationship with the business community, President Barack Obama will order a review of federal regulations with an eye toward getting rid of those that stifle job creation and hurt economic growth.

Upon hearing this news, I was immediately reminded of the Simpsons’ episode.  The episode is about NASA, who having problems with funding, decides to put an average man in space for marketing purposes.  The press conference (here):

Scientist: Ladies and gentlemen and members of the press.  I’d like to
           present the new generation of NASA astronauts: the average
           American.
            [Curtain rises to show Homer wearing a "Hail to the Chef"
           apron and Barney dressed as a golfer]
Reporter: Jim Wallace, Associated Press.  [clears throat] Is this a
           joke?
Scientist: [cheery] Far from it, Jim.  One of these men will prove space
           travel is within the reach of the common man.
Reporter: Toby Hunter, Minneapolis Star.  No really, is this a joke?
Scientist: No, Toby, and no more questions about whether this is a joke.
            [Everyone lowers their hand, dejected]

Please don’t misunderstand – I’m hoping, like a lot of people, that the President is serious about this.  However, almost every single action taken by this administration shows an absolute love of controlling by regulations, even when no obvious reason for doing so exists.

This is after all the same President who gave us an executive order which prevented anyone from drilling for oil offshore due to one oil spill on a platform owned by BP (DA post here). 

This was all prior to the government report released late last year, which held BP accountable, but even after blaming BP for the entirety of the incident, they announced a month later continued blanket regulations against an all of the industry.

Even the President’s own fact finding commission is wondering what many others questioned before – what is this continued ban is supposed to fix?  They plan to press the administration on the issue soon.

And that’s just regulations for a small part of the energy industry.  This is also the same administration who pushed for financial reform.  Financial reform which as pushed before they had anyone had any idea what took place.  The reform which included controls on market segments which are known to have little to no impact on the financial crisis like hedge funds, derivatives, executive compensation and more (here & here).  The reform which has now been passed, but will fail to do one of the most crucial elements of any reform claiming to prevent “too big too fail” – (here):

The Act does not deal with the mispricing of pervasive government guarantees throughout the financial sector. This will allow many financial firms to finance their activities at below-market rates and take on excessive risk.

Which is all outside of the elephant in the room, health care reform.   Which, as far as I’m aware, is the first attempt by any US administration to purposefully regulate an American citizen while they do absolutely nothing.

Which is also outside of them spending 1 trillion dollars to regulate economic activity towards job growth (fail), outside of trying to regulate buying habits of  car buyers and home buyers.  This is even without discussing government ownership GM.

So…. Mr. President, with all due respect, is this a joke?

The website of MasterCard has been hacked and partially paralysed in apparent revenge for the international credit card’s decision to cease taking donations to WikiLeaks….

Though not very inventive nor innovative, they used an old and mostly discarded technique by anyone claiming the title “hacker” known as DOS (Denial of Service) – continued:

…A group of online activists calling themselves Anonymous appear to have orchestrated a DDOS (“distributed denial of service”) attack on the site, bringing its service at www.mastercard.com to a halt for many users….

& if that weren’t enough to prove a bunch of third graders have too much computer time on their hands, they decided to name their playground bullying an “operation”:

…”Operation: Payback” is the latest salvo in the increasingly febrile technological war over WikiLeaks. MasterCard announced on Monday that it would no longer process donations to the whistleblowing site, claiming it was engaged in illegal activity….

Irregardless, the truth is oppression by government or oppression by mob rule, is still oppression and by covertly attacking private business to try and punish specific policies or to try and force a change in policies is little better than taking your money forcefully at gunpoint.

Though under great stress, we humans tend towards the flight or flight response. True leaders however, can use these difficulties against themselves to provide both motivation and a sense of urgency to gain the ingenuity required for such challenges.

This is understood well in society. Like business leaders who understand innovation can be helped significantly by design constraints (here):

Great designers understand this. Charles Eames says design is all about innovating around constraints. And it’s the constraints – the scarcity – that fires the designer’s creativity. Smart business people “get it” too. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos embraces self-imposed scarcity saying, “One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.”

They understand that principle of economic scarcity. As do military leaders. Sun Tzu notes in the Art of War:

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.

For President Obama, the Tea Party & the Republicans taking back control of the House of Representatives could give him the opportunity to display true deft.

Assuming it does happen as predicted (here via the Philly Inquirer) however, the President is accorded a tough task ahead.

He would now have the body responsible for appropriations bills (all spending bills much start in the House & they are very important. For instance, they can kill health care by simply not funding it….) mainly in place due to running against him. Secondarily, while they don’t wish to be seen as obstructers, their willingness to work with Obama will be small even without their election strategy. Because any bill passed, regardless of how/why, if it turns out to be a good or well liked idea, Obama will naturally take credit to further his chances for re-election in 2012.

& the Democrats know that neither the President nor health care is a selling point for this election, even if they are communicating differently. The facts are that se hasn’t really made many direct candidate speeches, just backyard BBQs in key districts in key states. They are essentially, and correctly, playing against their weakness – his popularity.

Not a bad strategy in the short term, but I think people have heard him speak enough and any celebrity (yes, while the President is certainly more important and more powerful than any normal celebrity, s/he is still a celebrity) runs the risk of over saturation.

Irregardless, with Obama, the question is can he live inside those constraints?

What we know is given a new landscape, the answer for tomorrow’s question will not be the same answer as today’s. I think if he can push himself with a sense of urgency, surveys the landscape to see what he has and what he can accomplish with what he has. Then uses both the sense of urgency and strategic thinking by changing his game plan when the field of battle changes…. well, then we’ll see a real leader who may live up to his Nobel Peace Prize (here).

Or said more succinctly, it’s a crappy state of affairs you might find yourself in Mr. President, but challenges is how leaders prove themselves.

Honestly, I don’t think he’ll be able to do it. I think he’s too insecure (here) about himself and his handlers seem to know little more than an approval ratings drop equals time for Obama to give more speeches. & I don’t honestly think that’s likely to change…. but predictions are better left to Ms. Cleo.

What is likely however is the people around him understand exactly this point.  They do know it. The question is whether their emotions towards their beliefs (see: Confirmation Bias here & here) combined with the difficulty of telling a President who gives great speeches to shut up. Not to mention game theory predicts leaders to surround themselves with “yes men”.

All of that makes significant and required change seem unlikely, but I’d never count out someone who made it to the Presidency, nor, the team that helped him get there.

So Mr. President, here’s your chance.