Governance

Data Thought for the Day

October 16, 2014 Data

Since the Obama election, and particularly the re-election, politicians have gained a deepening appreciation of the use of data for politics – for tactics, targeting and personalization. It’s just a matter of time – and we can accelerate that time – before they have the same appreciation of using data for governing – including both […]

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The American Conservative has Been Running Some Not Nuts Essays

August 28, 2012 Conservative

My liberal friends will be appalled. But suffice to say, there are at least some writers who at The American Conservative who offer a different perspective that what we’re getting from political “conservatives,” (most of whom are really radicals) and who at least know when it’s appropriate to gag. I may not be as conservative, […]

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Today’s Quote of the Day is About a Monkey, Politics and Democracy

August 24, 2012 Governance

Oddly enough, today’s quote of the day is about a macaque monkey that’s been running loose in Tampa, FL. And no, this is not about the upcoming Republican convention, to be held in Tampa. But it is about governance and democracy and finding ways to accommodate ourselves to others, including other primates, it’s from Jon […]

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More on Too Big to Manage, Too Complex to Manage

May 16, 2012 Economics

Deep in the comments following Maureen Dowd’s Dancing with Deriviatives, on the JP Morgan Chase debacle is the following comment by Diana Moses of Arlington, MA Wasn’t there a theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey about our technological developments escaping our control (I’m thinking about HAL)? I sometimes feel that way not just about Big […]

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Too Big to Fail? Too Big to Govern. Too Big to Manage

May 11, 2012 Economics

Today’s news that JP Morgan Chase had incurred a $2 billion trading loss reminds us again of the risks to the rest of us of organizations that are not only too big to fail, but too big and complex to effectively manage. Simon Johnson, author, with James Kwak, of White House Burning, The Founding Fathers, […]

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Tiptoe Through the Tulips

April 10, 2012 County Government

Hat tip to the usually sober Richard Mendick, Albany County Legislator (C, R – Selkirk) for today’s quote of the day. One of the provisions in the resolution establishing Charter Review Commission for Albany County prohibits elected officials to serve. Judging by last night’s chaotic debate over the resolution, the resolution was evidently not well […]

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Wyckoff Heights, New York State, the PPACA, and the Supreme Court: What’s the Connection?

March 26, 2012 Economics

Yesterday in Once Again, Why Universal Coverge, I re-wrote what I written in 2005 and in other terms, even earlier: Because we take the half-step of expecting the healthcare system to provide care to all, but don’t go all the way, we have instead a hidden and half-baked system. The lack of universal coverage provides […]

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