"Under this administration, you don’t go to Congress to debate legislation. If you want to change something, like closing down a major agency, you petition the king. So, we’re already in an authoritarian phase. That’s just on an institutional level."
...
"One problem we’ve got is what I regard as a kind of dumb version of what economists call “the principal-agent model.” It says the principal gives the orders, and the agents must obey the orders. But in any actual organization, most of the knowledge is on the part of the agents. It’s the civil servants at the bottom who really understand how things work when the principals have no idea. And so, the authority actually goes from the bottom of the organization up to the top. The U.S. Army understands this very well. "
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On multiple occasions, the Secretary of Commerce has said one thing about tariff's and Trump has then done something completely different. The lesson learned is that, while you might use Howard Lutnick to try to get a sense of where Trump's mind is at on a given day, the SoC is pretty much irrelevant and you can't actually rely on anything he says. All that matters is what Trump puts his sharpie to.
If one person makes all the decisions, what is the upper limit on the quality of those decisions? Lutnick is not particularly qualified for his post, but he has a lot of people reporting to him, bringing knowledge of the situation up from the depths. Understanding of the current economic situation is supposed to work it's way up to the president through the secretary of commerce. Instead, there's a disconnect, and Trump is making decisions without this resource.
To pile onto that, countries such as Japan, that are currently trying to negotiate around the threat of tariffs, know this. They're going to view anything they negotiate with somebody other than Trump as writing in sand that can be brushed away in an instant. They're going to want to sit down with the only person who matters. So, now, not only does Trump have to somehow pack enough study of the current situation to stay abreast of it without relying on subordinates, he has to finalize all negotiations himself. Given how many nations are trying to do this in the next month, this is an impossible task for any human.
Even absolute monarchs of the past relied on council. The U.S. doesn't just have a King, they have another Æthelred the Unready. i.e. A King who wasn't necessarily a complete fool, but was notable for being "unrede" (poorly councilled).
beloch•9mo ago
...
"One problem we’ve got is what I regard as a kind of dumb version of what economists call “the principal-agent model.” It says the principal gives the orders, and the agents must obey the orders. But in any actual organization, most of the knowledge is on the part of the agents. It’s the civil servants at the bottom who really understand how things work when the principals have no idea. And so, the authority actually goes from the bottom of the organization up to the top. The U.S. Army understands this very well. "
-------------------------
On multiple occasions, the Secretary of Commerce has said one thing about tariff's and Trump has then done something completely different. The lesson learned is that, while you might use Howard Lutnick to try to get a sense of where Trump's mind is at on a given day, the SoC is pretty much irrelevant and you can't actually rely on anything he says. All that matters is what Trump puts his sharpie to.
If one person makes all the decisions, what is the upper limit on the quality of those decisions? Lutnick is not particularly qualified for his post, but he has a lot of people reporting to him, bringing knowledge of the situation up from the depths. Understanding of the current economic situation is supposed to work it's way up to the president through the secretary of commerce. Instead, there's a disconnect, and Trump is making decisions without this resource.
To pile onto that, countries such as Japan, that are currently trying to negotiate around the threat of tariffs, know this. They're going to view anything they negotiate with somebody other than Trump as writing in sand that can be brushed away in an instant. They're going to want to sit down with the only person who matters. So, now, not only does Trump have to somehow pack enough study of the current situation to stay abreast of it without relying on subordinates, he has to finalize all negotiations himself. Given how many nations are trying to do this in the next month, this is an impossible task for any human.
Even absolute monarchs of the past relied on council. The U.S. doesn't just have a King, they have another Æthelred the Unready. i.e. A King who wasn't necessarily a complete fool, but was notable for being "unrede" (poorly councilled).