Category Archives: Obama Administration
Another look at the Sunstein appointment
Bloomberg has a reasonably detailed piece on the appointment: Sunstein’s support for cost-benefit analysis, balancing the costs of proposed federal rules against their benefits, makes him look more like an industry-friendly Bush appointee than a crusader for reining in corporations, some supporters of President Barack Obama say. . . . . “The appointment is a [...]
Do you have to be rich to get a DOJ appointment?
Wouldn’t it be nifty to read that a lawyer who spent his career working for a public interest firm was getting a substantial pay raise to get $196k a year at the DOJ? Many of the high-powered lawyers joining the Obama administration will be taking substantial pay cuts for the privilege of public service, reports [...]
More on Mark Gitenstein
I just can’t believe that the most qualified guy for this office is a corporate shill who tried to sell out the safety of Americans for a few million Chamber bucks: The likely nominee to head Justice's Office of Legal Policy, Mark Gitenstein, worked as a lobbyist for the chamber between 2000 and 2008, helping [...]
New Report outlines concerns about our new “regulatory czar”
The biggest concern to me is the first: That cost-benefit analyses can be easily manipulated to achieve desired policy outcomes. Even if the analyses are manipulated to skew in favor of policies I support, I’d still prefer a better method. Among the concerns raised in the report, Reinvigorating Protection of Health, Safety, and the Environment: [...]
Salary Cap Hypocrisy
Hot on the heels of the announcement that Obama is seeking a $500,000 salary cap on executives of bailed-out banks is criticism from conservatives opposing the caps: “That’s now how Wall Street works.” “America is supposed to be a meritocracy.” “With caps in place, the banks won’t be able to attract top-notch staff.” Pardon me [...]
