What are the most powerful policy jobs in the White House?

Yesterday I explained why presidents don’t delegate more policy decision-making power to their cabinet. Instead the president makes the big decisions, supported by his White House staff. This makes the White House staff powerful…

How much advice does the president need? A simple example

How much advice does the president need? Should the president rely on just one person for advice on a straightforward policy question, or delegate a decision to a single person?

The Trump tariff and the dumb market

Imagine five American firms, each of which lays off New York workers.

Firms 1, 2, and 3 close their New York widget factories.

• Firm 1 builds a new widget factory in Mexico.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. And also…

Last Tuesday President-elect Trump said, “My Administration will be focused on three very important words: jobs, jobs, jobs.” Mr. Trump emphasizes geography: American policies should encourage economic growth “right here in America.” Nothing wrong with that.

What is a White House policy council?

What is a White House policy council and what does it do?

• The President needs someone physically close to him whom he trusts to answer policy questions as they arise.
• When he has to make a policy decision someone…

The costs of protecting 800 American jobs

Last week President-elect Trump announced that he had convinced Indiana-based Carrier not to outsource about 800 U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico.

Since then in a series of tweets Mr. Trump has:

Tax cuts did not cause the financial crisis

In Monday’s debate Secretary Clinton said:

We had the worst financial crisis, the Great Recession, the worst since the 1930s. That was in large part because of tax policies that slashed taxes on the wealthy, failed to invest in…

Why don’t presidents delegate more policy power to their cabinet?

Why don’t presidents delegate more policy decision-making power to their cabinet secretaries? Why does White House staff have so much power over big policy decisions relative to the much more visible Cabinet?

Response to Trump on steel

In Pennsylvania today Donald Trump said, “When subsidized foreign steel is dumped into our markets, threatening our factories, the politicians do nothing.”

This is false. President Bush imposed tariffs on imported steel in 2002. A month ago the Obama…