Wretchard: Something I have observed is that All Great Minds Think Alike. Or rather, at the rarefied atmospheric levels of the top élites in both industry and government, people tend to think like the other elites, rather than like their own people.

Thus, a politician’s idea that is regarded as horrible by the rank and file of an industry will be embraced by most captains of industry as a simply great idea. Similarly, a CEO’s idea of a way to gain some margin on his competition, but presented in altruistic terms will be seized by politicians as the best industrial idea since mass production.

Whether this is because to do otherwise would exclude you from The Club At The Top, or because it is seized upon by the unscrupulous on the basis “We do that and I’ll be able to outthink the dummies who thought this up.” Or because they are out of touch. Or because there really are a very few Big Ideas at the top and, given this paucity, they cannot be wasted. In any case the net effect is the same, and may come to have the same impact as the machinations of a psychopath, especially when things start coming unzipped and desperate attempts are made to fix blame and make repairs without ever admitting anything was wrong in the first place.

Also, Washington DC, collectively, does not believe in management. There are far too many other things that are of great importance to the class there, and the net effect is to rule out this provincial and quaint little emphasis on cost, schedule, and performance.