Video: David Stockman Talks Budget on The Daily Show

• By Ross Gianfortune
• April 9, 2013
• comments

In his book The Great Deformation, former budget director David Stockman hypothesizes that the United States’ budget problems do not stem from Barack Obama, the current congress, George W. Bush or even his former boss, Ronald Reagan. Rather, America’s budget problems go all the way back to the Great Depression and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Stockman compared the government stimulating the economy to the relationship between a drug dealer and an addict.

“It’s like a narcotic. For a while, the big deficits we’ve had, all the money printing from the Fed worked.” Stockman said on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday night.  “It did stimulate the economy, we had some growth. Over time, it becomes habit-forming.”

During the course of the interview, Stockman discussed the gold standard’s evolution in the American economy. After Stockman said called Richard Nixon’s abandonment of it as not “disciplined.” Stockman said he was most concerned about large-scale economic policy, calling it a “casino economy.” He mentioned that he’d like to go back to a pre-Roosevelt era, referencing a 1932 wide banking act.

“If you have narrow banks that are regulated under a Glass–Steagall regime. And ...

Government Employees Get No Respect?

• By Dana Grinshpan
• March 28, 2013
• comments

In the midst of the largest study Government Executive has ever conducted, on the subject of federal employee engagement, some interesting findings have been emerging. More than 21,000 federal employees have responded so far. Here's what they've told us:

• About half say they receive the recognition they deserve for a job well done.
• Almost three-fourths say that their colleagues respect their opinions.
• Less than one-third say they hang out with their colleagues outside of work.

These results are not final yet. We still need to meet certain goals to generalize the results to all federal employees. If you’re one of the people who have already participated in the survey, thank you. If you’re not, we’d greatly appreciate your help. It only takes five minutes.

Click here to complete the employee engagement survey

Is the Secret Service Hiring Alien Reptile Shapeshifters?

• By Tom Shoop
• March 26, 2013
• comments

The Secret Service has had more than its share of issues lately, from a prostitution scandal to getting caught in the middle of a political tiff over canceling White House tours due to sequestration. But at least the agency's leaders weren't doing anything truly crazy, like hiring alien reptilian shapeshifters to guard the president.

Or were they?

Danger Room reports today on a new conspiracy video -- and it's a hoot -- purporting to show that a shapeshifter is on President Obama's security detail, and accidentally revealed himself to news cameras during a recent speech by the president. Apparently the alien's mechanism for changing his reptilian appearance went a little haywire.

Danger Room succeeded in getting an actual comment on this blockbuster story from Caitlin Hayden, the chief spokeswoman for the National Security Council: “Any alleged program to guard the president with aliens or robots would likely have to be scaled back or eliminated in the sequester.”

If that non-denial denial just makes the story even more intriguing to you, then this video is right up your alley:

The Bullpen and the Future of Office Space

• By Charles S. Clark
• March 25, 2013
• comments

For months, Dan Tangherlini, acting administrator of the General Services Administration, has been promoting the open-office “bullpen” arrangement of agency executive offices made famous by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Tangherlini’s predecessor at GSA, Martha Johnson, was also a big fan of shared offices without walls space to facilitate rapid collegial communication -- as opposed to giving each executive a large, isolating, single-person cave.

But The New York Times reported on Saturday that Bloomberg’s famous bullpen may not be long for the Big Apple.

The candidates running to succeed Bloomberg do not favor retaining the setup that the billionaire modeled after a stock trading shop. “It’s hard to be able to focus and do work in that kind of environment,” said Democratic candidate William Thompson. “It’s hard to read.”

In the bullpen, said Bill de Blasio, another Democratic candidate, “the mayor is surrounded by the voices of his inner circle. But he’s been unable to hear the voices of the people.”

A GSA spokesman declined comment on the article.

The Federal Management Event of the Year

• By Tom Shoop
• March 15, 2013
• comments

I'm very pleased to announce that registration is now open for the premier federal management event of the year -- Excellence in Government. 

The training and education event will take place May 13-14 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. We've expanded EIG to two days this year, because, well there's a lot to talk about, isn't there?

And the best news in these tight budget times? It's free. 

Our staff is working diligently on assembling a stellar lineup of speakers for the event. We're off to a pretty good start, I think, with Vice President Al Gore. He'll provide some perspective on the 20th anniversary of the launch of his Reinventing Government campaign. Scheduled breakout sessions include "Driving Efficiency in Operations," "How Mission-Motivated Teams Get Results," and "Building Tomorrow's  Workforce Today."

As always, we're working to provide a top-notch opportunity for federal managers and executives to learn from their peers and outside experts about how to work smarter, save money and deliver results. 

You can find more information about Excellence in Government here. And here's a tentative schedule for the event. 

Click here to request your invitation