[ccebook.cn]The World in 2010

Attempts to reform government have always had a mixed record. States are lumbering dinosaurs that take
years to adapt to change. And they are plagued by rigidities that make it hard to hire the best or sack the
worst. When competing for the best people, most governments have a “tool belt but no tools”, to borrow a
phrase from the director of the United States Office of Personnel Management.
What a waste
The depth of the crisis has forced governments to focus on the short term. They have also been more
interested in preserving jobs than in structural reforms. Construction companies with shovel-ready projects are
swallowing up a disproportionate amount of the stimulus money. Mr Obama made the fatal mistake of subcontracting
a great deal of policymaking to Congress, which loaded his stimulus package with pork.
All this suggests that 2010 will be another year of disappointment: instead of getting smarter, governments
will succumb to the old cycle of bloat followed by retrenchment. And the recovery of the private sector will rob
them of their chance to restock their talent pools. During the economic slump the Obama government liked to
say that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” Over the next year it will become increasingly obvious that,
when it comes to getting smarter, governments almost everywhere have wasted this particular crisis.
Adrian Wooldridge: management editor, The Economist; co-author of “God Is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith Is Changing the World”
(Penguin/Allen Lane)
Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.
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