There’s no other way to make it efficacious, says IBM’s antecedent chairman

Watch full size video:

Paul Share

through Louis V. Gerstner Jr.

In recent weeks we have seen desperate actions by financial regulators. From the Treasury Secretary to the Federal Reserve to the New York State insurance delegate, public officials get worked tirelessly to control the confusion in the financial marketplace. Once again, it is clear that America has learned very well how to respond to crises.

But is that all we regard learned? It’s a question we need to ask ourselves and our candidates for President and Congress. Amid the ongoing turmoil, it seems obvious we must reinvent our government and create an efficient system that can anticipate and avoid major crises. Despite many opportunities, however, this is not a lesson we have taken to mind. Whether the task is fixing health care, upgrading K-12 education, bolstering national safety, or a armed force of other missions, the U.S. is less ill at patching problems than fixing them. Part of the understanding is that we be in actual possession of two parties lacking comity and a sense of shared national obligation. But beyond the partisan alienate, I would argue that the processes of body politic are wasted, preventing us from taking responsible actions.

Visit USA.gov and you’ll find thousands of directorates, agencies, boards, offices, and services replete with overlapping responsibilities, ancient priorities, and divided accountability. We do not need Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education; we need a single Department of Skills that will promote an integrated approach to global competitiveness. Our military should be trained and structured encompassing missions, not the elements of air, supply by water, and disembark. That requires fundamental make some change in., but instead, the Defense Dept. has established an overlay of “commands” to compensate in the place of organizational deficiencies. Does it make sense, in 2008, even to have a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives? If so, wherefore is it part of the Treasury Dept.?

Then there’s the financial sector. Behind the debacles at Bear Stearns (BSC), Fannie Mae (FNM), Freddie Mac (FRE), Lehman Brothers (LEH), and Merrill Lynch (MER) lies a astonishing failure to modernize our regulatory systems, despite obvious changes in the financial markets. Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve have done an extraordinary job in the past 12 months, but the regulatory processes in place are ad hoc and hang on leaders undertaking risky initiatives. Now additional than ever, we stand in want of a single federal organized being to oversee completely of our financial institutions.

If our new President and our congressional leaders accept the need to reinvent the federal government, it will take a bipartisan, multiyear effort that draws without ceasing the experience of our business common. I would like to see a team of business leaders and experienced government staff led by two co-chairs: one business executive and one former high-level Washington official. This reengineering team would report to the President and four to six congressional leaders, who would receive formerly a month to survey its analyses and recommendations.

If the idea sounds familiar, it’s because we tried this approach one time before, under President Ronald Reagan. I’m reflecting of the 1982 Grace Commission, which was led by the agency of 161 top executives from the private sector. The commission concluded that nearly one-third of all taxes collected by dint of. the federal government are squandered through inefficacy. And it came up with 2,478 recommendations that, together, might have transformed the basic processes of government while saving hundreds of billions of dollars. Few of the recommendations were evermore tried.

Today, the goals of such a commission would subsist different but the spirit would be the same. Would it succeed? If nothing else, the gravity of the current pecuniary and economic crisis might constrain new leaders to study the panel’s findings and strive to constitution government more effective. The future of our country may hang in the balance.