Marshall here. Welcome back to the realignment. Confession time. I really enjoyed this episode,

but as a semi-professional podcaster, it also serves as a point of embarrassment. I recorded it

with the Economic Authority's projects Hanna Garden Monheight back in early November. I ended up having

technical difficulties and not being able to access

the recording. So as these publication delays piled up, after I found the recording, it just felt

like I missed the moment and I just kept pushing it off. However, I'm finally able to rip the

Band-Aid off and publish this now Evergreen episode for a couple of reasons.

One, the messenger and the topic fascinate me.

Hannah is a former director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission,

where she worked on the development and implementation of consumer protection and competition

issues.

She's now, once again, as I mentioned, a senior fellow at AELP, a think tank to the left of my

now employer, the Niskanin Center.

Last year, she co-wrote a report titled Building a More Effective Responsive Government,

lessons learned from the Biden-Harris administration.

They interviewed 45 former government officials who served in the Biden-Harris administration. They interviewed 45 former government

officials who served in the Biden administration and share recommendations on how government

ineffectiveness limited their ability to succeed and how they need to be fixed in the next go-around.

Effective and responsive government is a barely less than academic and wonky way of describing

the phrase

state capacity, a priority area at Niskanen. Basically, is government able to deliver on what the

American people expected to and can it accomplish the ambitious missions it sets for itself?

...