MEMORANDUM
DATE: 27 June 2013
TO: Sec. P. Pritzker, USDOC
FROM: A. Alfidi, CEO, Alfidi Capital
SUBJECT: Recommended DOC Action Items
Secretary Pritzker:
Congratulations on your swearing-in today as Secretary of Commerce. The U.S. Department of Commerce has been without a confirmed head for many months now and your bold, decisive leadership is sorely needed to shock the federal regulatory apparatus out of caretaker mode. I would like to present the following recommended action items for your consideration as policy initiatives.
1. Accuracy in statistics. The US government's economic statistics have been adjusted, smoothed, and manipulated for decades. The cumulative amount of adjustments since the early 1980s has rendered these statistics useless for business decisions. The DOC should lead an interagency effort to remove all of the politically-driven adjustments to statistics for inflation, unemployment, and money supply growth and return those statistics to their original composition. Use the methodology at Shadow Government Statistics as the standard.
2. Downsizing. Reduced federal spending means all agencies must shrink in size. DOC should do its part. The US Economic Development Administration and Minority Business Development Administration run duplicative programs; DOC should merge the two entities. The Economics and Statistics Administration should take the Bureau of Labor Statistics away from DOL and merge both the BLS and Bureau of Economic Analysis into the Census Bureau (this will help facilitate action item #1 above).
3. Investment. DOC is ideally suited to lead the national conversation in determining America's priorities for public investments. Your experiences on the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board have no doubt left you fully versed on the magnitude of the challenges facing American business. Government's role in the economy includes the promotion and protection of public infrastructure used by private enterprise. DOC should lead the Administration's effort in passing the enabling legislation for the National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank.
Feel free to contact me for details on the implementation of these initiatives. We can discuss the action items over lunch at the Army and Navy Club if you're buying. I am available for appointment to a temporary position in the Senior Executive Service if you need an action officer to shepherd these initiatives. I won't need a GSA fleet car; my Ford Mustang runs fine.
