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Evaluating the State’s Stance

Today I came across the article in the Financial Times where Mr. Summers, Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser and director of the White House National Economic Council, evaluates the progress of the economy recovery. The article is interesting not only because of the chance to evaluate the way of thoughts of the author and his views, but also because of the way he uses to evaluate the current stance.

As the strong supporter of straight-through and simple approaches in life and in business, I think it will be interested to present the simple way to evaluate the current state’s stance by initiatives. Of course, the approach allows forming the general view of the current stance but it can serve as the good starting point for the further fundamental analysis.

So, take a simple test. Compose a chart of four columns: the economy, the society, the fiscal system and the foreign affairs. Divide each column in two sub-columns: name one “positive” and another “negative”. Take the objective stance (I know, it may be hard) and fill out all of the columns using three key criteria: stability, safety and improvement of living conditions. The columns must contain the implemented initiatives and real deeds, not some theoretical or technically feasible stuff on the paper which is not implemented yet. What you have is where you live in.

As I said, such visualization can provide you with the starting point for the deeper analysis of causes and effects.