The Fall of Bureaucratic Bumbling

August 29, 2025

Doug Leyendecker

Welcome to This Week’s Leyendecker View

Surround yourself with people you admire and who add substance to your life.
– Jewel

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THINKING OUT LOUD

The Fall of Bureaucratic Bumbling
Is the pendulum starting to swing?

Across the globe, voters are gravitating toward leaders who position themselves as outsiders vowing to dismantle bureaucracies and implement “common sense” solutions. Donald Trump was, of course, the first indicator that change was afoot. Javier Milei in Argentina and Giorgia Meloni in Italy signal that Trump is not an outlier but possibly the start of a trend.

Argentina’s election of Javier Milei is perhaps the most dramatic example of this trend. Campaigning with a chainsaw to symbolize his plans to cut government spending, Milei swept to power on promises to embolden and dollarize the economy and eliminate entire government ministries.

Milei’s appeal stems not just from his policies but also in his rejection of the political class that had overseen decades of economic mismanagement. His success suggests that voters may be willing to embrace radical change when the same approaches have failed again and again.

In Giorgia Meloni, Italy has elected a leader who doesn’t toe the EU-Brussels line. She is becoming a thorn in the Brussels bureaucracy, rejecting their immigration and climate narratives and policies. She frames herself as the guardian of Italy’s cultural heritage and traditional values, channeling public frustration into a call for national renewal.

Trump’s return to the presidency, despite—or perhaps because of—the old guard relentlessly trying to thwart his “outsider” plans during his first term, signals Americans’ appetite for anti-establishment leadership remains strong. His campaign emphasized an economic re-awakening, a reduction in regulatory burdens on businesses and challenging what his supporters view as an overreaching administrative state.

Should Trump’s unorthodox efforts prove successful in boosting GDP and stemming the explosion of fiscal and monetary stimulus, regulation and federal debt growth, the world will take notice.

That notice could quickly empower UK voters to embrace the Conservative Party’s Kemi Badenoch. Badenoch is already starting to campaign on the idea that she is the UK’s Milei.

Born in the UK but raised in Nigeria, Badenoch saw firsthand the worst of bureaucratic control over a country and its economy. Her criticisms of diversity initiatives, skepticism toward certain climate policies, recognition of bureaucratic overreach and general willingness to challenge progressive orthodoxies resonates with voters frustrated by what they perceive as ineffective technocratic governance. Whether she can translate this message into broader electoral success remains to be seen. But her rise suggests the anti-establishment trend is spreading.

What’s at the core of this trend? What is pushing it across continents? For one, economic stagnation and volatility have created widespread dissatisfaction with the leadership class. Traditional politicians are increasingly viewed as out of touch with the ordinary citizens’ concerns, driving a desire for outsiders who promise radical change rather than more of the same incremental reforms from detached elites.

The multi-decade expansion of the regulatory state has left voters across the globe feeling over-governed and under-served. Farmer protests in Europe and trucker protests in Canada are prime examples. Complex bureaucratic processes, lengthy approval times for business ventures and the sense that governments have become captured by special interests all contribute to the appeal of leaders vowing to cut red tape.

Social media and changing information ecosystems have also empowered political outsiders to bypass traditional gatekeepers. Now, as Trump notoriously does, they can speak directly to voters, making it easier for unconventional candidates to build movements around anti-establishment messaging.

The coast is not yet clear. Governing is far more difficult than campaigning, and the bureaucratic structures these leaders seek to dismantle have deep and wide roots. Once these change-agent leaders make it to office and begin to confront and dismantle bureaucratic institutions, those who work in them do all they can to scare voters. They repeat, in dire terms, that a free and open democracy requires their survival. The political assassination of France’s La Pen is a good example of the legacy political and bureaucratic backlash.

These outsider leaders face another challenge: They cannot tear down for the sake of tearing down. They must be strategic, careful and thoughtful in how they dismantle unproductive institutions and replace them with something more efficient or move on from them without creating vacuums.

If Trump, Milei and Meloni can replace decaying infrastructures and moribund legacy systems with leaner and more effective ones, then they will set the stage for Badenoch and others to follow. They will create momentum that is easier for others to harness and maintain. And they will permit a critical mass of voters to part with their fears and vote in disruptors of the status quo.

As I said in a previous essay, “Which End Is Up,” the world is going through a period of step change, instigated by modern technologies and far from over, thanks to the advent of AI.

During periods of step change, legacy institutions and infrastructures are always at risk. We’ve already seen technology destroy industries; it’s only natural. Governments across the world may follow.

THE RANDOMS

How much happier would our world be if televisions were removed from airports, hotel lobbies, restaurants, office lobbies, and bedrooms? Imagine the mental health problems that would wither away. Imagine how communities and personal relationships would grow stronger.

The real security risk with offshore wind is that an enemy of ours could quite easily cut the cables that take electricity from the windmills to land. You can bet that mini drone submersibles would be capable of doing this. Remember, it is still unknown who cut the Nord Stream gas line to Europe.

Before we moved from the farm and factories to desk jobs, work was exercise. Now that we’re at desks all day, we have to go to the gym to keep our bodies fit and healthy. We used to get paid to “exercise.” Now we pay to exercise.

Should attorneys be barred from political office since it’s a natural conflict of interest? It’s like the old accounting rule: Don’t let the person who pays the bills also balance the checkbook. Since attorneys work to interpret the laws, should they also be the ones making them? Are attorneys so benevolent that they can rise above their self-interest?

Why doesn’t Mexico provide accommodations for its citizens who are deported from the United States? Why doesn’t Mexico volunteer to help bring back its citizens who illegally enter the United States?

Does our ability to create organized communities rest on the fact that there is a God, a higher force that influences us to have order? If not God, are autocrats that forced order?

When we look for beauty, it is easier to find it.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Economy

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Higher consumer prices are coming
AI spending frenzy props up the economy
Inflation is straining the restaurant biz
Is stagflation already here?

Labor

The AI-skilled make the big bucks
Employers hold the advantage today
AI is wrecking entry-level jobs
There’s nothing exciting about the job market
Having children can be a career mistake

The Lone Star

Futuristic city planned outside of Austin
Space, another Texas growth market
Texas start-up using Earth as a battery

BUSINESS

Finance

PE fundraising keeps falling
BlackRock wants investors in hedge funds
Private credit pioneer is worried

Real Estate