Can Government Play Moneyball?

Director of the Congressional Budget Office Peter Orszag and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council John Bridgeland both left office flabbergasted by how blindly the federal government spends money. In the Atlantic, they propose that the “moneyball” formula employed in baseball—whereby data-intensive analysis of what skills players actually contribute most replaced traditional beliefs and biases—can be readily applied to tame the federal budget.