Makes sense, and the name checks out when I Google it.
In the case of Commerce, one example I recall is they maintain a presence in various different countries' embassies to assist US companies doing business there (whether exporting or investing).
The naive idealist might imagine the obvious cost-cutting move to be to shutter this presenc…
Makes sense, and the name checks out when I Google it.
In the case of Commerce, one example I recall is they maintain a presence in various different countries' embassies to assist US companies doing business there (whether exporting or investing).
The naive idealist might imagine the obvious cost-cutting move to be to shutter this presence in the least valuable place. Mali, Burundi, or something. Instead, as you can imagine, the first move is to close this presence in a place like the UK or Germany.
This also has an inter-departmental rivalry benefit: you tell everyone that due to budget cuts, if they have a problem, please ring up the State Dept. directly; now State ends up having to field all those issues (presumably at a significantly lower level of customer service) until your budget is restored.
Makes sense, and the name checks out when I Google it.
In the case of Commerce, one example I recall is they maintain a presence in various different countries' embassies to assist US companies doing business there (whether exporting or investing).
The naive idealist might imagine the obvious cost-cutting move to be to shutter this presence in the least valuable place. Mali, Burundi, or something. Instead, as you can imagine, the first move is to close this presence in a place like the UK or Germany.
This also has an inter-departmental rivalry benefit: you tell everyone that due to budget cuts, if they have a problem, please ring up the State Dept. directly; now State ends up having to field all those issues (presumably at a significantly lower level of customer service) until your budget is restored.