What are the thorniest problems confronting Program Managers?
Two of the thorniest problems confronting PMs are: The length of time required to process procurement documents [and]… The length of time required to effect […]
Blog Posts
Podcast: Defense management reform with Peter Levine
Peter Levine joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast about his new book, Defense Management Reform: How to Make the Pentagon Work Better and Cost […]
Federal contracts for Covid-19 reach $300 million per day
Federal non-defense COVID-19 contract dollars saw a rapid increase during the month of March to an average of over $300 million obligated each day (Figure […]
Marc Andreessen says it’s time to build. But what’s standing in the way?
Medical equipment and financial conduits involve no rocket science whatsoever. At least therapies and vaccines are hard! Making masks and transferring money are not hard. […]
Financial managers: the “garrison in the conquered city” of the Pentagon?
The principal antagonist of the Joint Chiefs within the central defense organization was the Comptroller. Like the JCS, however, his office afforded an excellent illustration […]
Will bureaucracy descend on the Air Force ABMS program?
The Air Force’s ABMS is a family of systems intended to replace the command and control capabilities of aging legacy programs and develop a network […]
Acquisition headlines
U.S. judge puts Amazon challenge to Pentagon JEDI contract on hold. Amazon “likely” to succeed on protest started in November. Time for DoD to cancel […]
Is small business hurt by industrial mobilization? Lessons from WWII.
As a result of the impact of the gigantic national defense and war programs on our American economy, small business enterprise in the United States […]
Space industry proposal for sustaining companies through Covid-19
Safeguarding our national security space industrial base in the face of the economic downturn warrants proactive measures to inject funding and sustain critical commercial space […]
Podcast: The future of Navy software development with Lt. Sean Lavelle
I was pleased to speak with Navy Lieutenant Sean Lavelle on the Acquisition Talk podcast. He is the founder and lead of the iLoc development […]
DHS rolls out commercial solutions openings
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)… will use the Commercial Solutions Opening Pilot Program (CSOP) procedures to acquire innovative, commercial items, technologies and services currently […]
What does it mean to secure our supply chains?
One of the most misleading popular phrases used today in discussions of economics and economic policy is “supply chains.” The reason is that in the […]
Government pays for inactive contractor labor during Covid-19
Section 3610 of the CARES Act allows agencies to pay contractor labor costs when they are not working due to Covid-19, to to keep the […]
Acquisition headlines
Master list of 120+ Covid-19 innovation initiatives and opportunities. The fiscal multiplier during World War II. Here it is: “0.25, implying an aggregate multiplier of […]
Alchian discovers classified nuclear data in 1954 using stock prices
At RAND in 1954, Armen A. Alchian conducted the world’s first event study to infer the fissile fuel material used in the manufacturing of the […]