“Simpler,” by Cass R. Sunstein — who as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from 2009-12 helped “oversee the issuance of nearly 2,000 rules from federal agencies” — is a detailed, nuanced look at how rules and regulations can be made simpler, and how the social environment in which we make decisions can be “nudged” in ways that help us to make more rational, sensible choices.
Many of the more original and illuminating ideas in this book, however, were previously mapped out by Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler in their fascinating 2008 best-seller “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness,” or build upon the groundbreaking ideas laid out by Daniel Kahneman in his compelling 2011 book “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”
While at OIRA, Sunstein reviewed rules related to President Barack Obama’s health care act and Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. He backed higher fuel-efficiency standards for motor vehicles and new toxic emissions rules for power plants, and he helped oversee a deal that would make appliances more energy efficient. Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“SIMPLER: The Future of Government,”
by Cass R. Sunstein, Simon & Schuster, 260 pages, $26
