The Dauphin of Detroit

As its power expands, the government bureaucracy increasingly resembles an aristocracy. How else to explain the enormous power invested in Brian Deese, the unknown, unelected, 31-year-old White House aide in command of General Motors?

"Brian Deese isn't picking out Chevy Malibu's colors for next year."

That's what President Obama's press secretary said to assure Americans that the administration has no interest in micromanaging the newly nationalized General Motors. Anyhow, Deese, a junior member of the White House economic policy staff, has bigger things to worry about—like "dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism," as The New York Times put it.

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Will Wilkinson is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound. He writes on topics ranging from Social Security reform, happiness and public policy, economic inequality, and the political implications of new research in psychology and economics. He is a regular commentator on public radio's Marketplace and his writing has appeared in The Economist, Reason, Forbes, Slate, Policy, Prospect, and many other publications.