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User: Provide a timeline summarizing Tyler's and/or Alex's opinion of DOGE on marginalrevolution.com.

Provide a timeline summarizing Tyler's and/or Alex's opinion of DOGE on marginalrevolution.com.

Assistant: Here’s a concise timeline summarizing Tyler Cowen’s and Alex Tabarrok’s publicly expressed views on DOGE on MarginalRev…

Here’s a concise timeline summarizing Tyler Cowen’s and Alex Tabarrok’s publicly expressed views on DOGE on MarginalRevolution.com (mostly Tyler’s posts, since Alex has limited direct commentary on this topic in the blog itself). Most posts center on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a political/government-reform initiative, not the cryptocurrency Dogecoin — but the acronym overlaps. Marginal REVOLUTION

2024

Nov 17, 2024 — How to make DOGE work

• Tyler Cowen: Assessed DOGE critically but constructively, noting Republican enthusiasm.
• He argued that DOGE’s governance structure is undefined and untested, lacks an enduring constituency, and may struggle to maintain political focus (e.g., deregulation isn’t clearly prioritized). Marginal REVOLUTION

Nov 21, 2024 — How DOGE is really going to work

• Tyler Cowen: Followed up with a more pragmatic view — acknowledging some aspects that could work (e.g., embedding legal experts in agencies) but warning to not expect too much because enforcement pauses don’t eliminate rules. Marginal REVOLUTION

Nov 22, 2024 — Sunstein on DOGE

• Alex Tabarrok: Gave space to Cass Sunstein’s perspective on government efficiency and regulation, which reinforces the broader context of reform efforts like DOGE, without directly endorsing DOGE’s approach. Marginal REVOLUTION

Dec 21, 2024 — The show so far, DOGE edition

• Tyler Cowen: Signaled that DOGE had made little substantive progress and some steps appeared like backsliding. Marginal REVOLUTION

2025

Apr 11, 2025 — It seems DOGE is dwindling?

• Tyler Cowen: Noted news of rollback of DOGE directives at NIH as a possible sign that bureaucratic resistance is reasserting itself, reinforcing his earlier point about the need for prioritization and broader support. Marginal REVOLUTION

May 28, 2025 — A report from inside DOGE

• Tyler Cowen: Shared an internal account suggesting DOGE operated more like embedded consultants than a powerful reform engine and that agencies let DOGE be the “fall guy” for unpopular actions. Marginal REVOLUTION

May 31, 2025 — Redux of my advice to DOGE

• Tyler Cowen: Revisited his advice, reiterating that DOGE’s early framing missed its real political and organizational challenges — emphasizing it was never primarily about efficiency in his original sense. Marginal REVOLUTION

Jun 3, 2025 — Sentence of the Day

• Alex Tabarrok: Did not directly comment on DOGE but alluded to how commentators have framed DOGE in debates about fiscal policy; the post doesn’t explicitly praise or critique DOGE itself. Marginal REVOLUTION

Aug 2, 2025 — In which ways is the BLS biased?

• Tyler Cowen: Made a remark tangentially tying into bureaucratic reform discussions, mentioning that he might have approved if Trump used DOGE to radically restructure the Bureau of Labor Statistics — implying a generally favorable view of aggressive reform, though couched in rhetorical style. Marginal REVOLUTION

Patterns and Interpretation

Tyler Cowen’s view (majority of commentary):

• Cautious/critical realism — he sees potential value in reform ideas underlying DOGE but repeatedly emphasizes institutional ambiguity, lack of a clear governance model, limited political constituency, and risks of over-centralization. His tone moves from interest in what could work toward skepticism as real-world implementation struggles. Marginal REVOLUTION

Alex Tabarrok’s involvement:

• Less directly about DOGE; his Sunstein on DOGE hosted ideas relevant to government efficiency and a brief Sentence of the Day allusion, rather than clear endorsements or critiques. Marginal REVOLUTION

If you’d like, I can compile direct excerpts from these posts into a side-by-side comparison or extract critical passages for deeper qualitative analysis.