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John O'Leary

Contributor

John O’Leary leads state and local government research efforts for the Deloitte Center for Government Insights. Prior to joining Deloitte, he served as the vice president of communications and executive reporting with State Street Bank.

O’Leary previously served in multiple senior leadership roles in Massachusetts state government and was a distinguished research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is the co-author of the best-selling 2010 book "If We Can Put a Man on the Moon: Getting Big Things Done in Government."

When government wants to discourage something, the instinct is to criminalize that behavior. But small infractions often get lost by prosecutors and courts that have...
The recent tragedy in Washington state has focused attention on sharing information about criminals between states. As Professor Goldsmith points out in his article, data...
When it comes to spreading an innovative practice, it helps to be able to tell a good story. This interview with Sandford Borins, a Professor...
The writer Edward Albey noted: "There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California." The ongoing problems of...
Oftentimes, customer service improvements occur only after very public and very embarrassing failures. Consider the IRS. In the late 1990s, a series of televised Congressional...
An article in today's Wall Street Journal tells a grim tale of the unintended consequences of federal stimulus funds. According to Richard Ravitch, the Democratic...
In his column on "e21" -- a site that looks at economic policies for the 21st century -- Professor Steve Goldsmith argues that the budget...
Steve Goldsmith has weighed in with why old ideas won't work with the current fiscal crunch, making the case that the circumstances are unprecedented and...
Not only is Arizona turning assets into cash through a sale-lease back approach, but Governor Jan Brewer's budget proposal is full of difficult cuts. The...
Chicago's parking meter privatization is a fascinating study in media coverage and the public perception of public policy. The story has a lot of moving...