Untangling the USA: the cost of complexity and what can be done about it

Tom Brady and the 'tuck rule'; 'Nobody knew health care could be so complicated'; 'The financial world has become way too complicated and very secretive'.

What could Tom Brady, Donald Trump and Michael Lewis possibly have in common?

Complexity. Lewis has analysed it; Trump has discovered it; Brady has benefited from it. And the USA is entangled in it. Complex systems are an inevitable part of business and socio-economic structures.

We reach a breaking point, however, when social and organisational structures become cumbersome and unintelligible.

Entire new systems need to be constructed just to manage this complexity, with questionable or negative value to society at large.

The outcome is high costs, poor results, deepening social inequality, and the erosion of public trust.