Working in tandem with the White House, federal agencies are moving swiftly to reform the administrative state that President Trump inherited from President Obama. The White House’s semiannual "Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions," released in early May, outlines federal agencies' efforts to reduce their own excessive regulatory burdens and to streamline their own processes for granting federal infrastructure permits.

Earlier this month, former U.S. Treasury secretary Larry Summers published a Washington Post column warning that, despite the low unemployment rate (3.9 percent) and solid economic growth, America might still be suffering from "secular stagnation."