Yep. For example, here in Stockholm they recently built a new regional hospital. It turned out to be many times over budget and is one of the most expensive bui

Yep. For example, here in Stockholm they recently built a new regional hospital. It turned out to be many times over budget and is one of the most expensive buildings in the world with a total construction cost exceeding that of Burj Khalifa. The book review doesn't mention New Public Management which I think is odd. Nuclear construction costs started to skyrocket at precisely the time NPM became vogue. NPM states that governments are bad at doing stuff and should do as little as possible. Everything governments need should be acquired from private companies who bid for contracts. Lowest bidders win. This almost never works because companies' motives are different from governments'. The government wants the nuclear plant built on time. The company who won the contract doesn't mind if it takes twice as long because that could mean twice the profit. So governments respond by adding more stipulations and regulations to the contracts which only makes it easier for companies to find exploitable loopholes in them to extract more tax-payer money.