[jermaustin1]

Same, I want to believe that this is all a ruse and that the are smart and just really good at playing dumb, but there are just too MANY of them.

It's sycophancy plain and simple. Surround yourself with only yes-men, it ends up becoming less and less competent as the ones who stand up and say no are replaced.

Even if they know better, they can't do better because they know there is no loyalty to nay-sayers.

[XorNot]

The main thing is that if you're a big enough entity, in favorable enough conditions, it's possible to make stupid decisions continuously and survive them for a very long time.

It's the "market can remain irrational..." problem.

[shermantanktop]

And as a consequence, never recognize them as being stupid---in fact the reverse, because your bad ideas are met with macro success even while individually they may struggle.

It's yet another broken feedback loop.