As the economic historian Robert Higgs has documented, however, new powers often become permanent, broadly applied and unmoored from the crises used to justify them.

After fiveyears as head of the organization, frustration with Altman had reachedcritical levels over an issue strikingly similar to one that had arisen atLoopt: his seeming prioritization of his own projects and aspirations overthe organization’s—sometimes even at its expense.