The story on the street is that Lassen asked Grimes how much money he had committed to new hires, and Jay said he didn't know. So Lassen froze all new hires until Jay could find his abacus......
The fact that they are unable to determine how much money they have committed / uncommitted does not surprise me given that they do not know how many faculty they have to start with combined with a lack of knowledge about how many have left or are leaving and, lastly, how many vacant positions need to be filled. They probably have to take their shoes off to count that high. There probably aren't enough people at cabinet meetings to get as high as they need to. Can you picture it - all of them seated around the conference room, leaning back in their chairs, feet up, socks off and confusingly counting "this little piggy?"