I think the reference to "the powers that be" is just asking whether there's editorial endorsement of an Op-ed. In particular, Jerome's.

Any Op-ed can be composed on-site and signed by those who wish to do so with or without editorial endorsement, but people feel it's a different matter to identify the signatories as "ET contributors" without asking for permission first.

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman

I never thought ET was a power or thought itself a power

Thought wrong.

We're a Legend in our own Mind.

LOL

People have written Letters to the Editor and Op-Ed pieces, Jerome for one, as a "contributor to" or "editor of" European Tribune with no vetting.  Back a couple of years ago a consensus was reached that people should get an OK (at least from Jerome who pays all the bills for this thing) before presenting themselves as speaking for "European Tribune."

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre