Category Archives: Fiscal Freedom

The unprecedented coronavirus pandemic was a timely reminder that even black swan eventsextremely rare, unexpected events with severe consequencescan come to pass. The pandemic has demonstrated unequivocally that such unforeseen and unplanned-for events can wreak havoc on economies around the world, creating a ripple effect that impacts each one of us.

One of the lessons of this crisis is the realization that we must all prepare for any such eventuality in the future. You must start by ensuring that you are, at the very least, financially protected against a similar event. The only way to achieve this goal is by creating a financial safety net through long-term planning.

You can start with diligent saving under a carefully-designed financial plan that is monitored regularly. A long-term financial plan has many benefits that extend beyond providing security in times of crisis. However, before you understand the need for long-term planning, you must ensure stable cash flow through savings.

As half of Indias population is under the age of 27 years, any similar crisis in the future has the potential to severely cripple the income streams of this large demographic. The resultant employment losses and financial insecurity can become immediate threats. To combat this, personal savings can prove to be a critical factor in cushioning any fallouts. There is, hence, an urgent need to promote long-term financial planning and retirement savings strategies in all age groups.

Create A Savings Plan: A savings plan is not just about letting your money accumulate in a bank deposit; it has many other benefits. The smart option is to always let this money work for you. A smart investment plan will include an option to facilitate regular cash flow, where you may be able to see partial returns on your investment after a certain period of time. This will allow you to further build your capital and enhance your financial portfolio.

Plan Financial Goals: With sufficient savings, you can plan for your life goals, such as retiring early or investment in long-term assets such as real estate. You can also put aside funds for short-term goals, like buying a car or planning a holiday, without worrying about crippling your long-term portfolio. A suitable nest egg is essential for your financial stability and independence. In a crisis situation like a pandemic, it can help you tide over a sudden job loss or pay cut, and give you greater freedom to scout for new opportunities.

Discipline Yourself: Financial planning helps build fiscal responsibility and self-discipline where you learn to budget, keep track of your liabilities, pay your taxes on time, and eventually increase your savings. Over time you will learn the trick of maintaining a consistent flow of cash, while ensuring a healthy and diverse portfolio.

A long-term financial plan may seem like a daunting prospect, especially if your savings are generally low and spending is high. It may even seem unnecessary if you are still in your 20s. However, the sooner you start, the more you can gain from an investment plan. You can allow more time for your investments to mature, opt for high-risk-high-return investments without worrying about a looming retirement.

Similarly, it is just as important for those in their 40s or 50s. While age may limit the liabilities you can take on, there are plenty of safer options where you can park your money and allow it to grow. In fact, with age a financial plan becomes critical as your retirement comes closer.

Over time you will develop an understanding of the markets and the factors that influence their working.

Diversification here means distributing your investments between different assets that react differently to the same financial event, market, or timeline. For instance, a diversified portfolio will typically include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money market instruments, commodities, and real estate. When planning a long-term investment plan, diversification is critical.

Asset allocation is the distribution of different asset classes in a portfolio. An ideal asset allocation should balance the risks and rewards in a portfolio. Assets are broadly divided into stocks and bonds.

Your portfolio should contain both to strike a balance between risk and surety. However, the proportion can change according to various factors. The general rule of thumb when calculating asset allocation is to subtract your age from 100, the result being the amount you should invest in stock. So, a 25-year-old can keep the asset allocation at 75% stock and 25% bonds. On the other hand, a 40-year-old could keep the ratio at 60:40.

However, this is just a rough guide. Today we have plenty of other options to choose from, such as:

The question here is how to distribute these asset classes in a portfolio. Asset allocation depends on your goals, risk appetite, and age. Since the goal here is long-term investment, lets look at the other two factors:

Risk appetite: An important part of any portfolio is risk management. Stocks and bonds should be allocated according to the amount of risk you are willing to take while pursuing your investment goals. This is risk appetite and there are multiple factors that influence it. If you have high liability or low income, your risk appetite is likely to be lower even if you are in your 20s. On the other hand, someone in their 30s with no unusual liabilities, will have a higher risk appetite and can hold the majority of their portfolio in stocks.

Age: As you grow older and nearer to your retirement age, you are less likely to risk your life savings. The proportion of bonds in a portfolio, hence, increases with age. The younger you are, the longer the potential lifespan of your investments. You can invest in stocks that may seem high risk in the near future, but are likely to show higher returns later. You can hold your stocks and allow them to appreciate.

The two main factors of asset allocationrisk appetite and agekeep changing with time. As your earnings increase, your risk appetite will also go up. On the other hand, a sudden loss or cut in earnings will lower your risk appetite. In addition, your liabilities may change with time. For instance, starting a family or buying a house entails regular expenses that will impact your savings, and hence, your investments. Your age will also play a role; as you grow older, your willingness to take risks is likely to lessen. These changes in circumstances mean that your portfolio must be rebalanced periodically.

A long-term investment plan is necessary for a secure future. Whether it is about creating a retirement plan or ensuring comfortable savings, it ensures that your money is secure and growing at a healthy rate. At a time when we have been confronted with unimaginable and uncontrollable events, it becomes even more critical for your personal freedom and in ensuring economic security against another pandemic.

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How Long-Term Financial Planning Can Help You Sail Through Another Pandemic - Forbes

Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

The nationwide fight over the teaching of critical race theory, has landed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, throwing another log on a culture war fire thats already seen the Republican-controlled chamberadvance bills limiting abortion rights andexpanding gun rights, even as some lawmakers seek toban transgender youth athletes from participating in sportsthat correspond with their gender.

Reps. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, andBarbara Gleim, R-Cumberland(the prime sponsor of that transgender athlete bill),began seeking co-sponsors for their proposalto [curtail] the divisive nature of concepts more commonly known as critical race theory,' onMay 21, arguing that teaching our children that they are inferior or inherently bad based on immutable characteristics such as race and sex can be extremely damaging to their emotional and mental well-being.

Only a niche term a year ago, the fight over critical race theory, which scholars view as an overdue attempt to educate public school students on how racial disparities are embedded in U.S history and society, has become the latestbete noireof the right,with conservatives arguing that teachers are trying to inject race into what should be a colorblind system,the Washington Post reported on May 3.

DiamondsandGleimsDear Colleague memo echoes that contention, arguing that our schools should be teaching that every individual is equal under the law and that no individual should ever be labeled superior or inferior simply due to their race or genetic makeup, nor be held responsible for actions taken by others with similar traits.

Such teachings, the lawmakers contended interfere with our constitutional duty to support and maintain a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.

Writing in the Washington Post on Wednesday, one expert said such bills are not only chilling, they also are unconstitutional at the college level, where debates over critical race theory traditionally and predominantly take place.

These laws are both misguided and unconstitutional; they constitute bad educational policy, and in the higher education context, they violate the First Amendment,Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr.,a professor at theUniversity of Alabama School of Law, wrote. At a time when we desperately need to have more frank and open conversations about race, class, social justice and the concept of the other,they hamstring educators charged with preparing young people to live and work in an increasingly diverse society.

But, as applied to public K-12 schools, these laws might survive judicial review, because states enjoy broad constitutional authority over the curriculum,Krotoszynskiadded.

As ourNational Correspondent Dan Vockrecently reported, such efforts have proliferated nationwide as GOP lawmakers have succeeded in pushing it to the top ofstate legislative agendas.Governors in Idaho and Oklahoma have already signed measures to forbid the teaching of critical race theory in schools this year. Arkansas Republican governor let a similar measure become law without his signature, while proposals in Iowa and Tennessee are waiting for their governors approval,Vockreported for our sibling site,North Carolina Policy Watch.

Lawmakers inNorth Carolina,Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and other states have waded into the debate, as well, although some of those efforts have failed.

A group of Republican attorneys general from 20 states this week sent theBiden administrationa10-page letterchastising federal officials for using two grant programs as a thinly veiled attempt at bringing into our states classrooms the deeply flawed and controversial teachings of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project.

And asVockreports,conservative groups such as theHeritage Foundationand theAmerican Legislative Exchange Council, which provides right-winglawmakers with whats known as model legislation that they can use in their own states,also have stepped up pressure on conservative state lawmakers to rein in the teaching of critical race theory.

Particularly at the state level, the focus has primarily been on schools. Pending legislation in North Carolina, for instance, would prohibit teachers from promoting concepts that suggest America is racist or that people are inherently racist or sexist.

It would also prohibit teaching that whites or anyone else is responsible for the sins of their forefathers. In Tennessee, for example,a bill passedby the legislature would prohibit local school districts or charter schools from teaching or including materials that promote or include 14 different concepts.If schools dont comply, they could lose state funding. The exact amount would be up to the states education commissioner,Vockreported.

A draft version of Diamonds and Gleims bill, which is attached to their co-sponsorship memo,contains a similar provision, ordering the loss of funds not only for the current fiscal year, but for the next one as well for districts that run afoul of their proposal.

Lawrence Paska, the executive director of theNational Council for the Social Studies, a group that represents social studies teachers, toldVockthat heworries about the amount of control lawmakers are trying to exert over teachers classrooms.

This goes against what we know good instructional practice to be, he toldVock. Were a little baffled at the idea that were going to legislate away certain types of freedoms and responsibilities that teachers have.

Were concerned with this notion of limiting discussion about things like racism, sexism and discrimination, that we cant talk about those things. Thats both against what we do in social education but more importantly, its against the very definition of First Amendment freedoms and academic freedom for both teachers and students,Paskaadded.

Paskasaid the goal of teaching the faults of the country is to help make students better citizens, not to shame them.

I dont know an educator who thinks, My job at the end of the day is to shame a student, is to shame a child, into feeling anything less than their full potential, he toldVock.

That the bills are coming at a time of heightened awareness of racial and class disparities laid bare by the pandemic is hardly coincidental.

And one Black lawmaker says he believes its a dereliction of duty for the Legislature to waste time and the taxpayers money on distractions at a time when so many are in need.

Critical Race Theory is not taught in k-12 schools. Its an analytical approach to understanding inequality and how the law might address persistent inequalities,Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Philadelphia, told theCapital-Star.

It is taught in some law schools and graduate schools of education. All across the country peddlers of racial division are spreading misinformation to justify creating a solution for a problem that doesnt exist,Rabbcontinued. What does exist is structural inequality and deep racial disparities. Analyzing their root causes is not controversial. Continuing to deny racial justice, however, is nothing less than cowardly and reckless.

Our Stuff.A proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed childhood survivors of sexual abuse to file expanded claims in civil courtwas held up due systemic failures at Dept. of State, a report by the stateOffice of Inspector Generalconcludes.Stephen CarusoandMarley Parishhave the details.

Potentially upsetting decades of precedent that has aided rural, white Pennsylvanians at the expense of Black, urban residents,House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia, hascalled for state legislators to change how they count prisoners during redistricting, Stephen Carusoalso reports.

Honoring calls for transparency, a state Senate committeeheld its first public hearing on the decennial redrawingof Pennsylvanias congressional map,Marley Parishalso reports.

Heading for a national park this summer?Youll be headed into the busiest season in history,U.S. Park Serviceofficials told a U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday,National Correspondent Jacob Fischlerreports.

Members ofPhiladelphia City Councilaredemanding more transparency from Mayor Jim Kenneys administrationover errors in the citys payroll system, our partners at thePhiladelphia Tribunereport.

On our Commentary Page this morning, aUSC-Dornsifeexpert sayssending science majors into elementary schoolshelps Latino and Black students realize scientists can look like them. And frequent contributorJonathan C. Rothermel, ofMansfield University, suggests a common sense bit of election reform:Moving Election Day to the weekendso that more people can participate.

Elsewhere.ThePhiladelphia Housing Authorityhas received an unprecedented $10 million in federal vouchers specifically tohelp people experiencing homelessnessin the city, theInquirerreports.More than 70 percent of Pennsylvania adultshave received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, theTribune-Reviewreports.A new state lawupdates the requirementsfor a CDL license,PennLivereports.LancasterOnlinecaught up withGov. Tom Wolf, who traveled to Lancaster County on Wednesdayto push a minimum wage increase.The statehas dropped its lawsuit against restaurantsaccused of defying pandemic shutdown orders including four in the Lehigh Valley, theMorning Callreports.NEPA Demspushed the Biden administrations American Families Planduring an event on Wednesday, theCitizens Voicereports.

Heres your #Pennsylvania Instagram of the Day.

WHYY-FMs Layla A. Jonesreflects on how reporting while Blackduring a summer of uprisings changed her and her colleagues.WITF-FMlooks at the debate over theWolf administrationsplan to use a horse racing subsidy to fund higher education.The 2022 Pa. governors race is a toss-up, according to theCook Political Report(viaPoliticsPA).Stateline.orgexplains how the pandemic hashighlighted the dangers of nursing home understaffing.Conservatives are now complaining about wait for itleft-wing extremism in the U.S. military,Talking Points Memoreports.

What Goes On.The House and Senate are off today. But heres a look at the days committee action.10:30 a.m.,Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, Pittsburgh:Senate Community, Economic & Recreational Development Committee11 a.m., 515 Irvis North:House Labor & Industry Committee, Subcomittee on Workers Compensation and Worker Protection1:45 p.m., 515 Irvis North: House Labor & Industry Committee (continued from above)

WolfWatch.Gov. Tom Wolfheads to Montgomery County for a 2 p.m. event withAttorney General Josh Shapiroand members of the LegislaturesWomens Health Caucus, where theyll discuss a series of crashingly awful anti-abortion rights bills that were reported out of theHouse Health Committeeearlier this week.

You Say Its Your Birthday Dept.Best wishes go out this morning toWRVV-FMHarrisburg radio hostGlenn Hamilton, who completes another trip around the sun today. Congratulations, sir. Enjoy the day.

Heavy Rotation.Heres some more new music fromLiz Phair.From her upcoming LPSober-ish, itsIn There.

Thursdays Gratuitous Hockey Link.The New York Islanderseliminated the Pittsburgh Penguinson Wednesday night, winning 5-3 in Game 6 of their first round playoff series.

And now youre up to date.

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The fight over critical race theory lands in Harrisburg; House GOP bill would punish districts that teach it | Thursday Morning Coffee - Pennsylvania...

Irvine City Council members could take more control over their personal budgets next week as they discuss removing most of the restrictions on the $100,000 they each receive annually to fund their offices and activities.

The shift comes after Councilman Mike Carroll was accused of improperly spending his aide budget on advertising community events he hosted, which critics say gave him an advantage in the election using public tax dollars. Ultimately, the then council voted to retroactively approve the spending and to discuss changing the policy for the next fiscal year.

Read: Irvine City Council Approves Councilman Mike Carrolls Mailer Spending Despite City Policy Violation

Originally established in 1984, the council members individual budgets were restricted purely to spending on council executive assistant salaries and associated expenses, office equipment and supplies, with a caveat that any other spending had to be approved by a vote of the full council.

Under the proposed guidelines, as long as council members dont exceed their total budgeted allowance, they can spend the funds on whatever they want if they get the request approved by the city managers office and the finance department, according to a city staff report.

The issue only comes in front of the council if a council member wants to spend more than their allotted budget.

Interim City Manager Marianna Marysheva said the proposed changes were put forward to bring the councils budget in line with the way city departments handle their spending.

For example, (departments) can transfer unused appropriations in their budget. If they have salary savings and they need consultants, or they need to add to a particular contract, they have that flexibility in the budget, Marysheva said. The same rules would apply to council office budgets if approved, that they would have the flexibility to use their total funding allocated within applicable rules and regulations.

In addition to their staff funds, council members each receive $10,000 a year they can allocate to charities and nonprofits in the city, which will remain separate from the staff budget, according to Marysheva.

Last November, Carroll said he would be pushing hard for more freedom on how council members can spend their money in the next budget.

Each council member of the city of Irvine gets approximately $100,000 a year, and council members should be able to spend that as they see fit to assist the 280,000 residents of Irvine, Carroll said in a phone call with Voice of OC then.

Carroll, Councilman Anthony Kuo and Mayor Farrah Khan did not return requests for comment.

Councilwoman Tammy Kim said she was a big fan of the proposed system, outlining how the flexibility would let council members structure their priorities as they saw fit.

We were elected because of our abilityto manage multi million dollar budgets. Thats what constituents expect a council member to be able to do, Kim said. Theres a certain amount of trust that goes into whoever you elect.

When asked about resident concerns around Carrolls spending, Kim said she didnt view his spending as an abuse of power and it was an advantage of being an incumbent.

There are city services you have to promote, so I get the flyers from (Assemblyman) Steven Choi all the time. And yes, one could argue its campaigning but is it really? Youve got to be able to reach out to your constituents regarding whats going on or what they have access to, Kim said. If thats where a council member chooses to spend their money, thats their right. Im saying this as someone who ran against Mike.

Councilman Larry Agran said while he supports the existence of the council aide program, he wants to be sure theres enough oversight for where the money is going.

My mind is open on the subject, as far as how these reforms might work out in practice, Agran said. I would have to think about it a little bit.

The council will vote on the new policy at its 4 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, which can be viewed here.

Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC Reporting Fellow. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.

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Irvine To Discuss New Policy Easing Restrictions On Personal Office Budget Spending - Voice of OC

In 2017, responding to pressure from students and faculty, McMaster University created an advisory committee to consider whether to divest its endowment from fossil fuels.

In its report, which recommended actions to reduce the universitys carbon footprint and promote climate change research, the committee recommended against divestment from fossil fuels. The reasons cited included the difficulty of exiting pooled investment funds containing Carbon Underground (CU) 200 firms(the top 200 coal, oil and gas firms ranked by potential carbon emissions of their reported reserves); the relative riskiness of renewable energy investments; and the dismissal of divestment as a purely symbolic gesture.

Similar rationales had guided universities throughout Canada with the exception of Laval to reject fossil fuel divestment.

But a lot has changed since then.

The relative riskiness of oil and renewables is shifting and some firms have built strong track records in fossil-free investment. Most significantly, the 2018 International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report shows that the effects of climate change are more rapid and severe than predicted.

Divestment continues to be a hard sell at Canadian universities, however, and its worth considering why.

I enter the debate on divestment as an environmentalist, convinced by the science that shows the danger of climate change and the role of fossil fuels in accelerating it. My approach also reflects my research in environmental humanities, which analyses the entanglement of liberal values like diversity, sustainability and resilience with the culture of settler colonialism and uses tools from feminist and decolonial cultural studies to imagine different models of climate justice.

Oil is the lifeblood of our current culture and our climate crisis. This insight and its implications have emerged through the work of scholars in the energy humanities. Imre Szeman, Sheena Wilson and Adam Carlson, communications and media researchers, observe that: Freedom, identity, success: our deepest ideals and most prominent social fantasies are mediated and enabled by the energies of fossil fuels.

The conceptual framework of petroculture the set of values that our dependence on oil has created shows that culture fuelled by oil doesnt only influence our attitudes about it; petroculture saturates everything, including the institutions in which investment and divestment decisions are situated.

How does petroculture shape the divestment debate?

In Canada, one obvious element is the centrality of fossil fuels to our national identity (though fossil fuels accounted for only 10 per cent of the GDP in 2019).

Another strand of the anti-divestment argument is the seat-at-the-table narrative. Leaving aside questions about the effectiveness of shareholder activism, its powerful appeal owes something to the petrocultural values of engagement. If youve won a seat at the table, it seems like bad form to quibble over questions like: Why are some seats closer to the the table than others? Who designed the table? Who owns it? Whats it made of?

The framing of the seat-at-the-table strategy as an almost existential choice exit vs. voice, fight or flight highlights the values of mobility and positivity that are central to petroculture.

These values also inform the elevation of ESG (Environment, Society, Governance) investment principles, hailed by Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney as a valuable weapon against oil sands divestment.

Read more: What is sustainability accounting? What does ESG mean? We have answers

Deemed by some advocates as more subtle and sophisticated than negative screening, ESG also gains appeal by using the rhetoric of intersectionality, a term from critical race theory describing the overlapping dynamics of power (patriarchy, racism, homophobia, etc.) that determine landscapes of inequality.

In her extensive exploration of petro-intersectionality, media and cultural studies researcher Sheena Wilson, notes that while petroleum may have fuelled womens autonomy in the west, it exacerbates the disempowerment of women in the Global South who are also among the hardest hit by climate change.

She says the aura of feminism that permeates the rhetoric of ethical Canadian oil is further troubled in its omission of Indigenous women, whose political opposition is dismissed and whose communities pay the costs.

When fossil fuel companies talk about intersectionality the term evokes a vision of lean-in feminism (a concept created by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in 2013 that has since drawn significant criticism), that seamlessly blends the ideals of diversity and competitive self-advancement.

Countering the positivity of leaning in, the point of divestment is to send a negative message, to undermine the social licence of an industry whose potential for harm exceeds the most stringent application of ESG principles.

To understand why universities have a hard time with this message, we can return to the table metaphor. Tables are places where meals are shared and decisions are made, about resource distribution, policies and procedures. As public funding disappears, corporations have moved to the head of the table of higher education. While investments might shift from sector to sector, its essential that business interests remain at the forefront, even as the conversation turns to social responsibility.

In March 2021, at the end of a fiscal year that dented not only the profits of oil, but also the culture of hyper-mobility, connectedness and leaning in that mediates it, McMaster President, David Farrar issued a statement calling on the Board of Governors to divest from fossil fuels as soon as possible. The timeline remains vague, though the way forward is clear.

In a small but consequential distinction from gradually withdrawing from an unprofitable sector, it will require the university to say No, to push away from a table that has been shown to be both inequitable and unstable but proves strangely hard to leave.

Read more here:

Fossil fuel divestment is the road to climate justice - The Conversation CA

SAN DIEGO Almost 15 years ago, the U.S. Navy christened the first of a new class of warship designed to fight the Global War on Terrorism. The so-called littoral combat ships would be fast and agile, operating close to shore against missile-firing boats and small submarines.

Today, the Navy has a new mission or rather, has returned to its old mission, facing off against more capable warships deployed by China and Russia. And the service is still trying to figure out what to do with its $16 billion LCS fleet.

It doesnt help that some of the ships have suffered embarrassing breakdowns in mid-ocean. Or that the Navy discovered recently that the transmission in one of the two classes of ships was defective and needed to be redesigned. And while Congress has eagerly funded construction of the two very different classes of ships, it cut funding from the mission modules needed by the ships to fulfill their missions.

That unfortunate combination explains the ignominious nickname assigned to the LCS by some sailors: Little Crappy Ships.

The Navy intends to spend an additional $61 billion to maintain and operate the ships, according to the Government Accountability Office. But at the same time, the service announced plans last year to retire four of the earliest ships all based in San Diego beginning this summer, well ahead of the end of their projected service lives.

The Independence, the second ship of the LCS class, will decommission on July 31, followed by the first LCS, the Freedom, on Sept. 30, according to the San Diego-based Naval Surface Force Pacific. Plans to decommission the third ship of the class, the Fort Worth, and the fourth, the Coronado, were nixed by Congress in this years budget.

The Coronado only entered service in 2014. The ships, the Navy says, were designed to operate for at least 25 years.

The Navy said the money it saves in maintaining the first two ships will be put to better use elsewhere. Those ships, along with the Fort Worth and Coronado, are test platforms and are configured differently than newer littoral combat ships.

To remain ahead of our competitors, particularly under fiscal constraints, it is important for Navy to carefully review our force structure regularly and divest of legacy capabilities that no longer bring sufficient lethality to the fight, said Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a Surface Force spokeswoman.

Schwegman said plans to decommission the Fort Worth and Coronado are on hold and the Navy has not yet made a decision on how to proceed.

Fighting terrorists

When the Navys first littoral combat ship contract was awarded in 2005, the country was in the throes of fighting al-Qaida. U.S. troops occupied Iraq and Afghanistan and the Navy was looking for a small, maneuverable vessel to operate in the worlds littoral waters, or those close to shore. The ships were designed for automation and minimal manning early on, the Navy planned to only put 40 sailors on board each ship, a number that has since expanded to 70.

In an unusual move, the Navy also elected to field two different versions of the ship from different shipbuilders the steel-hulled 387-foot Freedom class, designed by Lockheed Martin and built by Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin, and the 421-foot all-aluminum trimaran Independence class, designed and built by Austal USA in Mobile, Alabama.

Both versions were meant to have modular mission capability the ability to go to sea with one of three interchangeable mission packages: anti-mine, anti-submarine or surface warfare.

In 2016, that modular model was abandoned, and the Navy said each ship would be dedicated to one of those three mission configurations.

The Navy is not getting what they expected to get out of LCS at this point, said Shelby Oakley, who oversees the GAOs work on Navy shipbuilding. There was a lot of over-promising of capability and technology and concepts that didnt come to fruition.

The ships have had issues with their power trains. To achieve their high speed sprinting as fast as 40 knots, or 46 mph each ship has four engines, two diesel and two gas turbines, and is pushed through the water via water jets rather than the traditional screw propellers. In January, the Navy stopped accepting Freedom-class littoral combat ships after discovering a design flaw in the combining gear of the vessels. The combining gear functions as a part of the ships transmission.

Testing is underway in Germany for a fix to the issue and the Navy is still working on a plan to install the fix on ships in the fleet, Schwegman said.

Land-based factory testing is currently underway at the RENK facility in Germany and will continue over the next several months, she said. This will be followed by sea-based testing.

The flaw only affected the Freedom-variant, Schwegman said, as the Independence-variant does not have a combining gear.

All of the Navys Independence-variants are based out of San Diego. All but two of the Freedom variants operate out of Mayport, Fla.; the Freedom and the Fort Worth are based in San Diego.

Littoral combat ships dont just look different than anything else on the waterfront the differences continue inside the skin of the ships.

On the Kansas City commissioned in San Diego last year, the 22nd LCS to enter the fleet the bridge more closely resembles that of the fictional starships of Star Trek than a traditional Navy ship. Two pilots seats reminiscent of aircraft cockpit seats are positioned center and forward on the bridge. The ships commanding officer, Cmdr. Christopher Brusca, explained that the officer of the deck drives the ship by controlling both the power and direction of the ships four water jets with a joystick-like dial, rather than the traditional setup of a helmsman steering with a wheel. The ships have no rudders.

Just like the bridge on the starship Enterprise, key members of the crew are all based on the bridge, including the engineering watch officer, tactical action officer, fire controlmen and operations specialists.

The ship also has very few crew spaces and no living quarters below its waterline, meaning the risk of flooding from collisions or battle damage is relatively low something unique to this variant, Brusca said. The ship also lacks the steep, often slippery ladder-wells found on other vessels; sailors transit an actual staircase between the decks.

The trimaran hull gives the ship another notable advantage, Brusca said: it only sits about 14 feet deep in the water, meaning it can get closer to shore than most ships. This gives the ship an advantage not just in warfighting, but in diplomacy, he said.

We can pull into ports that some other ships cant because those harbors are shallower, he said. So weve been able to pull into ports in Asia and have relationships with other countries and other communities within those countries that the Navy has not been able to go to before.

One of the issues with littoral combat ships is their lack of firepower. Combined with the aluminum hull of the Independence variants, concerns about ship survivability persist.

In 2019, the Navy installed the Naval Strike Missile on the San Diego-based Gabrielle Giffords, and it has since added the 100-mile-range anti-ship missiles to three more Independence-variant ships. The Navy plans to add to them to the rest of the class, Schwegman said.

As a training vessel, the Kansas City does not yet have the missiles, Brusca said. The Navy is prioritizing operational ships with the upgrade, which is a significant improvement.

An LCS that didnt have those missiles? Maybe not very threatening in the open seas, Brusca said. Now that those missiles are on, you better pay attention to where the LCSs are and that weve got a lot of them. We can definitely reach out an touch people.

Littoral combat ships are able to launch and recover both manned and unmanned helicopters from their rear flight decks.

The decision to retire the first littoral combat ships was seen as yet another example of the Navys poor post-Cold War shipbuilding strategy.

Another class of cutting-edge ship in San Diego harbor the stealth destroyers Zumwalt and Michael Monsoor have no ammunition for their main armament, a gun that was supposed to shoot rocket-assisted shells. The shells became too expensive when the class was cut from 30 ships to three again, partly because the Zumwalt classs mission changed. Once optimized for fire support close to shore, now the class is being transitioned into a missile-firing role.

The main problem with littoral combat ships, according to GAO watchdogs, is the way the Navy went about developing and purchasing the vessels. The technology on the ships was being developed at the same time as the ships were being constructed.

LCS is certainly one of those programs that was set up with a high-risk approach, Oakley said. And the outcome was reduced quantities, reduced capability, increased cost, schedule delays all those things that you dont want to have happen that happen all too frequently.

Oakley said shed recently embarked on a destroyer and noticed all the littoral combat ships sitting idle at Naval Base San Diego as they were leaving.

All youre seeing is LCS after LCS after LCS just sitting there, doing nothing, she said. So when you think about the stresses on the current fleet and all the things you hear about ships being run much longer (and) much harder than we expected having the LCS fleet and many of them just sitting there not accomplishing what they should be accomplishing really compounds that issue.

Diana Maurer, who has been monitoring the LCS program since the beginning for the GAO, stopped short of calling the program a boondoggle.

I think the simple way to answer whether this is or is not a success is just to look at the fact that the Navy is in the process of buying an entirely new class of ships the frigate because of shortfalls in the LCS, Maurer said. I think the thing that is most troublesome is who answers for the millions, the billions that have been left unused?

Maurer said that the Navy wasnt really able to try the ships before buying them.

The Navy had to kind of abandon that because the initial costs started being too high, Maurer said. And the manufacturers couldnt afford to build a new class of ship without an agreement that said the Navy would buy them.

Operation costs are also high with littoral combat ships. Because the ships are minimally manned, much of the maintenance and repair work is performed by expensive government contractors who have to travel to perform their jobs, the GAO said in an April report. The Navy also lacks the technical data to maintain several systems, the report said.

Adm. Mike Gilday, the chief of naval operations, said the Navy is looking for ways to shift some of that maintenance to sailors in an interview with Defense News this month. However, the manning levels on the ship could limit how much is shifted and that the Navy could adjust the manning on board to meet that need, Gilday said.

In testimony before a Congressional appropriations subcommittee on April 29, Gilday, said the service is bullish on LCS and the future of the ships.

The Navy currently has 12 Independence-variants and 10 Freedom-variants in the fleet, including the two set for decommissioning this year. The program will produce a total of 35 ships, Schwegman said.

However, the Navy also plans to field at least 20 new frigates over the next decade, at a cost of about $20 billion, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office. These new 496-foot frigates will be built out of steel and use propeller propulsion.

Theyll also come with a compliment of guided missiles in addition to the Naval Strike Missiles now being retrofitted onto Independence-variant littoral combat ships. The Navy expects construction to begin on the first frigate early next year.

The only of its modules that have been fielded on LCS to date is the surface-warfare package, Maurer said, which has led to a relatively low operation workload for the ships.

The problem is, since so much of the combat capability resides in the mission packages and theyre not done, you get a situation where you have ships with no mission packages, Maurer said.

Those other two mission packages are expected next year, Gilday told Defense News last month.

In the meantime, the Navy has found littoral combat ships to be effective in the Southern Command area of operations in the eastern Pacific, conducting counter-drug smuggling work with the Coast Guard. Theyve also deployed to the western Pacific and the Middle East.

One unfortunate benefit to the LCS program, according to the GAO experts, is that the Navy learned how not to buy new ships.

(With) the frigate, they wanted to make up for some of the wrongs of LCS, Maurer said. With LCS, the speed requirement drove a lot of decisions that kind of caused some of the demise of the program because they focused on speed at the expense of other things so that made certain other requirements more expensive.

Its unlikely littoral combat ships will find themselves part of the long-term Navy fleet alongside the aircraft carriers, destroyers and other surface combatants that have been around for decades, Oakley said. The new class of frigates and, increasingly, unmanned ships and aircraft will likely do the jobs the Navy once envisioned for LCS.

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After 15 years, the Navy's littoral combat ships are still in search of a mission - The Columbian

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A bill to reduce the cost of making copies of government documents under the Freedom of Information Act survived a close vote in the Planning and Development Committee Friday despite concerns about its fiscal impact on towns.

The bill caps the fees government entities can charge for copying most public documents at 15 cents a page and prohibits them from charging someone to copy records using a cell phone or camera. The proposal notably excludes land records from the new caps, which government agencies will still be allowed to charge for access up to $20 per day.

Under current law, per-page copying fees vary by agency, but generally fall between 25 cents and 50 cents per page.

The Government Administration and Elections Committee approved the bill on a unanimous vote in March, but it was referred this week to the Planning and Development Committee which passed it, but not before several lawmakers objected to the reduction in municipal revenues it was likely to cause.

I cant express enough how much this costs, Sen. Dan Champagne, a Republican who is also mayor of Vernon, said. The loss to the municipalities this is paying for the employees, some of this is offsetting some of the costs of the employees.

Champagne and others on the committee complained that the bills fiscal analysis did not do enough to capture the municipal impact of the bill. Sen. Steve Cassano, the committees Democratic co-chairman who is a former mayor of Manchester, guessed the legislation could result in up to $30,000 in revenue loss for larger municipalities.

If its a substantial fiscal impact, then we need to have an alternative to make up for that revenue. Its part of the change in technology, understood, but the fiscal impact has to be understood, Cassano said.

During a public hearing last month, Mike Savino, president of the Connecticut Council on Freedom of Information, submitted written testimony supporting the change. Savino said access to public records should be considered one of the functions of government deemed to be an expense shared by society.

There is no cash box at the entrance of a public high school, no bill is prepared after firefighters extinguish a house fire, no charge to call 911 or use a library card, Savino wrote. Government transparency and accountability are likewise at the heart of our democracy. And there cannot be government accountability without barrier-free access to the records of government.

Savino said the bills reduced rate of 15-cents per-page still exceeded the price of making copies at most for-profit printing shops.

During Fridays meeting, Rep. David Michel, D-Stamford, said reducing or eliminating fees for copying records coincided with the spirit of the states Freedom of Information law.

There shouldnt be, I think, any form of really profit, actually being generated on these sorts of requests for the sake of transparency, he said.

Rep. Michael Winkler, D-Vernon, said the bill represented a compromise between proponents and town officials who worried about the fiscal impact.

Town clerks, who hold most of the records that are requested under FOI, can still charge people $20 for looking at the land records, which is where they make much of their money and people could take pictures of a set of minutes for free, Winkler said.

Champagne said the concern for most towns stemmed from companies and individuals who requested an excessive number of documents, which require staff members to take time and collect.

If we want to lay this burden on municipalities, then the state should cough up some money to help with that, he said. This is a stretch and it goes too far because there are way too many people who abuse the FOI laws.

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Republicans say fiscal conservatism simply isnt the GOP rallying cry it used to be, and thats making it much harder to counter President BidenJoe BidenAmericans for Prosperity launches campaign targeting six Democrats to keep filibuster Washington's split with Turkey widens but it is up to Turkey to heal the rift Incomes, consumer spending soared in March as stimulus bill boosted recovering economy MOREs push for trillions of dollars in new government spending.

Instead, culture war issues like immigration, religious freedom, LGBTQ rights, Big Tech and the Black Lives Matter movement are taking center stage in conservative politics.

The initial shift in Republican political priorities away from belt-tightening coincided with the demise of the Tea Party, the dominant force in the 2010 midterm elections, and the rise of now-former President TrumpDonald TrumpWashington's split with Turkey widens but it is up to Turkey to heal the rift Tomorrow's special election in Texas is the Democrats' best House hope in 2021 Giuliani to Tucker Carlson: 'No justification' for FBI raid MORE, who presided over an $8 trillion increase in the national debt.

Now, Republicans are having a tough time generating the same outrage over Bidens multitrillion-dollar spending agenda as they did over former President Obamas signature initiatives: the American Relief and Reinvestment Act and the Affordable Care Act, which cost far less than what Biden is proposing on infrastructure.

Senate Republican Whip John ThuneJohn Randolph ThuneTrump drama divides GOP, muddling message Schumer warns Democrats willing to go it alone on infrastructure Pandemic casts shadow over Biden's first address to Congress MORE (S.D.) said unfortunately fiscal concerns are probably not as important to the GOP base as 10 years ago and that Trump helped transform the partys priorities.

It wasnt something that was an important issue for President Trump, and so many of our base voters align themselves with President Trump. Its almost like now debt, deficits, spending become abstract issues that a lot of folks arent paying attention to and should be, he said.

There was a political evolution, Thune said, and the fiscal conservatism that was a core tenet of the Tea Party got displaced ... by the more populist elements of the Republican Party.

He went on to say that while Trump was able to energize voters by hitting on hot-button cultural topics, such as immigration and border security, its now time for the GOP to get back to its traditional stance on fiscal issues.

Im frankly very concerned about the level of spending and debt, and I think Republicans have got to be the adults in the room and exercise the fiscal responsibility that seems to have been absent, lacking the last several years, Thune said.

Sen. Lisa MurkowskiLisa Ann MurkowskiTrump drama divides GOP, muddling message Moderate Republicans leery of Biden's renewed call for unity Biden makes case for sweeping change MORE (R-Alaska), a central player in the Senate immigration negotiations, said the party is kind of different compared to the early years of the Obama administration.

Tea Party fiscal conservatism is now hard to find, she said, adding that the party base is more strongly conservative on some of the social issues.

Who is the party of fiscal restraint anymore? she asked.

Former Speaker John BoehnerJohn Andrew BoehnerPress: John Boehner: good author, bad leader Juan Williams: A breakthrough on immigration? GOP worries fiscal conservatism losing its rallying cry MORE (R-Ohio) criticized House conservatives in his new book, On the House: A Washington Memoir, for abandoning their Tea Party principles during Trumps four years in office.

None of these guys said anything when the Trump administration added $1 trillion to the federal budget deficit by the end of 2019 before a single dime was spent on COVID-19 relief, he wrote.

They were rubber stamps for it in Congress. Many of them who raised huge stinks about [the Troubled Asset Relief Program] were only too happy to let Trump bail out farmers hurt by his trade war with China, he added, referring to the $700 billion measure that Congress passed in October of 2008 to prop up the nations financial system.

The shift in political priorities was even more apparent last month when the House Republican conference voted by secret ballot to lift the ban on earmarks it had enacted in March of 2010, when the Tea Party was on the rise.

The Senate last week voted to keep a symbolic earmark ban in place with the understanding the GOP conference rule would not be binding and members would be free to request earmarks for their home states.

Heres the sad reality: Almost nobody in Washington, Republican or Democrat, cares much about the debt, but lots of grandstanders care a lot about who racks up that debt, said Sen. Ben SasseBen SasseGOP worries fiscal conservatism losing its rallying cry Hillicon Valley: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube execs to testify at Senate hearing on algorithms | Five big players to watch in Big Tech's antitrust fight Senators introduce legislation to protect critical infrastructure against attack MORE (R-Neb.).

Most folks are OK with deficits just as long as its their party that gets the short-term political advantage of claiming to be saviors shoveling cash. I dont care if youre a Republican or a Democrat, the math is the math, he added.

Sasse brought a chart to a Republican conference meeting Wednesday, during which he and his colleagues discussed allowing earmarks to return, showing the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) now stands at nearly 100 percent and is due to rise to 114 percent by 2030.

That is projected to exceed the record debt-to-GDP ratio set in 1946 after World War II.

The national debt stood at $19.9 trillion when Trump took office in 2017 and hit $28 trillion last month.

Republicans are trying to revive fiscal concerns as they push back against Bidens $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal but are having trouble gaining traction.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHarris, senators work behind scenes on jobs package Trump drama divides GOP, muddling message Cheney on fist bump with Biden: 'We're not sworn enemies. We're Americans' MORE (R-Ky.) this past week touted a $568 billion Republican-proposed infrastructure plan as a more modest alternative to Bidens and warned of the mounting debt.

Its one thing to run up the national debt when you have a hundred-year pandemic but just to keep routinely adding trillions of dollars to the national debt I think is ill-advised for the future of the country, he said last week.

Republicans want to pay for their plan by repurposing money sent out to state and local governments in Bidens $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, setting user fees and tapping the Highway Trust Fund.

Yet polls have shown strong support for Bidens plans to spend trillions of dollars to turbocharge the economy, a course he settled on after Democrats concluded that the $787 billion stimulus package passed in the early months of Obamas first term did not do enough to get the economy back on track after the Great Recession.

Senior White House adviser Anita Dunn last month circulated a Navigator Research poll showing that 59 percent of Americans support Bidens infrastructure agenda and that 83 percent support his desire to expand access to child care and investments in clean energy infrastructure, which are not highlighted in the alternative GOP proposal.

A Politico-Morning Consult poll from this month showed strong support among Republicans, Democrats and independents for Bidens infrastructure spending priorities, and 65 percent of voters were on board with raising the corporate tax rate to help pay for them. The survey even found that 42 percent of Republicans favored raising taxes on corporations.

Steven S. Smith, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis, said that Republican warnings of 10 and 12 years ago that Obamas agenda would fuel inflation never panned out, undercutting the potency of fiscal conservatism as a political message.

The Republican argument of 2009 that this massive increase in federal spending is going to cause a disastrous inflation, it simply isnt an argument that holds water with most economists or the general public, he said. Thats important context.

We never experienced much inflation, still arent experiencing much inflation and yet have another economic downturn with massive unemployment and underemployment. And I think the public buys the argument the government has an essential role in recovery, he added.

The lack of staunch opposition among Republican voters to Bidens economic agenda makes it trickier for Senate Republicans to oppose, especially when winning back the majority means securing victories in purple states like Georgia, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Republicans as a whole from lawmakers in Washington to mainstream GOP voters and conservative activists were much more unified against Obamas health care agenda in 2009 than they are against Bidens spending plans.

Sen. Chris MurphyChristopher (Chris) Scott MurphyDemocrats face big headaches on Biden's T spending plan Senate Democrats push Biden over raising refugee cap GOP worries fiscal conservatism losing its rallying cry MORE (D-Conn.) said the fact that GOP senators are now spending serious time putting serious proposals is a good sign, praising their $568 billion infrastructure offer as meaningful.

Republicans are not spending their time eviscerating the infrastructure bill like they did the Affordable Care Act. Theyre spending their time explaining how they would do it differently, and thats constructive, he said, noting the differences between now and 12 years ago.

Scott Wong contributed.

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GOP worries fiscal conservatism losing its rallying cry | TheHill - The Hill

The World Bank report says that the pandemic has disproportionately affected poorer householders who are more likely to be self-employed or work in the informal sector, as these two areas have been most affected by the pandemic.

Just over one year since most of the world entered lockdown due to the pandemic, the overall situation is no better for many countries than it was at the end of 2020. In fact, it appears that more difficult times are yet to come.

All of this comes into play in the absence of any far-reaching economic, social, fiscal and institutional reforms. This absence, including the need to fight corruption or respect human rights, can only exacerbate political and social conflicts. In the case of North Africa, one result we have observed in our research has been a strong increase in migratory flows.

In Tunisia, this also shows up in the numerous and increasingly violent protests that the country has been witnessing since the end of last year and the start of this year, which is reminiscent of the beginning of the revolution in December 2010.

According to Amnesty International, Moroccan authorities used the pandemic to pass restrictive legislation and continue to crack down on freedom of expression by targeting journalists, activists and individuals who are critical of the state.

As for Egypt, the military regime continues to grow its hold over the country, preventing any possibility of dissent, let alone one that would resemble the mass protests that erupted in January 2011.

We may be unlikely to witness another Arab Spring in the very near future, but worsening economic conditions, entrenched corruption and an increasing crackdown on freedom of expression could prove to be the recipe for a future one.

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Can worsening economies and increasing repression herald a new Arab Spring? - Open Democracy

Earlier this month, the Biden administration released a draft of its $1.5 trillion budget, which asks for significant increases in education spending that could potentially add to a mountain of federal funds proposed to cover virtual learning options and close the digital divide.

Among the drafts proposals, the administration has asked for a 40.8 percent increase in Department of Education funding, which would increase funding to nearly $103 billion. Of that, about $36 billion would go toward Title I grants for low-income school districts, representing an increase of about $20 billion from the current fiscal year.

Title I is the most flexible federal fund that is geared toward low-income schools, so that is a proposal that could steer a huge increase for low-income schools that can be used for technology, he pointed out.

Bailey said the budget outlines additional investments in mental health services, including $1 billion for counselors and school mental health programs, which could be useful for district efforts aimed at supporting students and teachers struggling during the pandemic.

School closures have had a pretty dire effect on students both academically as well as their mental health, and thats going to take years to address, he said. One of the innovations I think weve seen coming out of COVID is the use of telemedicine [or teletherapy] to help complement nurses and counselors. I think you could see part of that billion dollars used to help accelerate different types of telemedicine programs to help provide services for kids and teachers.

Consortium for School Networking policy analyst Reg Leichty said the full scope of the final budget remains to be seen. As of Wednesday, the Biden administration had not yet released the unabridged version of its budget.

Presidential budget requests are value statements. Through that lens, the White Houses decision to request a more than 40 percent increase for education for FY22 an unprecedented boost for education represents a win. Ultimately, however, Congress will decide whether the education community should celebrate, he said in an emailed statement to Government Technology.

Well have to wait for the publication of the unabridged version of the presidents budget request before we can say anything accurate about what it may mean for state and local digital learning initiatives, Leichty said. For example, the White House has not yet released the presidents request for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grant program, which is the primary source of dedicated education technology funding in the Department of Educations budget.

Bailey and Leichty said many school districts have already met the bulk of their immediate ed-tech needs via $193 billion in federal relief funds awarded through three relief bills. Much of this went toward devices and Internet connectivity to facilitate remote and hybrid learning.

Youre almost looking at $200 billion passed within a year targeted toward low-income schools who are probably struggling with the digital divide the most, Bailey said. There really isnt a parallel to this surge in investment that comes with so little strings attached to schools in such a short period.

While much remains pending about these White House proposals, Bailey believes lawmakers are rethinking the importance of federal funding for ed tech, which could bode well for Bidens budget and for his infrastructure plan geared toward expanding broadband access.

Infrastructure has been an issue that has had some pretty broad bipartisan support, he said. I think that the pandemic and economic recovery are going to help create the moment and chance to do infrastructure ... Whether its bipartisan or not is a separate question.

In the context of higher education, policy analyst Jarret Cummings of the IT-focused nonprofit Educause noted that universities used much of their relief funds to offset the expenses associated with low enrollment and COVID-19 emergency response plans, rather than ed tech. He said the new budget includes a proposal to increase Pell Grant funding by 10 percent, but broad-based funding for technology in higher education has not yet been proposed.

The pandemic has exposed clearly and dramatically the importance of affordable broadband access to ensuring access to higher education, he said, noting that broadband proposals raised by the administration and Congress would help post-secondary students during online learning.

Of course, there are many reasons why we need to close the digital divide, but making sure that higher education is available to students when and where they are certainly has a prominent place on that list.

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Biden's Budget Could Give Schools Freedom to Invest in Tech - Government Technology

The EU is navigating its third crisis in the space of a single decade, following the euro area financial crisis and the migration crisis. In some respects, the potential systemic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic are even more pervasive than those of the previous crises (Baldwin and Weder di Mauro 2020, Fuentes and Moder 2021). Jean Monnet famously stated that Europe will be forged in crises and it will be the sum of solutions adopted for those crises. But every crisis has its own characteristics, and prompts its own response. In certain cases, the response pushes forward the frontier of European integration that was the case of the completion of the Single Market after the Eurosclerosis of the 1970s or the creation of the euro after German reunification. In other cases, the response is only partially transformative, as was the case during the financial crisis that started in 2008.

Therefore, not all the responses to crises pass what, in a new CEPR Policy Insight (Buti and Papaconstantinou 2021), we call the triple Monnet Compatibility Test of economic coherence (effective policy action), institutional coherence (leveraging common governance mechanisms at the right level of government), and political coherence (maintaining citizens support).

This crisis is different, and the policy response, with the Next Generation EU initiative at its heart, is breaking new ground (Verwey et al. 2020) and leading to governance changes at national level (Buti and Polli 2021). This is true in terms of instruments (use of grants, new own resources, issuance of common debt); institutional mechanics (the return of the so-called Community method); as well as in terms of the sheer magnitude of the underlying fiscal effort and liquidity provision at both national and EU levels.1

The decisions taken by the EU do represent a significant stepping up and a break with past policy. What has underpinned this shift? We believe three broad factors have driven what we are observing.

The first is the evolution in our understanding of macroeconomic policy the new macro paradigm that has emerged since the global financial crisis, with a revised consensus on the appropriate overall macro policy stance, a new understanding on debt sustainability, the right mix of fiscal and monetary policy, and the role of central banks (Fornaro and Wolf 2020). With monetary policy at the effective lower bound, fiscal policy at national and EU level has to play a more important role in propping up the economy. This is key for domestic reasons, but also to make the European economy less dependent on external demand and hence able to play a more assertive role in global governance.

The second factor is the different nature of the current crisis exogenous, not policy induced, hence giving less rise to a moral hazard narrative. As a consequence, the focus of the policy response has been on a common threat requiring a common response. The asymmetric impact of the crisis has come to be seen as a threat to the whole EU. Hence, solidarity, or enlightened self-interest, has underpinned the policy decisions. Opinion polls show a large support for Next Generation EU not only in countries that are net beneficiaries, but also in Germany and the so-called frugal countries that only reluctantly contributed to the rescue programmes during the financial crisis.

The third factor is policy learning from the euro area financial crisis among others, the need for monetary policy to be forceful to stop self-fulfilling dynamics or the realisation of negative equilibria, the dangers of early withdrawal of fiscal stimulus, and the difficulty of achieving an appropriate euro area fiscal stance only via horizontal coordination of national policies (Buti 2020, Bartsch et al. 2021).

In sum, if properly implemented, the economic policy response to the pandemic has a chance to meet the three criteria of the Monnet Compatibility Test. Will it also represent a paradigm shift in European integration?

Looking forward, Covid-19 is forcing us to rethink attitudes and policies across a number of areas that will shape the legacy of the pandemic for European integration. As we argue in Buti and Papacostantinou (2021), some of the main issues standing out could be grouped under four headings: the new emerging boundaries between state and market; the notion of subsidiarity in the new environment; reconnecting the EU/domestic with the international/global agenda; and the need for EU economies and policymaking to deal with longer-term structural shifts taking place.

As the pandemic ripped through European societies, it brought with it a new realisation of the importance of well-functioning health systems as well as of the ability of national governments and the EU collective to protect Europeans. This simple realisation is concretely translated in policy shifts or ongoing discussions which may break new ground: a new emerging paradigm for fiscal balances and policy mix, a new social compact (with higher minimum wages, a universal basic income, more progressive tax systems), the debate on strategic autonomy in key sectors/products that would increase resilience at national and EU level (encapsulated in the shift from just in time to just in case). In these areas, what is underlying is a rethink of the balance between what is provided by states and what is determined mainly by market forces. This policy shift is evident across most EU nations, as well as in the UK and the US. Medium term, it will be crucial that the renewed emphasis on strong social protection does not hamper but actually enhances the reallocation of factors of production. Shifting from on-the-job protection to in-the-market protection will be a key challenge.

A related issue concerns the balance of what belongs to the domain of national policy in member states and what is a matter for the EU collective. This gives a new twist to the discussion on subsidiarity, as can already be seen by the decisions around the EU Recovery Plan or the proposals on a European health union. The pandemic revealed the need for coordination at EU level and forced cooperation in a number of areas, from travel rules to vaccine procurement. Post-crisis, there will be a review of what has worked and what not: on certain issues, coordination of national policies will suffice; on others, direct supply at EU level will be needed. As health is a global public good, there will be a need to elevate a number of issues surrounding the prevention and management of future pandemics to the to EU level. The same would apply also for pan-European infrastructure investment projects (Beetsma et al. 2020). At the same time, the pandemic has highlighted the importance of rebuilding a more dense society, achieving solidarity through a sense of belonging, and not just from the services delivered by the national welfare state. This would suggest moving policy delivery in the opposite direction, to the local level, closer to citizens. In Einaudis tradition of marrying economic freedom and social cohesion, in the post-Covid world, the role of communities and intermediate bodies will be enhanced (Einaudi 1949, Gigliobianco 2010).2

Covid-19 is also pushing the EU to reconnect the domestic with the global agenda. This is where the other dimension of strategic autonomy belongs the one dealing not with global supply chains but instead with new geo-economic relations. In a situation of geopolitical re-ordering, upgrading the global role of the EU will be essential in order to be able to influence the discussion on European and global public goods (not just health and pandemics, but also climate and digital governance), as well as avoid beggar-thy-neighbour policies in areas such as trade or finance. The domestic ramifications of a more assertive global role of the Union are substantial: the Single Market will need to provide more indigenous sources of growth and enhance the robustness of Europes value chains; macroeconomic policies will have to reduce the dependency from external demand, acknowledging that persistent current account surpluses are a source of vulnerability.

It is also in this context that one should reflect on the need to complete the EMU; while bringing to a conclusion the reforms that started with the euro crisis is important in and of itself in terms of better functioning of the EU and increasing its resilience to shocks, it is also essential for bolstering the international role of the euro, thereby increasing the weight of the European Union on the global economy. The issuance of common EU debt under Next Generation EU will also help increase the attractiveness of the euro.3

The final Covid policy legacy concerns the need to respond to longer term structural shifts (Terzi 2021). In the pandemic, everything digital thrived. At a first level, this clearly requires a European push to digital and indeed the EU Recovery Plan is supposed to help the EU "recover and transform" with the twin digital and green transitions. Indeed, as far as the latter is concerned, the pandemic may have demonstrated the devastating dangers of ignoring a slow burn crisis such as that of climate change. At the same time, the dominance of digital raises new policy issues regarding regulation and competition in digital platforms, as well as issues of protection of workers in a new online environment. The changes brought by Covid also force more broadly a rethink of the role and nature of work, the role and rights of remote workers and even the new meaning of essential workers.

The policy response to the current crisis has broken new ground. At the same time, the difficulties on vaccines delivery and uncertainties on the follow up at national level on Next Generation EU have shown that the latest advances will need to be consolidated. Whether the response to the pandemic marks a fundamental shift in the paradigm of European integration and hence or it remains an exceptional one-off under extreme duress will depend on addressing the four shaping factors highlighted above.

Authors note: Marco Buti writes in his personal capacity.

Andersson, M, C Checherita-Westphal, R Gomez-Salvador, L Henkel and M Mohr (2021), Economic developments in the euro area and the United States in 2020, ECB Economic Bulletin Issue 2/2021.

Baldwin, R and B Weder di Mauro (2020), Economics in the time of COVID-19, CEPR Press.

Bartsch, E, A Bnassy-Qur, G Corsetti, and X Debrun (2021), Its All in the Mix: How Monetary and Fiscal Policies Can Work or Fail Together, Geneva Report on the World Economy No. 23, ICMB and CEPR.

Beetsma, R, L Codogno, and P van den Noord (2020), Next Generation EU: Europe needs pan-European investment, VoxEU.org, 9 November.

Buti, M (2020), Economic Policy in the Rough: A European Journey, CEPR Policy Insight No. 98.

Buti, M and G Papacostantinou (2021), Reshaping economic policy in the EU in the post-Covid world, CEPR Policy Insight No. 109.

Buti, M and O Polli (2021), Veto Player Theory and the Governance of the Recovery and Resilience Facility", VoxEU.org, 11 February.

Collier, P (2018), The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties, HaperCollins.

Einaudi, L (1949), Lezioni di politica sociale, Einaudi, 1977.

Fornaro, L and M Wolf (2020), Coronavirus and macroeconomic policy, VoxEU.org, 10 March.

Fuentes, N M and I Moder (2021), The scarring effects of COVID-19 on the global economy, VoxEU.org, 5 February.

Gigliobianco, A (2010), Luigi Einaudi: Economic Freedom and Social Cohesion, Serie Saggi e Ricerche Volume VI, Editori Laterza.

Rajan, R (2019), The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind, Penguin Press.

Terzi, A (2021), The Roaring Twenties: Revisiting the evidence for Europe, VoxEU.org, 2 April.

Verwey, M, S Langedijk, and R Kuenzel (2020), Next Generation EU: A Recovery Plan for Europe, VoxEU.org, 9 June.

1 In terms of the magnitude of the effort and its adequacy to the task at hand, the recent debate has focused on comparing the EU response with that of the US. There are a number of elements to this: whether the US policy response is economically appropriate, its multipliers in the short and longer run, its external spillovers, and its implications for the fiscal-monetary policy mix (e.g. Andersson et al. 2021, ECB 2021). On all these issues, the jury is still out. What is quite certain is that doing too little is certainly more costly than doing too much; and that given its institutional setting, an incongruent policy mix would be much more costly for the EU than for the US.

2 The role of communities in breaking the rural-urban divide and the third pillar in finding a new balance between the market and the state are explored by Collier (2018) and Rajan (2019).

3The huge success of EU debt issuance under the programme SURE shows the large appetite in financial markets for common euro-denominated bonds.

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Reshaping European economic integration in the post-Covid world | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal - voxeu.org