Fiscal Woes Research Articles

FISCAL ADJUSTMENTS AND THE SHADOW ECONOMY IN AN EMERGING MARKET

We build an open-economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model that allows us to: (i) derive a time series for labor informality in Brazil spanning the period 2004–2018, whose evolution is consistent with the behavior of the main series provided by Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (PNAD); (ii) run dynamic simulations showing that, in the presence of a large informal labor market (around 50% of the total labor force), expenditure-cutting measures lead, at worst, to mild short-run recessions in the formal sector and are likely to foster public debt sustainability. Likewise, adjustments through some kinds of distortionary taxation, mainly the corporate tax, and to a lesser extent, the consumption tax, also seem to improve both public debt dynamics and fiscal collection without a significant cost in terms of output. Thus, in countries with large informal economies experiencing fiscal woes, expenditure-based consolidations, as well as some sorts of tax-based adjustments, should be relied upon.

Puerto Rico and the Netherworld of Sovereign Debt Restructuring

Puerto Rico has incurred debt well beyond its ability to repay. It attempted to address its fiscal woes through legislation allowing the restructuring of some its debt. The Supreme Court put a stop to this effort, holding that Congress in the Bankruptcy Code barred the Commonwealth from enacting its own restructuring regime. Yet all agreed that the Bankruptcy Code did not provide anything in its place. While Congress quickly enacted PROMESA in an attempt to address the Puerto Rico’s fiscal ills, we explore in this paper whether Congress has the power to bar Puerto Rico from enacting a restructuring mechanism and not offer an alternative. We submit that the answer is no. When it comes to a state, the Supreme Court has held that the power to issue debt necessarily implies the power to restructure that debt. Congress can preempt that power, so long as it puts something in its place. To preempt and leave nothing, however, runs afoul of our federal system. The same reasoning, with greater force, applies to Puerto Rico. The federal government entered into a compact with the citizens of Puerto Rico, granting them, among other things, the power to issue debt. Puerto Rico implicitly received the power to restructure this debt. Congress could offer a substitute to any regime that Puerto Rico might enact, but it cannot leave the Commonwealth without any means to address its fiscal affairs.

The Gathering Storm still looms

A decade on, the situation portrayed in the influential report of a deteriorating US science and technology ecosystem has, if anything, worsened.

Puerto Rico’s fiscal woes threaten its scientific future

Cash-strapped physics departments in the island’s main university system cannot hire new researchers to replace the ones that retire or migrate.

Spending Restraint in Florida

Following the economic collapse of 2008, almost every state in the Union faced a significant budget shortfall. Florida was no exception. Yawning budget gaps plagued the state budget in 2009 and 2010. Though the recession was the proximate cause of the gaps, decades of overspending spawned Florida’s fiscal woes. Furthermore, the predicament was avoidable. If Florida had held spending constant for the last 20 years while adjusting for inflation and population growth, it would have avoided its 2009 budget gap. Moreover, the state can avoid future budgetary problems by restraining the growth of spending, permitting Floridians greater economic freedom, and adopting stronger balanced-budget requirements.

The Charismatic Persona of Colonel Qaddafi

In any list of dictators and antagonists of the West the name of Libya’s Colonel Muammar Qaddafi will always rank highly as one of the most memorable, colourful and mercurial. The roles he played to his fellow Libyans, to regional groupings, to revolutionaries and to the West were complex and nuanced. These various roles developed over time but were all grounded in his self-belief as a messianic revolutionary figure. More importantly, these roles and behaviours that stemmed from them were instrumental in preserving Qaddafi’s rule and thwarting challenges to it. These facets of Qaddafi’s public self accord with the model of “persona” described by Marshall. Whilst the nature of political persona and celebrity in the Western world has been explored by several scholars (for example Street; Wilson), little work has been conducted on the use of persona by non-democratic leaders. This paper examines the aspects of persona exhibited by Colonel Qaddafi and applied during his tenure. In constructing his role as a revolutionary leader, Qaddafi was engaging in a form of public performance aimed at delivering himself to a wider audience. Whether at home or abroad, this persona served the purpose of helping the Libyan leader consolidate his power, stymie political opposition and export his revolutionary ideals.

The New Ruins of Ireland? Unfinished Estates in the Post‐Celtic Tiger Era

AbstractIn the wake of the global financial crisis, and as Europe's financial and fiscal woes continue, Ireland's beleaguered economy has attracted a great deal of scrutiny, with much made of the country's status as one of the PIIGS and the fact that it was bailed out by the troika of the IMF, EU and ECB in November 2010. Whilst most attention has been directed at Ireland's banks and the strategy of the Irish government in managing the crisis, substantial interest (both nationally and internationally) has been focused on the property sector and in particular the phenomenon of so‐called ‘ghost estates’ (or, in official terms, unfinished estates). As of October 2011 there were 2,846 such estates in Ireland, and they have come to visibly symbolize the collapse of Ireland's ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy. In this essay, we examine the unfinished estates phenomenon, placing them within the context of Ireland's property boom during the Celtic Tiger years, and conceptualize them as ‘new ruins’ created through the search for a spatial fix by speculative capitalism in a time of neoliberalism. We detail the characteristics and geography of such estates, the various problems afflicting the estates and their residents, and the Irish government's response to those problems. In the final section we examine the estates as exemplars of new ruins, the remainder and reminder of Celtic Tiger excess.

Louis Fisher on Congress and the Budget: Institutional Responsibility and Other Taboos

The serial fiscal policy and budgeting woes of the United States over the last three decades have been compounded by a bipartisan evasion of institutional responsibility by elected leaders. Long before “sequestration” and “fiscal cliffs,” Louis Fisher argued that presidents and members of the House and Senate undermined constitutional power balance and the spirit of budgeting law. A variety of ill-conceived process “reforms” further damaged the separation of powers system. As a scholar, Fisher uses an institutional lens to explore budget concepts that are rare in political science, such ascapacity, accountability, andduty. And as a public intellectual, Fisher's relevance has been secured by his repeatedly broaching these scholarly and political taboos.

EWU-Krisenmanagement: Warum die Politik auf dem richtigen Weg ist

Summary With troubles in the European Monetary Union (EMU) showing great persistence, the emergency measures and ad-hoc crisis management of European authorities has been subject to harsh criticism. The current fierce debate among economists and the broad public has given rise to two camps advocating fundamentally different approaches how to exit the sustained crisis. While according to the Integrationists′ view, the only viable way to get rid of pressing debt problems and to restore confidence in the Euro area lies in a common guarantee for national debt obligations, so-called Minimalists advocate a strict return to the cornerstones of the Maastricht Treaty, in particular strict compliance with the debt and deficit limits laid out by the Treaty as well as a credible application of the ‚no-bail-out‘ rule. However, in their pure form, both strategies do not serve for a timely and effective crisis management as they either require a level of supranational integration that - given the still prevalent Westphalian order - cannot be attained in the short run nor is it on the agenda of European policy, or essentially deny the significant flaws within the EMU architecture that failed to prevent current fiscal woes. The current crisis management of European authorities has followed neither of the two extremes but has taken a viable middle-of-the-road approach that resulted in useful and necessary repairs to the institutional architecture of the Euro area, most notably the establishment of the commonly guaranteed stability mechanisms EFSF and ESM as well as the first steps taken towards a European banking union. Hence, in contrast to most observers, we argue that the European authorities, by operating a prudent stepby- step approach, are on the right track towards solving the current crisis. As a result, European Central Bank could move back to its original approach of monetary policy.

Running on Empty

Since the official ending of the great recession in June 2009, policymakers, analysts, and pundits alike have gone through a monthly ritual of anxiously awaiting the release of official government estimates of economic activity and employment. In poring over such data, these observers have sought some signal that a sustained improvement in our economic prospects is in the offing. However, recent data releases have provided few signs of life. Instead, these data depict an economy that has exhibited fits and starts, much like a worn-out engine gasping for an injection of new fuel and a change of spark plugs. As of this September writing, the report of zero net job growth in August and the finding that one in six Americans now lives below the federal poverty line have left the impression that we are indeed on empty, awaiting some visionary public policy intervention to jump start our national economy back to life. The characterization of our economy as running on empty applies not only to the national level. It also reflects the desperate circumstances of states and municipalities and, at a more level, the problems of families who are living on the edge, waiting for relief from the drastic turn in their economic status brought on by events largely beyond their control. Perhaps most discouraging is the sustained ideological standoff of our body politic that has replaced facts and serious debate with sound bites and innuendo, and has rejected compromise. In speaking of the challenge of deficit reduction and of our economic malaise, Friedman (2011) has observed that the only surplus in ready abundance is that of political venom. In this commentary, I drill down from our concern with our national economy and take a more micro perspective. I focus on the difficulties states and municipalities are experiencing, the implications for accessing health care and education by our most vulnerable citizens, and the prospects facing our seemingly abandoned middle class, and I consider the challenge in making real progress in the near term on these compelling concerns. States in the Lurch While there is considerable disagreement as to when, how, and to what degree we should address the national fiscal problems that have been exacerbated by our recent economic meltdown, there is by contrast a striking consensus regarding the fiscal dilemma faced by state governments. Constrained by constitutional amendments requiring balanced budgets, states have experienced shortfalls in revenue that severely compromise their ability to provide essential public services to their citizens. Although state revenues from major sources have increased since the first quarter of 2010, after a period of quarterly declines that began at the end of 2008, revenue was still 7.8% lower in the second quarter of 2011 than three years earlier (Dadayan 2011). With any kind of tax increases anathema to many politicians, and with the initial federal stimulus spending directed to states now complete, states are in the difficult position of waiting for a revival in economic activity to provide adequate revenues. As states confront this revenue need, reports suggest that they are considering some unconventional alternatives. For example, several states are thinking of legalizing internet gambling and taxing it as a quick fix for their fiscal woes, even though the federal Department of Justice has sought to limit such gambling activity (Richtel 2011). In the meantime, many state governments are being forced to propose draconian tradeoffs that, at best, will preserve minimal levels of public services. One consequence of state retrenchment in spending has been the layoffs of 500,000 public service workers beginning in January 2009, further exacerbating the dismal national employment picture. As regards specific implications for public welfare, actual and proposed state budget cuts have targeted Medicaid enrollment, unemployment assistance, state and local police and fire protection, public facilities such as libraries and recreational facilities, and spending for education, among others. …

Fiscal Woes Threaten Future of California's MH Funds

Fiscal Woes Threaten Future of California's MH Funds

How Black Colleges Empower Black Students: Lessons For Higher Education (review)

Reviewed by: How Black Colleges Empower Black Students: Lessons for Higher Education Bonita M. Vinson How Black Colleges Empower Black Students: Lessons for Higher Education Frank W. Hale, Jr. (Ed.) Sterling, SC: Stylus, 2006, 288 pages, $24.95 (softcover) Do historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) provide a different experience for Black students? If so, how does the Black student experience at HBCUs differ from the Black student experience at traditionally White institutions (TWIs) and what can be learned? Frank Hale, Jr. utilized the expertise of 25 authors to provide the framework to answer these questions. This collection of thought-provoking essays was written by higher educators—most of whom have lived the HBCU experience as a student and/or administrator or have observed their power from afar. The compilation of writers was an impressive list (mostly PhDs) with an exceptional number of years in higher education, thus experts in their respective disciplines. They bestowed an understanding of the historical impact, function, and contributions of HBCUs to the U.S. The first foreword, written by Karen Holbrook, provided the foundation in support of the need for HBCUs given gross inequities in education historically. Frank Hale, Jr., in his foreword attempted to silence naysayers of the value of the HBCU experience that the chapters to follow would demonstrate how the HBCU experience has and continues to be a source of empowerment for Black students across the U.S. In Hale's "Introduction", he shared his own HBCU experience, provided a brief historical look at how HBCUs began, why Blacks matriculated in those institutions, and whether or not HBCUs should remain a part of American higher education. In chapter 1, Samuel DuBois Cook [End Page 362] cleverly outlined the history of HBCUs' journeys through the transformation of the Old South to the New South. He was quick to highlight the contributions of these institutions to U.S. society through their leaders, but was careful to not leave out important historical facts, people, and events that easily remind readers of the struggles that HBCUs have had to endure. In chapter 2, Frank L. Matthews and B. Denise Hawkins addressed the impact many HBCUs continue to have on the Black community amid mounting fiscal woes, declining enrollments of top students, and weakening leadership. In chapter 3, Lawrence A. Davis, Jr. outlined positive characteristics of the HBCU experience that have contributed to their success as unique institutions. He used the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff as a model for leadership development, access to quality higher education, the preservation of culture, and other important roles. In chapter 4, Elaine Johnson Copeland's essay supported the notion that HBCUs graduate a disproportionately higher percentage of African American students than other institutions (Jackson, 2001). Copeland praised HBCUs for their success in casting a wide net, cultivating more Black students, contributing to Black students self confidence and competence, and aiding with financial and cultural barriers. In chapter 5, Stanley F. Battle, Pamela G. Arrington, Ron L. Collins, Sr., Marcella A. Copes, and Frances C. Gordon showcased Coppin State University (CSU) as a retention and graduation model that cultivates and grows its students. CSU's comprehensive focus on retention, a campus-wide initiative, involves every employee including the president. The Nursing, McNair, and Honors programs are used as examples of success. Charles V. Willie, in chapter 6, argued for the importance of mentorship programs at HBCUs. He cited his own and others' experiences as mentorees as well as noted successful university-based programs. In chapter 7, Talbert O. Shaw attributes the individual character development of Black graduates for the continued success of HBCUs. Chapter 8, written by Quiester Craig, identified and explained the most influential factors for Black student success in higher education as family, preparation, motivation, mentors, and institutional environment. He posited HBCUs have been leaders in nurturing these components for many years, but also insisted that Black students take ownership in their own destiny. In chapter 9, James G. Wingate examined the influence the HBCU experience had on Black graduates, positing that they display enhanced self-concept which influenced positive behavior, thus making them more successful. For these reasons, he argued, HBCUs will remain a necessity in...

State Fiscal Woes Padlock Much-Criticized Youth Prison

State Fiscal Woes Padlock Much-Criticized Youth Prison

A new world order in East Asia?

The outcome of the war in Iraq served as a stark reminder that the US perceives its unrivaled military superiority as largely freeing it from the imperative to take account of the views of its allies. At the same time, the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region is shifting, as Chinas economic rise continues and Japan's mounting fiscal woes erode its influence overseas. Kusuma Snitwongse, chairperson of the advisory board of Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Security and International Studies, Thailand, paints a vivid picture of a region whose future is clouded by uncertainty. Can the growing threat from a nuclear North Korea be contained? Will economic integration alleviate tension between China and Taiwan? Is ASEAN capable of playing an effective role on the world stage? The order that emerges will be shaped by numerous forces and, the writer hopes, will be one that is based on the precepts of multilateralism and on the traditional Asian virtue of abiding by the consensus.

"Increasing and Strengthening the Country": Law, Politics, and the Antislavery Movement in Early-Eighteenth-Century Massachusetts Bay

A LMOST seven decades before the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts Bay, the author of an obscure essay devoted to currency policy arrived at a somewhat surprising conclusion about the relationship between bondage and economics. Entitled Some CONSIDERATIONS Upon the Several Sorts of BANKS, the anonymous 1716 tract proclaimed that twenty Years hence there should be no Slave in the Country. Responding to a recent economic downturn in the colony marked by inflation, rising taxes, and expanding debt, the writer urged his fellow colonists to reconsider African slavery's impact on local prosperity and stability. The current fiscal woes, he argued, would not abate until Bay colonists replaced all of their slaves with good Farmers and indentured servants. However unrealistic the suggestion may have been at the time, it reflects an attitudinal shift during the first few decades of the 1700s. Slavery, a number of settlers began to suspect, was not necessarily the greatest Means of Increasing and Strengthening the Country.' Between 1705 and 1739, growing concerns for economic welfare in Massachusetts Bay were embodied in a series of laws

The Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise, Fiscal Woe.

America's churches have fallen on hard times. But this crisis, says Wuthnow, is more than economic; it is at bottom spiritual. He points to both the failure of the clergy to confront their financial problems head-on, and their neglect of the real spiritual needs of their predominantly middle-class congregations. He offers specific suggestions for more effective ministry.

The Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise, Fiscal Woe. By Robert Wuthnow. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 291 pp. $30.00

The Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise, Fiscal Woe. By Robert Wuthnow. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 291 pp. $30.00

The Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise, Fiscal Woe. By Robert Wuthnow. New York: Oxford, 1997. xii + 291 pages. $30.00.

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Cautious Optimism: The Alliance of Women's Studies and Cultural Studies

As the millennium approaches, post-secondary education in Canada is in crisis. The giddy optimism of the mid-1980s, which projected a future in which retirements would allow universities to make new appointments from the ranks of the by now several generations of not-so-young junior scholars, has become the melancholic realization that the government's fiscal woes mean that the funding for post-secondary education has decreased and will continue to do so. Consequently, university administrators are in a frenzied quest to secure new sources of funding, most often by turning to the private sector. For the humanities, which seem not to be the favoured beneficiary of corporate largesse, this shift in funding has several implications, most obviously that money for research in the humanities inevitably will decline. Universities seem to ignore the effect that this shift in funding will have on the production of knowledge, for presumably the inclination of business is to support research that has the potential to enhance profit rather than that which critiques the social costs of the accumulation of profit. Within the current social climate, cultural studies has a particularly important role, for at its best it is a discipline which engages in a critique which aims to understand 'the ways in which power relations are regulated, distributed, and deployed within industrial societies'