Fiscal Therapy

Author(s):  
William G. Gale

America faces two distinct but related economic challenges. Steadily rising federal debt—largely fueled by rising healthcare costs and an aging population that will boost spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—will make it harder to grow the nation’s economy, boost living standards, respond to wars or recessions, address social needs, and maintain the US role as a global leader. At the same time, an increasingly fractured society has left many people behind and let critical investments lag, even as overall prosperity has grown. How and when US citizens address these challenges will help determine the future they build for themselves and their children. This book proposes a remedy with three core elements: controlling entitlement spending in ways that preserve and enhance the programs’ anti-poverty and social insurance roles; betting on the future by stipulating major new public investments in human and physical capital; and raising and reforming taxes to pay for government services fairly and efficiently. Together, these changes would control federal borrowing, strengthen the economy, increase opportunity, reduce inequality, and build better lives for current and future generations. There is no need to kill popular programs or starve government. Indeed, a primary goal of fiscal reform is to maintain and enhance the vital functions that government provides. The country needs to act responsibly, pay for the government it wants, and shape that government in ways that serve it best.

Author(s):  
Sebastien Savard ◽  
Denis Bourque ◽  
René Lachapelle

This article presents the context for and particular relations between the state and third-sector organizations in the province of Québec. A typology inspired by Coston and developed by Proulx, Bourque, and Savard is used to describe interactions between these actors. The article documents how an agreement that the private Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon signed with the Government of Québec had an impact on community organizations that respond to the social needs of vulnerable groups. A major repercussion has been the relegation of third-sector organizations to a model between subcontracting and coproductive. This is notable, as the sector had managed to establish itself as a central actor during the previous twenty years, particularly in health and social services, participating in the co-construction of public policies. RÉSUMÉ Cet article aborde la question des relations entre les organismes communautaires et l’État au Québec en mettant l’accent sur le contexte particulier et les dimensions qui les distinguent dans cette province. Une typologie adaptée de Coston par Proulx, Bourque et Savard est utilisée pour encadrer cette réflexion. Nous discutons de l’impact de l’arrivée de la Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon (FLAC) sur le rôle des organismes communautaires après la signature d’une entente entre la FLAC et l’État québécois. Nous observons qu’une des conséquences de cette entente a été de confiner les organismes communautaires à un rôle allant de la sous-traitance à la coproduction alors que, depuis vingt ans, ces organismes avaient réussi à s’établir comme partenaires centraux en contribuant, en co-construction avec l’État, à l’élaboration de politiques publiques.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Phillips Johnson

AbstractThis paper examines the First National Midwifery School (FNMS) and its connexions with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Nationalist government. During the Nationalist era (1927‐37), western medical personnel and Chinese intellectuals attempted to modernise China by reforming childbirth as part of a new public health system. As most of the biomedical personnel in China were trained in the United States, it may be expected that midwifery reform would have followed the same path as in the West, with physicians displacing midwives. On the contrary, in China we see a blending of Chinese cultural and social needs with western public health methods to create a system that has survived in China to this day. The FNMS acted as a liaison between East and West, between private philanthropic organisations and the government. The most significant player in this field, Dr Yang Chongrui, played a vital role in professionalizing the new occupation of the modern Chinese midwife. Yang’s vision to train midwives to reduce the high maternal and infant mortality rates was one of the most important public health efforts in China during this time. In the process, women were targeted both as actors in China’s nation-building strategies and as reproducers of China’s citizenry.


1983 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 153-178
Author(s):  
S. Haberman

This paper describes the use of time series analysis in the solution of a problem arising in social insurance. As part of a model which estimates the future cost of unemployment benefit the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) is required to forecast the proportion of the unemployed in future calendar quarters, who are male. The format of the paper is to describe forecasting in general terms in §1 and the particular problem under consideration in §2. In subsequent sections, the data available (§ 3), the existing forecasting model (§ 4) and alternative time series models (§§ 5–8) are described. The everyday job of the actuary involves the estimation of a future series of events. Examples include the estimation of future streams of liability outgo and asset income in life assurance, the run-off of outstanding claims in nonlife insurance, and the future numbers of persons in a subgroup of the total population. This estimation can be qualitative or quantitative, short-term or long-term, deterministic or stochastic and will involve the establishment of a mathematical-statistical model, and the determination of the relevant parameters by an analysis of the data available.


Author(s):  
Budhaditya Mukherjee ◽  

This paper is based on the positive correlation between projects of infrastructure developed by the government, and the indicators of general well-being of populations in adjoining areas where such constructive changes have been effected. To study the multifactorial effects of the development of a welfare state, we have studied the economic projections associated with the construction of AIFA (Felipe Angeles International Airport), a new airport in Mexico, which was undertaken completely as a government-funded project and developed as a national infrastructure project by the military establishment. Information on projected investments and downstream investments and local employment from the Secretary of Agrarian Development and Tourism (SEDATU) and the Secretary of Public Finances (Forbes) for the new airport AIFA are compared and analyzed with similar projects in other privately developed infrastructure projects and their calculated impact in order to suggest how well-being (achieved through such indices as employment and the generation of micro-enterprises) would pan out for the economy in the State of Mexico, where the new public-funded projects are envisioned. Projections based on available information suggest that the construction of a public infrastructure module can be achieved under economic constraints, focusing on lower spending from the public budget; however, there is a lack of information and transparent policy decisions to indicate growth for entrepreneurs in the local economy, and neither any projected information on opportunities of further private or public investments associated with the airport. A socialist-style public investment project, engineered by the state military, may need more transparency and engagement on behalf of entrepreneurs.


2011 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-305
Author(s):  
Etienne Verhoeyen

Nadat Hitler in oktober 1939 beslist had een aanval in het Westen te ondernemen, werden in Keulen twee studiegroepen opgericht, die het toekomstig bezettingsregime van België en Nederland moesten voorbereiden. Er was een studiecommissie die geleid werd door de toekomstige leider van het Duits Militair Bestuur in België, Regierungspräsident Reeder, en daarnaast bestond een geheime studiegroep die de Sondergruppe Student werd genoemd. Deze bijdrage belicht het voorbereidend werk van de leden van deze studiegroep op het gebied van handel, industrie, recht, Volkstum en cultuur in België. De groep legde een grote belangstelling voor de Flamenfrage aan de dag en trok daarbij lessen uit de ervaringen met de bezetting van België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Ofschoon er van diverse zijden in Duitsland werd op aangestuurd, hebben zowel de 'commissie Reeder' als de Sondergruppe de wederinvoering van de bestuurlijke scheiding van het Vlaams en Franstalig landsgedeelte, één van de 'verworvenheden' van het Vlaams activisme uit 1914-18, beslist afgewezen. De bijdrage laat ook de tegenstellingen zien die in Duitsland bestonden op het gebied van de beïnvloeding (ten voordele van Duitsland) in de te bezetten gebieden. ________ A German network in the preparation of the Militärverwaltung (Army administration) in Belgium (1939-1940)After Hitler had decided in October 1939 to carry out an attack on the West, two study groups were set up in Cologne in order to prepare the future occupational regime of Belgium and the Netherlands.  The future leader of the German Army Administration in Belgium, President of the Government Reeder chaired the study group, and in addition there was a secret study group called the Sondergruppe Student (Special Student Group).This contribution illuminates the preparatory work of the members of this study group in the area of trade, industry, law, Volkstum (nationality) and culture in Belgium. The group demonstrated a lot of interest in the Flamenfrage (Flemish question) and in doing so drew lessons from the experience of the occupation of Belgium during the First World War.Although people from various quarters in Germany aimed for the reintroduction of the governmental separation between  the Flemish and French speaking parts of the country, one of the 'achievements' of Flemish activism from the period of 1914-1918, both the 'Reeder committee' and the 'Sondergruppe' definitely dismissed it. This contribution also demonstrates the contradictions present in Germany in the area of influencing the territories to be occupied (in favour of Germany).


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6630
Author(s):  
Rachel Harcourt ◽  
Wändi Bruine de Bruin ◽  
Suraje Dessai ◽  
Andrea Taylor

Engaging people in preparing for inevitable climate change may help them to improve their own safety and contribute to local and national adaptation objectives. However, existing research shows that individual engagement with adaptation is low. One contributing factor to this might be that public discourses on climate change often seems dominated by overly negative and seemingly pre-determined visions of the future. Futures thinking intends to counter this by re-presenting the future as choice contingent and inclusive of other possible and preferable outcomes. Here, we undertook storytelling workshops with participants from the West Yorkshire region of the U.K. They were asked to write fictional adaptation futures stories which: opened by detailing their imagined story world, moved to events that disrupted those worlds, provided a description of who responded and how and closed with outcomes and learnings from the experience. We found that many of the stories envisioned adaptation as a here-and-now phenomenon, and that good adaptation meant identifying and safeguarding things of most value. However, we also found notable differences as to whether the government, local community or rebel groups were imagined as leaders of the responsive actions, and as to whether good adaptation meant maintaining life as it had been before the disruptive events occurred or using the disruptive events as a catalyst for social change. We suggest that the creative futures storytelling method tested here could be gainfully applied to support adaptation planning across local, regional and national scales.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1010-1012 ◽  
pp. 996-999
Author(s):  
Mo Zhang ◽  
Jing Chen

Development of recyclable resources industry makes a positive effect to alleviate the shortage of resources and control environmental pollution. At present, China's recyclable resources industry still has some problems. The Government should vigorously develop recyclable resources industry and participate in global recyclable resources circulation in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 460-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiwen Chen

Purpose Bottlenecked by rural underdevelopment, China’s overall development is bound to be inadequate and unbalanced. Through a brief retrospect of the reform directed against the “equalitarianism (egalitarianism)” in China’s rural areas, as well as the Chinese Government’s conceptual transformation and systemic construction and improvement thereof, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the panoramic significance of rural reform; the necessity, priority, and long-term nature of the current rural development; and the important role of public policy in doing so. It also looks ahead to consider the prospects for future rural reform. Design/methodology/approach This paper first reviews the rural reforms that were carried out in 1978. Second, it introduces the government’s conceptual change regarding rural reform and the establishment and improvement of the system that underlies it. Finally, the future of rural reform is envisaged. Findings The initial rural reforms brought extensive and profound changes to China’s rural areas. The experience of rural reform has been referred to and escalated by other fields of study. Hence, rural reforms have become something of global significance. Moreover, since the government can undertake reforms well beyond the reach of farmers, its views must be modified in a timely manner, and only then may it reasonably construct and improve the system pertaining to the “three rural issues (agriculture, rural areas, and farmers).” Originality/value This paper reviews the rural reforms carried out in 1978. It introduces the government’s change of concept with respect to rural reforms and the establishment and improvement of the system based on the “three rural issues,” thus looking forward to the future of rural reforms. The findings of this paper are of significance to the formulation of future agricultural policies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel Recamán Rivas

Navantia finished the analysis of the concept Industry 4.0 in 2016 and its application to the naval shipbuilding industry, referred to herein as Shipyard 4.0. The implementation process has begun with several projects that involved various technologies. In order to incorporate them in the new project, for naval vessels and systems, special focus has been put in the future F-110 frigate.This document aims to provide an overview of the Shipyard 4.0 model and a brief discussion regarding the projects launched for its implementation in Navantia. The initiative 4.0 is a key development vector across all the industrial sectors in the future and its expected outcomes match the ones established by the Government of Colombia in its “Plan de Transformación Industrial” (Plan of Industrial Transformation). In this context, the new frigate program (PES) is a unique opportunity to engage the local industry, in which Navantia offers its willingness to cooperate.


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