Monthly Archives: March 2022

Sam Hatcher| Guest columnist

Zelenskyy to Congress: 'We need you right now'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cited Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks in urging the U.S. Congress to do more to help Ukraines fight against Russia. "We need you right now, Zelenskyy said in remarks livestreamed at the U.S. Capitol. (March 16)

AP

Re: "Its time to reopen US Capitol to public," by Sen. Bill Hagerty, March 9,

Mrs. Kirkpatrick, my third-grade teacher at McClain School, always lectured the class that you address those older than youyou know, people your parents agewith Mr. or Mrs. And that you never referred to the president of the United States without using his title before his name.

Mrs. Kirkpatrick played the piano at every Rotary Club meeting. Her husband owned a small shoe store,ironically named Kirkpatricks, on Lebanons Public Square, and the couple lived in a wood-frame house on West Main Street. I dont know this for sure, but I would guess they were both Democrats, because at the time almost everyone in Wilson County was.

Besides reading and arithmetic, lessons in respect, humility and gratitude were taught daily by Mrs. Kirkpatrick to her class of 8-year-olds. There were about 30 of us, as I recall.

The morning began with a prayer, pledge to the flag, a song with Mrs. Kirkpatrick accompanying on the piano, and usually a word or two about being kind to others, the Golden Rule, or as we might say today, having respect for another.She led the class in the morning song and ranked right up there with some of the best as she would belt out America the Beautiful or The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

I remember she often would go around the class, one row at a time, giving each student the opportunity to speak about a news item from home. Johnny may have had a new baby sister to report on, while Betsys dad had gotten a promotion at the woolen mills, and Jerrys mom was sick with the flu.

I dont think we realized it at the time, but Mrs. Kirkpatrick taught us a lot.

She recognized that our faith should come first; that we should honor our country; show respect for others; care about one another; and live our lives in a meaningful way.

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I think its likely that the late Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. had a Mrs. Kirkpatrick somewhere along the way in his schooling, as did the late Gov. Ned McWherter, recently retired Sen. Lamar Alexander and several others from both political parties who through the years may have disagreed with their rivals or the president, for that matter but did so with respect.

It seems many of those in high office today go out of their way to be disrespectful, to do harmand to urge division.

A good example recently was an op-ed, "Common sense tells us it's time to reopen U.S. Capitol to the public,"by US.Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee.

His reasoning, expressed in the first few paragraphs of his guest column, has significant merit and should be heard by the appropriate decision-makers in charge.

But after the opening, Hagertys message turned sour. It became an epistle ranting totally off topic about Democrats and the Democratic Party.

As with many on both sides of the aisle, Hagerty saw an opportunity to attempt to defame those with whom he disagrees with harsh and perhaps even untrue words and broaden the already great divide we all are experiencing in our state and nation.

He saw the opportunity and seized it.

Perhaps his message to reopen the Capitol would be better received if he would present his position, as Mrs. Kirkpatrick would suggest, more nicely, showing respect for his colleagues.

Hagerty and others like him in both political parties need to understand that many of their constituents, despite what the polls show, would like them to be fair, truthful, respectfuland play well with others.

I can assure the senatorthat Mrs. Kirkpatrick would not be pleased.

Sam Hatcher, a former newspaper editor and publisher, lives in Lebanon and works with a number of entities in the area of community relations with his company, First Light Communications. He is the author of Heismans First Trophy, a book about the football game between Cumberland University and Georgia Tech in which Tech beat Cumberland 222-0.

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My third-grade teacher would not be pleased with Sen. Hagerty | Opinion - Tennessean

Niels Thygesen, Roel Beetsma, Massimo Bordignon, Xavier Debrun, Mateusz Szczurek, Martin Larch, Matthias Busse, Mateja Gabrijelcic, Laszlo Jankovics, Janis Malzubris 16 March 2022

The fourth EFB annual conference1focused on the linkages between public finances (both in terms of sustainability and quality) and the policies aimed at mitigating climate change. Under the Paris agreement and European Green Deal, EU Member States set ambitious carbon reduction targets to turn the Union into the first climate-neutral major economy by 2050. This tectonic shift will require bold and difficult decisions by EU governments (Weder di Mauro 2021), with significant implications for economic growth and public finances.

Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive-Vice President of the European Commission, opened the debate by asking how governments could achieve a growth-friendly composition of public finances, given the risk posed by climate change for fiscal sustainability. Unlike the impact of climate risks on financial stability, their implications for fiscal sustainability are less well understood and might thus be severely underestimated. To fill this gap, the EFB conference aimed at clarifying the challenges posed by climate change for the conduct of fiscal policy, the sustainability of public finances, and, by implication, the future of the EU fiscal framework.

In the transition to a decarbonised economy, governments can deploy a wide range of tools to facilitate that transition. As Frans Timmermans, Executive-Vice President of the European Commission in charge of the green transition, stated in his keynote speech, a mix of carbon pricing emissions trading systems (ETS) and investment is required to reach carbon neutrality. Such changes will inevitably have important macroeconomic, structural and budgetary implications. Even though mitigation policies carry sizable costs, Isabelle Mateos y Lagos (BlackRock) argued that those fall short of the estimated damage under a business-as-usual scenario (25% of 2019 global GDP). Overall, the net welfare impact of climate policies would be positive (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Transition results in net economic gain (estimated cumulative GDP impact of transition, 2020-40)

Notes: The bars show the overall estimated impact of three factors: avoided damage from climate change due to mitigating policies (positive), green infrastructure spending (positive) and costs associated with the transition (negative). The black line shows the estimated net impact.Source: Isabelle Mateos y Lagos: BlackRock Investment Institute, Banque de France, International Energy Agency, OECD.

Inna Oliinyk (Network of EU Independent Fiscal Institutions) specifically looked into the public finance consequences of an unmitigated global warming scenario, confirming that the budgetary footprint of inaction would be much worse than the costs of decarbonisation. For instance, a case study of the UK suggests that over an 80-year horizon, public sector debt would be twice as high under inaction than under costly mitigation policies (Figure 2). Rick van der Ploeg (University of Oxford) also showed that delaying mitigation policies simply inflated future spending on adaptation measures, ultimately resulting in higher income taxes.

Figure 2 Three scenarios of public debt developments in the long-run

Source: Office for budget responsibility (2021).

As green taxes aim at raising the shadow price of carbon, they can both reduce emissions and create fiscal space to fund mitigation measures and other growth-friendly policies (such as distortionary tax cuts). That notion of double dividend is, however, deceptive. Indeed, well-designed Pigouvian taxes are intended to destroy their own tax base and in the longer run, revenues from green taxation are bound to disappear. The bottom line is that the costs of mitigation measures cannot be offset by higher revenues, resulting in higher public debt (Figure 3). A coordinated approach at the EU level might help design effective and efficient mitigation policies.

Figure 3 Net debt impact of reaching net zero by 2050

Source: Office for budget responsibility (2021).

Mitigating climate change and addressing its effects are costly propositions. Given the post-Covid legacy of historically high public debts, the need to preserve debt sustainability will force governments to make hard choices. According to the European Commission, Europe will need around 520 billion in additional investment per year over ten years to achieve its climate targets. Under the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and NextGenerationEU (NGEU), the EU has secured around 86 billion per year in public funding. Thus, even if scaling up public investment is a must, most of the required investment will have to be private.

One of the most important contributions to climate objectives stems from technology and innovation, Guntram Wolff (Bruegel) argued. However, based on past experience, he was sceptical that politicians faced with the need to consolidate public finances would be willing to pay for additional investment by cutting current expenditure. This argument echoed the work by Larch et al. (2022) showing that in the wake of crises policy makers generally do not boost public investment.

As if efficient prioritisation were not hard enough, Rick van der Ploeg (University of Oxford) argued that it was fraught with political frictions. Experience points to five key obstacles to the efficient greening of our economies: (i) carbon taxes are much lower than fossil fuel subsidies, (ii) carbon taxes hurt the poor disproportionately, (iii) free riding behaviours are ubiquitous on the international stage, (iv) the burden of paying for mitigation is unevenly distributed over generations, and (v) electoral considerations tend to bias decisions in favour of easy solutions, such as a preference for subsidies compared to taxation. Van der Ploeg argued in favour of greater attention paid to distributive considerations. In particular, he favours channelling tax revenues to poorer citizens, organising transfers from rich to poor countries and from future generations to current ones (through debt). Relatedly, Xavier Debrun (EFB) argued that the green agenda magnified the deficit bias that typically results from political frictions. Specifically, governments prefer a package of mitigation policies tilted towards subsidies (over taxation) and public investment (over targeted regulatory and tax measures encouraging private investment). In an environment where interest rates are expected to stay below growth rates for the long haul, the green agenda offers a convenient pretext for permanently higher deficits: debt is free, returns look high.

Ensuring that all stakeholders in the budget process understand the impact of climate change on public finances is a first step in addressing political biases. Unfortunately, most countries lack a comprehensive assessment of the impact of climate transition on fiscal sustainability. According to Inna Oliinyk, only about one-third of national governments have carried out such a comprehensive analysis. Absent estimates of future liabilities due to climate change, authorities have no incentive to act now, argued Helene Rey (London Business School). She proposed enriching standard debt-sustainability analysis with such estimates.

In principle, comprehensive assessments could benefit from independent input or at least vetting from independent bodies such as national independent fiscal institutions (IFIs). However, the EU Network of IFIs and the OECD noted that not all IFIs have the mandate to monitor green budgeting and most have insufficient expertise and resources to do so. Moreover, IFIs also lack information about governments plans, measures and working assumptions. According to the EFB (2021), while national IFIs are now integral part of the EU fiscal framework, they remain too heterogeneous to consistently influence the conduct of fiscal policy through advice.

Although models assessing the impact of climate change on fiscal sustainability remain in their infancy, they are key to provide plausible estimates of climate-related fiscal risks. Stavros Zenios (University of Cyprus) showed how to link a full-fledged assessment model to standard debt sustainability analysis. By incorporating multiple channels through which climate risks affect public finance, Zenios shows that they can have a significant effect on debt dynamics. Hence, it would be crucial for governments to develop a holistic view of fiscal planning.

What does this all imply for the economic governance review, relaunched on 19 October 2021?1The current framework being blind to climate change considerations, a natural question is whether these should be added to the list of well-known weaknesses that the reform should seek to address (e.g. European Fiscal Board 2019, 2021).

For countries to design optimal green policies, clear guidance on the design and implementation of fiscal rules should be in place. In his opening speech, Commissioner Dombrovskis stated that the Commission does not envisage changes to the 3% and 60% of GDP reference values of the Treaty. Instead, the speed of reducing debt should be gradual and growth friendly creating space for investment scaling up.

To be effective, the EU fiscal framework must not be perceived as curtailing the desirable fiscal response to current challenges. In particular, it should encourage climate change mitigation policies without endangering fiscal sustainability. In his closing speech, Commissioner Gentiloni pointed out two ways of including climate change in the EU fiscal framework: through a green golden rule, or a common EU facility. Xavier Debrun (EFB) warned that incorporating green contingencies into rules would make them even more complicated, less transparent, and easier to circumvent. Besides, the Green Deal being a European project aimed at addressing a global problem, green investment is a natural candidate to become a European public good funded by a temporary EU fiscal facility.

The EFB proposed earlier to augment the EU budget by dedicated national envelopes for providing EU common goods, such as green public investment and transnational infrastructure projects. Such a facility could usefully safeguard against possible cuts in national public investments, and be more effective than a complicated and weak green golden rule (European Fiscal Board 2021).

Network of EU IFIs (2021), Assessing the fiscal policy impact of climate transition", February.

European Fiscal Board (2019), Assessment of EU fiscal rules with a focus on the six and two-pack legislation, Brussels.

European Fiscal Board (2021), Annual Report 2021, Brussels.

Larch, M, P Claeys and W van der Wielen (2022), Scarring effects of major economic downturn: the role of fiscal policy and government investment.

Office for budget responsibility (2021), Fiscal Risk Report, July.

Thygesen, N, R Beetsma, M Bordignon, X Debrun, M Szczurek, M Larch, M Busse, M Gabrijelcic, E Orseau and S Santacroce (2020), Reforming the EU fiscal framework: Now is the time, VoxEU.org, 26 October.

Weder di Mauro, B (2021), Combatting Climate Change: a CEPR Collection, CEPR Press.

1https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-and-fiscal-policy-coordination/european-fiscal-board-efb/public-finances-and-climate-change-post-pandemic-era_en

2https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_5321

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Public finances and climate change in the post-pandemic era | VOX, CEPR Policy Portal - voxeu.org

Worked a side gig last year? Here's how to tackle your tax return.

Maurie Backman| The Motley Fool

How to tell when a side hustle isn't worth your time

If youre bored with your day job or maybe just always dreamed of owning a card making business, a side hustle could seem like a good decision.

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Taking on a side hustle is a great way to improve your financial picture. The money you earn from that second gig could make it possible to pad your savings, work your way out of debt, or simply have more flexibility when it comes to higher-than-average bills. Unfortunately, that's something a lot of us are grappling with now thanks to rampant inflation).

But when it comes to filing taxes, working a side hustle could add a layer of complexity to the mix. If this year's tax return is your first to include side hustle earnings, here are some key points to keep in mind.

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Usually, when you earn $600 or more on a freelance basis from the same client, that company will send you a 1099 form summarizing that income. But you may not get a 1099 in every situation. The absence of that form doesn't mean you're off the hook in terms of reporting your income to the IRS.

Failing to report income could have serious consequences, like penalties that cost you money. A good bet is to carefully look through your bank statements and make sure you're reporting every dollar you took in on the side.

YES, SIDE HUSTLE MONEY IS TAXABLE: Here's what to know if you made $600 or more in 2021.

If you incurred expenses in the course of working your side hustle, you're allowed to deduct them on your taxes provided you have receipts to back up your claims. Imagine you did work as a freelance photographer on the side in 2021. You may have spent money on equipment and driving back and forth to different places for photo shoots. Those are legitimate expenses you can deduct to minimize your tax liability for that gig.

If you earn a substantial amount of money from a side hustle that pays you on a freelance basis, it's a good idea to make estimated quarterly payments on your earnings during the year. If you don't, you could get stuck with a penalty for paying too little tax. If 2021 was your first year working a side hustle and you paid no tax on that extra money, you may have a penalty on your hands.

TAXES 2022: How do you get an extension? Do you still have to pay now?

That said, you won't be penalized if you owe the IRS less than $1,000 in taxes as a result of your underpayment. So let's say that after accounting for your side hustle income and deductions, you owe the IRS $500 for 2021. You'll still need to pay that tax debt but you shouldn't be slapped with penalties since it's under that $1,000 threshold.

A side hustle could be a great source of added income that helps you more easily cover your bills and meet different financial goals. But it's important to understand how that gig might affect your taxes and take steps to minimize your liability come tax season.

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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Had a side job in 2021? Here are 3 things you need to know before you file your taxes. - USA TODAY

A reminder that you have until Monday, March 28 to nominate a deserving person for the Kiwanis Club of Edmonds 28th Annual Edmonds Citizen of the Year award. The winner will be honored during the Edmonds Chamber of Commerces Thursday, May 26 luncheon at Las Brisas Mexican Restaurant the first in-person chamber luncheon meeting since 2019.

The Citizen of the Year will also ride in the 2022 Edmonds Kind of Fourth of July parade.

Nominees should be a citizen active in civic affairs, community activities and/or business pursuits. It is open to individuals as volunteers or professionals in the line of duty.

Award nominations, welcomed from individuals or groups, must be postmarked by March 28, 2022.

Guidelines for selection are: To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than the material values of life. To encourage the daily living of the golden rule in all human relationships. To promote the adoption and application of higher social, business and professional standards. To develop by precept and example a more intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship. To provide a practical means to form enduring friendships, render altruistic service and build better communities. To cooperate in creating and maintaining the sound public opinion and idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism and goodwill.

The Kiwanis Club of Edmonds will select a winner from the nominations submitted by citizens at large. Nominations are requested from individuals or groups in Edmonds, who complete the nomination form provided. You can find the form online here or on the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce website. Nominations should be sent to: Kiwanis, P.O. Box 221, Edmonds, WA 98020, and must be postmarked on or before March 28, 2022.

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Deadline March 28 to nominate Edmonds Citizen of Year; winner to be honored in person at May Edmonds Chamber luncheon - My Edmonds News

There are better ways to finance a renovation.

Maurie Backman| The Motley Fool

Home improvement: 5 renovations that dont add resale value to your home

If you want to get real with your real estate, here are 5 home renovations that dont add resale value.

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Since the start of the pandemic, many people have been spending more time working from home. In fact, some people have plans to work from home permanently. That, in turn, has helped fuel an interest in renovations.

In a recent LightStream survey, 44% of homeowners say they want to renovate this year. But 35% say they intend to use a credit card to pay for renovations. That could be a potentially dangerous move.

It's one thing to charge the cost of a home renovation on a credit card and pay it off right away. Doing so could actually be a smart move, because it might score you a nice amount of cash back or rewards points.

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But charging home improvements on a credit card and paying that balance off over time isn't such a great decision. Credit cards are notorious for charging hefty amounts of interest on balances that are carried forward. All told, your renovation could end up costing you a lot more money than anticipated if you use a credit card to pay for it.

Plus, too high a credit card balance could actually cause a drop in your credit score. Once that happens, borrowing could become more expensive the next time a need arises.

REMODELING YOUR HOME?You may have even more competition this year

If you're looking to spruce up your living space and can't pay for the work outright with cash or savings, then it pays to explore different renovation financing options before reaching for a credit card. First, you can look at taking out a personal loan, which lets you borrow money for any reason. Personal loans tend to charge considerably less interest than credit cards. And they're a good bet if you're an applicant with a strong credit score.

Another option, if you have a decent amount of home equity, is to borrow against it via a home equity loan or line of credit. Both options tend to come with affordable interest rates, though they're a bit different. With a home equity loan, you borrow a lump sum like you would with a personal loan and pay it off in equal installments over time. With a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, you get access to a credit line you can draw from over time usually lasting five to 10 years.

INTEREST RATE CHANGE:How Fed hike will affect your wallet, finances

If you're not sure what you'll end up spending to renovate, a HELOC could be a good bet, as it gives you the flexibility to start off borrowing less and increase that amount as needed. But when you take out a HELOC, you'll usually be hit with a variable interest rate on the sum you borrow. This means your payments may not be as predictable as they would be with a home equity loan.

Either way, it pays to explore different borrowing solutions before falling back on a credit card to finance your home improvements. Doing so could save you a fair amount of money, not to mention prevent your credit score from taking a hit.

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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

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Is it wise to pay for home renovations with a credit card? No and here's why. - USA TODAY

So lets talk. About talking about it.

Ive written before about Susan Silk and Barry Goldens Comfort In/Dump Out Ring Theory. Imagine a series of concentric circles, and in the bulls-eye is Person X, the person to whom the Bad Thing is happening. The handful of people closest to X are the next ring, then Xs slightly larger circle of friends and colleagues, more peripheral folk, and so on. One cancer patient in the bulls-eye might have half a dozen rings of suffering around them. A bulls-eye like the Russian invasion of Ukraine has many, many, many rings around it.

Those closer to the bulls-eye receive our comfort and support; those further out are who we complain to or ask for help from. There are also people who are in the same ring, or in identical bulls-eyes of their own the family of the cancer patient, or other cancer patients so Im adding Commiserate With to the original two categories. People in the commiseration zone speak a language of gallows humor, inside references, and a lot of we talk.

Ring Theory isnt a top-down etiquette rule like forks on the left. Ring Theory gives words and imagery to a preexisting moral intuition, as the Golden Rule does. If a person demands comfort from their sick spouse, or claims kinship with some suffering not their own, it feels wrong. And social media can make it very easy to unwittingly do these kinds of things. In particular, it can be easy to talk like youre among the most affected in the commiseration zone, often out of a well-meaning attempt at solidarity, with people who very much do not believe you are. This is part of why even people who are in full agreement on all issues are fighting on the social media platforms.

Theres no simple set of etiquette rules to solve this. A knee-jerk get off the platforms isnt the fix, though its a good idea to get off whichever ones are your personal psychic sand traps and get off all of them regularly, whether thats a weekly 24-hour sabbath or a daily log off at 8 rule. Social media is the imperfect infrastructure we use to support too many real-life relationships, and better maintaining relationships is a necessity, not a luxury.

Shared experiences really matter. Ive got a tight group of high school friends from Kansas who share the same vivid memories of 1983s The Day After, and how the fact that the TV movie about nuclear war was filmed just down the road in Lawrence only made it harder to watch. And Im tight with a few cousins from Missouri, who grew up the same as I did hearing stories of our great-grandmother who came to this country illegally from Ukraine. Ukraine is the sun and my ring is the orbit of Pluto. But the hurt still carries far from the center. Ive found my commiseration zone.

For whatever you are suffering, I hope you find your own.

Miss Conduct is Robin Abrahams, a writer with a PhD in psychology.

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How to talk about the war on Ukraine and other horrible things with sensitivity - The Boston Globe