David Warsh: Duking it out about the European economic crisis

This first ran in economicprincipals.com and then on the site of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org)

Towards the end The Euro and the Battle of Ideas (Princeton, 2016), by Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James and Jean-Pierre Landau, the authors observe that most of the debate about the economic crisis of the European Union takes place in the English-language press: the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist. This means it is filtered through a sort of condescension about Europe not really “getting it,” they say.

Moreover, they note that the debate fosters the impression that a considerable gap exists between central bankers and technocratic experts and ordinary folk caught in the machinations of the technocrats. European crises thus are increasingly depicted by populists who see themselves as defending citizens against a cosmopolitan elite.

Doubt it?  The authors are too polite to say so, but a case in point is The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe (Norton, 2016), by Nobel laureate , a peripatetic Columbia University professor.  According to Stiglitz, the Euro has been an abject failure. Policy-makers removed two key adjustment mechanisms from member states – interest and exchange rates – without creating various pan-European policy instruments and safety nets to replace them.

The result, he says, is disastrous, with depressions in some countries worse than the Great Depression. “Europe need not be crucified on the cross of the Euro,” writes Stiglitz.  It is time to give up on a single currency, separating the Euro into Northern and Southern versions, with debts of all parties denominated in the softer and more flexible Southern Euro.

Stiglitz’s book has been  reviewed in the FT, WSJ, NYT, and The Economist, generally respectfully, often critically (Roger Lowenstein gave the book a proper going-over in the Sunday Times). Meanwhile The Euro and the Battle of Ideas has appeared in none of them.  Yet in all respects the latter is the better book. It is harder to read, that’s true.  In their determination to expose the roots of the battle of ideas that has escalated since the Euro-crisis began – between the northern, or German economic philosophy, and a southern view, associated since the French Revolution mainly with France – the authors have produced a book that is in equal parts history lesson, international economics primer, guide to cultural differences, and political treatise. .

They have the advantage of being deeply involved. Brunnermeier, who is German, is a Princeton University professor, a cutting-edge international macroeconomist who serves on the European Systemic Risk Board. James, a British citizen, also of Princeton, is an economic historian, author of Making the European Monetary Union and Europe Reborn. Landau is a former deputy direct of the Banque de France and former executive director of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They write:

"The basic elements of the contrasting philosophies can be delineated quite simply.  The northern version is about rules, rigor, and consistency, while the southern emphasis is on the need for flexibility, adaptability and innovation. It is Kant vs. Machiavelli.  Economists have long been familiar with this kind of debate and they refer to it as rules versus discretion.''

If that sounds familiar, it’s because European integration is fraught with the same kinds of misunderstandings and misinterpretations as exist between men and women, according to the authors. In the last sentence of the book, they draw the obvious moral: “[W]hat we have characterized as the German view and the French view actually need each other to be sustainable.”  As with men and women, in between exists lifetimes of negotiation, including some doleful possibilities. Surmounting many little crises all at once often results in closer union; too many crises all at once may mean divorce.

If Europe is high on your list of concerns, you should read this book; European leaders will. Otherwise you can go to whatever is next among your Sunday responsibilities. I have no time to do it justice here to the intricacies of its Teutonic /Mediterranean, east-of-the-Rhine/west-of-the-Rhine arguments.    For me, the most intriguing idea was the brief discussion of the emergence of Spitzenkandidaten (leading candidates, in English) that Brunnermeier, James and Landau identify as a promising sign.

Popular election of European leaders appeared for the first time in 2014. Instead of waiting, as in the past, to be assigned to the task by log-rolling heads of state, pan-European candidates competed directly with one another to head the European Commission.  They traveled around the EC’s twenty-eight member states, debating each other and giving interviews to local media, each in his or her own language.

Ever-better simultaneous translation is in the offing. British premier David Cameron was, not for the last time, the big loser. Here is an excellent video account of the innovation, as buoying, at least to my mind, as a quick trip to Berlin, Meanwhile, a little less hectoring from I-told-you-so American economists would be welcome.

David Warsh, a longtime economic historian and financial columnist, is proprietor of economicprincipals.com, where this first appeared.

What about mid-day naps?

"6052 days + nights (8.29 years) (vellum and insect pins on vellum-covered foam board), by Ann Wessman, in her show "Being Vertical + Horizontal,''  at the Kingston Gallery, Boston, through Oct. 2.

The gallery notes say that the exhibition "honors each day of life with a simple, repeating pattern of vertical and horizontal orientations representing the states of awake and asleep and day and night. The artist asks us to view her labor-intensive installation as a calendar.''

The horizontal pieces of paper, of course, represent night and the vertical ones day.

All-night groceries

-- Photo by Fiona Gerety

An astrologer and a creature from Mars gather some of this season's massive vegetable crop in Little Compton, R.I.. 24 hours a day isn't enough to pick it all.

Scott Klinger: Tax breaks for business slam public schools

As fall approaches, millions of moms and dads are scrambling to prepare for the first day of school, excited to support their children’s success.

But are schools ready to receive our kids and foster that success? Increasingly, the answer is no.

In at least 18 states, local government funding levels are declining, according to an analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. And as a result, many schools will open with fewer teachers than last year, among other detrimental losses.

As lawmakers throw up their hands and say, “sorry, there’s just not enough money,” we must ask: Where has all the money gone?

State and local governments give away at least $70 billion a year to business subsidies, most of it in foregone tax revenue. Local property taxes are the most significant tax most corporations pay. In most communities, they’re also the backbone of local school finance.

So when subsidies slash corporate property taxes, our schools often get hurt the most.

In Chicago, for example, we already have a glimpse into the unsavory relationship between tax subsidies and school finance. Last year, one subsidy program alone cost public services $461 million. Meanwhile, the city’s schools are facing a budget that is $140 million less than they had last year.

When cities line the pockets of powerful interests with subsidies while short-changing children, they harm everyone — including businesses that depend on a well-educated work force.

Unlike Chicago, in most cities it’s difficult to calculate exactly how much state and local tax subsidies drain from a given school district. But that’s about to change.

Starting next year, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board will require more than 50,000 government bodies to report how much tax revenue they’ve lost to economic development tax breaks given to developers and corporations.

Though school districts, library districts, and other special purpose districts seldom have a role in awarding these subsidies, they too will be required to report how much revenue they’ve lost lost—even as a result of tax breaks handed out by other governmental bodies.

This new data will also shine a light on inequities in education, allowing new critical examination of whether tax breaks that fill corporate coffers come disproportionately at the expense of the most disadvantaged school districts.

This way, we can say no to deals that pad the profits of the already wealthy at the cost of denying opportunity to those looking to get a foot on the first rung of the economic ladder.

Some states are already following the logic of this new common sense standard. In a 2011 budget deal, California decided to phase out an expensive subsidy granted by redevelopment agencies, and as a result, paved the way for local property tax revenues to rise by 10-15 percent in coming years. These added revenues will allow cities and towns throughout California to increase funding for local priorities—including schools.

Soon, we’ll all have a much better idea about where the funding for schools throughout the nation has gone. Parents and teachers clamoring for smaller class sizes and more support services will have the data to back their demands.

And taxpayers will be able to debate whether costly, long-term tax breaks that often go to the most prosperous businesses in town have been worth the cost of struggling schools.

As we look ahead to the new school year, it’s time to hold our governments and schools accountable to meet student needs. The data is coming soon that will help us get there.

Scott Klinger is the GASB 77 Activation Coordinator at Good Jobs First. To learn more about the GASB 77 disclosures coming next year, visit www.goodjobsfirst.org/gasb. Distributed by OtherWords.

Don Pesci: Waiting for the burial of bankrupt Hartford

It’s more than a whisper. Hartford, Connecticut’s capital city, already is bankrupt; no one as yet has bothered to read the last rites over the corpse.

The city’s formal announcement of bankruptcy can be deduced from the math, and there is no quarreling with math, as Mr. Micawber, a character in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield, well knew: “"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Misery is what happens when your expenses exceed your income. A crisis is what happens when you are unwilling to cut your expenses permanently and you have no means of increasing your income, which perfectly describes the state of Connecticut. The Democrat-dominated General Assembly, having imposed on Connecticut both the highest and the second highest tax increases in state history, Gov. Dannel Malloy has, perhaps for election purposes, forsworn future tax increases, and the state’s red ink continues to rise to knee level.

To be sure, there are reasons why state  revenue continues to plunge downward: high income salaries are diminishing; the stock market continues to under-perform, and Connecticut is more reliant than most states on taxes drawn from financial institutions; home-grown Connecticut companies either have left the state or have their eyes fixed on the exit signs; revenue from the gas tax in down because gasoline prices have been low for a long while thanks in part to fracking, and Connecticut is the only state in the union that has not yet fully recovered from a major recession that ended elsewhere more than  five years ago.

Late in August, Governor Malloy stepped before the TV cameras and declared – with as straight a face as he could summon – that his innovative crony capitalist “First Five Plus” program had been a crashing success. Outside the state’s hegemonic one-Party bubble, tittering could be heard. For the last quarter century in Connecticut, success has taken on the appearance of abject failure.

Rating the fifty states according to fiscal solvency, a June 2016 Mercatus study placed Connecticut dead last:

“Connecticut’s fiscal position is poor across all categories. With between only 0.46 and 1.19 times the cash needed to cover short-term liabilities, Connecticut’s revenues matched only 94 percent of expenses, producing a deficit of $505 per capita. The state is heavily reliant on debt to finance its spending. With a negative net asset ratio of −0.88 and liabilities exceeding assets by 34 percent, per capita debt is $9,077. Total debt is $20.88 billion. Unfunded pensions are $83.31 billion on a guaranteed-to-be-paid basis, and other post-employment benefits (OPEB) are $19.53 billion. Total liabilities are equal to 53 percent of total state personal income.”

Within the six years of the Malloy administration alone, General Electric, a fixture in the state since 1974, pulled up stakes and moved its headquarters north to Massachusetts, not south to Texas or Florida; Sikorsky, spun off from United Technologies, was purchased in July 2015 by Lockheed Martin Corp. for $9 billion in cash; Aetna Insurance, founded in Connecticut in 1853 and a beehive of employment activity in the state, appears to have its eyes on the exit signs; and – not that anyone in the Malloy administration cares all that much – gun manufacturers in a state known since the Revolutionary war as “the arsenal of the nation” are moving operations  to other move friendly states.

In 2013, Mr. Malloy gave the back of his hand to Connecticut gun manufacturers who had been begging for a place at the table before the General Assembly passed its restrictive regulations. “What this is about,” Mr. Malloy told CNN, “is the ability of the gun industry to sell as many guns to as many people as possible—even if they are deranged, even if they are mentally ill, even if they have a criminal background. They don’t care. They want to sell guns.”

In the age of crony capitalism, some businesses in Connecticut – “First Five Plus” awardees selected by the Malloy administration for crony capitalist treatment – are more equal than others. When Mayor of Hartford Luke Bronin, once Mr. Malloy’s legal counsel, petitions the governor and the General Assembly for assistance prior to declaring bankruptcy, one may be certain his petition will not be so summarily dismissed.

And just for the record, it may be proper to point out here that the Malloy administration has, through the state’s Bond Commission, provided $22 million in grants and loans to the largest hedge fund in the world in order to prevent Bridgewater Associates from moving jobs elsewhere, as gun manufacturers have done, while at the same time Mr. Malloy’s “caring” government has reduced tax outlays to Connecticut’s disabled.

Don Pesci (donpesci@att.net) is a writer who lives in Vernon, Conn

Red sky in morning....

“Red Shift’’ (ink and gouache on wood), by Tayo Heuser, in her show “Looking in: Looking out,’’ at the Jamestown (R.I.) Arts Center, Sept. 1-Oct. 8. 

Some gallery notes from a  show of Ms. Heuser’s work at Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence:

“Tayo Heuser’s recent work with ink washes of siena and burgundy provide the subtle ground on top of which delicate circles float and hover. Natural pigments and colors from the earth are used throughout the work, which adds to the glowing light.’’

“Heuser brings her exquisite drawing ability to the fore.’’

She has exhibited her work in Brussels, New York and Washington, D.C., among other places.

Evacuate upper Buzzards Bay?

Excepted from Robert Whitcomb's Aug 25 Digital Diary column in GoLocalProv.

The most recent Louisiana floods raise again the issue of what to with people living in places increasingly prone to  fresh- and saltwater flooding  (and in some places drought) because of global warming.  I think it’s becoming  obvious that many areas, including much of Louisiana, will have to be permanently evacuated.

Much closer to home, as Hurricane Bob proved in 1991, the upper part of Buzzards Bay is very vulnerable. Bob drove a 15-foot storm surge into Wareham and Bourne, doing great damage. And the South County, R.I., barrier beaches are imperiled. I can foresee a time, even in my remaining lifetime, when government, in part compelled by insurance companies, orders thousands or even millions of people to leave their coastal houses for good.

For an example of how structures on the water can be made relatively flood-proof seewhat the IYRS School of Technology and Trades plans for a new building in Newport.  (IYRS stands for International Yacht Restoration School.) Read the story in the Providence Business News at this link:

http://pbn.com/IYRS-building-designed-to-withstand-flooding,116549

The only constant is change, continued

Above images from left: Clint Fulkerson, Susan Camp and Gene Felice II in the show "Metamorphia: Systems of Emergence,'' at Waterfall Arts, Montville, Maine, through Sept. 9.

Camp, Fulkerson and Felice create dramatic works of art through various mediums, including sculpture, drawing and video installation. 

Llewellyn King: Addressing the storage challenge in green energy

 The energy-storage train discussed below (1/4 scale).

Editor’s note: With the windpower project off Block Island soon to go online, the issue of energy storage comes to mind.

In research there is evolution, revolution and — sometimes — what I call “retro revolution,” which happens when old methods have new applications. All three are in play in the world of electricity, and are affecting storage.

The inability to store electricity has been a challenge since the time of Thomas Edison. Electricity is made and used in real time, putting huge pressure on utilities at particular times of the day. For much of the East Coast in summer, for example, the peak is in the evening, when people come home from work or play, crank up the air conditioning, flip on the lights, the TV and start cooking. In many cities, the subways operate at peak and the electricity supply is stretched.

Traditionally, there have been two ways to deal with this. One is that utilities have some plant on standby, in what is called “spinning reserve,” or they have gas turbines ready to fire up.

Solar and wind power, an increasing source of new generation, have made the need to store and retrieve power quickly more critical. The sun sets too early and the wind blows willy-nilly. Also the quality of the power reaching the grid varies in seconds, necessitating a quick response to ease supply or increase it.

Until now, the best way to store large amounts of electricity — it is never really stored, but has to be generated afresh — is known as “pump storage.” This occurs when water is pumped up a hill during low demand times, at night and early in the morning, and released through generators to make new electricity during peaks.

It has gotten harder and harder to get permission to install new pumped storage because the best locations are often in scenic places. In 1962, Consolidated Edison Co. proposed building a pump storage facility on the Hudson River at Storm King Mountain near Cornwall, N.Y. After 17 years of environmental opposition, it gave up.

Now battery technology has reached a point where utilities are installing banks of lithium-ion batteries to help with peak demand. They also play an important part in smoothing out variable nature of alternative energy.

Batteries are not the only play, but because Mr. Battery, entrepreneur Elon Musk, is a showman, they tend to get more public attention.

Other mechanical methods hold as much promise and some dangers. One is flywheels, which would be wound up at night and would release power when needed. It is an old concept, but one that has new proponents — although there are concerns about when things go wrong and that super-energetic device flies apart.

“What happens if it gets loose and goes to town?” asks a wag.

Another method is compressed air in underground vaults. Natural gas already is compressed routinely for storage. The technology exists, but the compression would have to be many times greater for air, and there are concerns about the impact of this “air bomb.”

Yet another method involves a column of water with a heavy, concrete weight pressing down on it.

My own favorite — and one likely to appeal to many because of its safety and mechanical efficiency — is an electric train that stores energy by running up a track and then down to generate power. A Santa Barbara, Calif., company, Advanced Rail Energy Storage (ARES), is planning to run a special train 3,000 feet up a mountain track in Pahrump, Nev., and then have the train come down the mountain, making electricity as it does so. They plan to use hopper cars loaded with rock or other heavy objects. The Economist magazine has dubbed it the “Sisyphus Railroad.”

The train will go up or down the track depending on the needs of the California grid to which it will be linked. The developers claim an incredible 85-percent efficiency, according to Francesca Cava, an ARES spokeswoman. “That’s what you get with steel wheels on steel track,” she says.

The company has received Bureau of Land Management approval for its 5.5-mile track, and construction of the energy train starts next year. “All aboard the Voltage Express making stops at Solar Junction, Wind Crossing and Heavy Goods Terminal.”

Choo-choo! Back to the future.

Llewellyn King (llewellynking1@gmail.com), based in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS, and a longtime publisher, columnist and international business consultant. The piece first ran on InsideSources.

Southern spectacle moving north

 --- Photos (one is below the text) by Thomas Hook

With leaves like ferns, beautiful, sweet-smelling pink-puffball flowers and a tropical aesthetic,  mimosa trees are moving north with global warming. These fast-growing, messy and rather short-lived trees are becoming increasingly common in southern New England. I think that they’re beautiful,  romantic and a bit sadness-producing. And unlike most trees in our region, they bloom into late summer.

They  also create a bit of a jungle feeling, which takes a while to get used to in our clime, but then our clime is changing.

Try to ignore their overproduction of seedpods, which means that if you have a mimosa you may soon have a mimosa population explosion.

Get used to those drawbacks and enjoy the spectacle that these immigrants from the South create.

Mr. Hook, a distinguished nature photographer, took these pictures last week on his andhis wife’s forested land in Southbury, Conn.

-- Robert Whitcomb

Lessons from the Greenland shark?

Excerpted from Robert Whitcomb's Aug. 18 Digital Diary column.

Does the Greenland shark have lessons for us?   Scientists have discovered that these creatures, deepwater predators, are apparently the longest-living vertebrates. Researchers studied 28 of them. One was about 400 years old. Cold water is apparently good for longevity!

Sounds heartening. On the other hand, these very slow-growing creatures don’t have sex until they’re about 150. Perhaps of more importance/hope to us mammals is that a fellow mammal – a bowhead whale – was estimated to be 211 and that that species starts having sex in its early teens….

Charles Pinning: Film avant garde in our Newport backyard

A recent ad for something called the Newport Outdoor Film Series reminded me that my childhood was not solely a medieval horror show of spankings and more subtle tortures. It was also imbued with moments of the avant garde. Film and children are eminently well-suited to taking a healthy whack at the status quo. Startling and immediate, both can leave us speechless.

In the ‘50s and early ‘60s my naval officer father was stationed on several ships in Newport. In the officer’s wardroom they screened movies, and before the film had to be returned he would sometimes bring it home and we’d have movie night in the backyard.

Neighbors were invited and we put out folding canvas chairs and chaise lounges, and some people brought their own. There was iced tea and Narragansett Beer and ginger ale and snacks.

We watched Shane, Gone With the Wind and other classics.  On the night I am about to describe it was going to be Around the World in 80 Days.

My father set up his big projector, swinging open the arms and snapping the take-up reel into place. Then he removed the film reel from the round metal canister, both reels as big as the steering wheel on our Pontiac station wagon, and snapped it onto the other arm. Then came the careful threading of the film between the rollers and onto the take-up reel.

The screen, its  surface pearlescent and surprisingly abrasive, was set up in front of our huge, globular Japanese cherry tree.

It was turning dark now, and the kids’ running around began to slow, the chatter of the adults grew softer and sound of the crickets in the field behind the cherry tree began to rise up.

My father’s voice: “All right everyone. The movie is about to begin!”

I sat down in my canvas chair. Connie Hayes, who lived next door and had one of Newport’s foremost Barbie doll collections, sat to my right, and to my left, Chrissie Blank, a bonnie little tomboy with bangs if ever there was. They were my best friends.

And suddenly it began, the mechanical clicking and flutter of the celluloid winding its way at 24 frames per second through the projector’s sprockets and the cone of light splitting the darkness, carrying the image to the screen, first the leader countdown flashing the numerals with a beep for each: 5…4…3…2…1...And then!

I’d never been out of the United States, and leaned forward to meet Victorian fussbudget Phileas Fogg and his exotic valet, Passepartout.  Beginning in London, they made the wager and readied themselves for their journey around the world, first stop Paris. Paris! Where they climbed into the basket of a colorful hot air balloon with streamers. Up they went, floating above the most beautiful city I’d ever seen. As they sailed over France, they crossed the Alps and Passepartout leaned over and scooped an armload of snow off a mountain peak.

It was at that moment, timing perfect, that a little gust of wind rose up and the screen blew over! Suddenly, there was Phileas Fogg and Passepartout in their hot air balloon sailing across our cherry tree, leaving behind the screen’s confines.

We sat transfixed, and in the half minute before my father was able to right the screen, nobody complained. We were being transported someplace we’d never been before, discovering by accident a new way of seeing.

Isn’t that just the way life is? By trying something just a little different, getting the film projector outside on a summer evening, the stage was set for a gust of wind to usher in a movie projected against a tree. And what could’ve been more perfect than the image to be a hot-air balloon in the sky?

Our faces were aglow and we were letting go, living the free life with Phileas Fogg and Passepartout. Living our cutting-edge life in little Newport many decades before the avant garde began projecting video against buildings and, yes, trees. There we were in the season that favors accidents, racing at the speed of light into the future.

Charles Pinning, of Providence, is a novelist and an occasional contributor to New England Diary.

Germany said to plan big military buildup to counter Russian aggression

Diane Francis, a Canadian journalist, a member of the Hudson Institute and a former speaker at the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations, reports that Germany plans a huge increase in its military strength to be able to confront an expansionist Russia and terrorists.

She writes that Germany's  new "civil defense'' initiative would:

·      Give the government the right “to reintroduce military conscription (stopped in 2011) in case of a ‘national emergency,’  but with a major difference. Its armed forces (currently 178,000) could swell by another 600,000, and be deployed internally to help police for the first time since the Second World War, and, significantly, to guard NATO’s borders which extend to Turkey.

·      "{E}ncourage the public to stockpile 10 days’ supply of food and five days’ of water in case of national emergencies or “existential” (i.e. terrorist) attacks.

"This represents a potentially dramatic extension of German military presence with a mandate to be deployed as domestic police as well as beyond its borders.

"The initiative is due to three unstated reasons: Russia’s occupation of part of Ukraine and  {threats to} other countries on its eastern flank; America’s growing weariness of military costs; and terrorist threats to its other European and NATO members.’’

To read her essay, please hit this link.

Cape Cod fishermen are challenged by huge mid-water herring trawlers

By Nicole St. Clair Knobloch

for ecoRI News (ecori.org)

CHATHAM, Mass.

Cape Cod fishermen may be on their way to some relief from sharing inshore fishing grounds with mid-water herring trawling, a practice they say is threatening their livelihoods. But a persistent lack of data on the impact of the trawls may hamper efforts to regulate them.

On Aug. 17, the Herring Oversight Committee of the New England Fisheries Management Council voted to send the council two options for establishing a buffer zone prohibiting mid-water trawling off Cape Cod. The zone would extend either 12 miles or 35 miles from shore — significantly farther than the 6-mile zone proposed by the herring industry and closer than the 50-mile mark sought by environmental groups. The council will consider the options when it meets in September.

Fishermen have been complaining for years about the industrial-sized ships landing on the back side of Cape Cod, scooping up millions of pounds of herring and leaving, they say, a temporary ocean “bio-desert” in their wake.

In 2015, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance collected hundreds of comments and individual letters from fisherman about the phenomenon called “localized depletion” — defined as “when harvesting takes more fish than can be replaced locally or through fish migrating into the catch area within a given time period.”

For those who fish bluefin tuna, striped bass, dogfish and are still recovering from drastic cuts to allowable catches of groundfish such as cod, competing with the large ships doesn’t feel like a fair fight.

“We have a problem on the back side of the Cape,” said striped bass fisherman Patrick Paquette at the recent committee hearing. “We have big industrial boats fishing in shallow water.”

The comments were part of a new look at how herring fishing should be managed. The New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) was tasked in 2007 with establishing a control rule for herring stocks. But in 2014, a lawsuit from environmental groups prompted an examination of the biological and ecological role of herring in the western Atlantic Ocean ecosystem, with the aim of establishing a stronger control rule reflecting the herring’s status as a forage species.

Even if the NEFMC is able to determine that role, and assign a new acceptable biological catch limit for herring, its science committee asserts that stronger stock-wide limits wouldn’t necessarily avoid local effects on the food web when trawlers come through.

A local dogfish fisherman, who didn’t want to use his name for fear of “retribution” from the herring companies, described the experience of encountering a mid-water trawler inshore.

“We go out and they’re out there with their lights off, inside of three miles (from shore),” he said at the Chatham dock two days before the Aug. 17 meeting. “They see us and turn their lights on, and plow right through our lines, leaving no groundfish. We might as well just go home and call it a season.”

The herring industry disputes such claims, as proving them has been problematic. At the August meeting, the task force charged with analyzing the impacts of midwater trawling on other species presented few results. Though it confirmed significant numbers of trawler landings in Area 114, a section of ocean on the “back” of Cape Cod, it didn’t show the effect of that activity on other species. NEFMC staff cited lack of reported data and noted the lack of an adequate computer model and the time to develop one.

The staff did find that both large and small schools of tuna, which prey on herring, are lower in New England now than in the 1980s, but suggested lack of prey as only one of several possible explanations for the decline.

“Year after year, we have no scientific basis for taking any action on herring. We have no evidence localized depletion exists,” said Herring Oversight Committee member Mary Beth Tooley, who is on the board of O’Hara Industries, a herring company operating two mid-water trawlers out of Rockport, Maine.

Herring fisherman Gerry O’Neill got up from the audience to agree with Tooley.

“I feel this whole thing is going forward based on perception, not based on facts,” he said. “The research — there are ways to do it. We’d like to see it done. If we are going to lose access to fish we would like some biological, scientific basis for it.”

Getting that level of proof in New England is difficult, according to John Pappalardo, CEO of the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.

“We don’t have synced or simple data collection systems on each fishery,” he said. He pointed to Alaska, where herring fishing is intensely monitored and pair trawling is limited to a few areas. There, he said, “Industry is more involved in the collection of that data. It’s partly the (New England) culture, which is a resistance to being observed or monitored.”

Making that happen here, Pappalardo said, is up to Congress and the National Marine Fisheries Service. “Where is the political will?” he asked.

He expressed exasperation with the idea that a connection between herring trawls and other species had to be proved absolutely.

“These people will not draw a correlation,” he said. “(For them) there is always something else to eat in the ocean.”

Even without more data, NEFMC’s Atlantic herring management plan was amended in 2006 to ban midwater trawling in the summer in the inshore area for the entire Gulf of Maine. The ban ends just above the fishing area of Cape Cod. It came after thousands of comments from Gulf of Maine fishermen with similar complaints as their Cape Cod counterparts.

At the September meeting, the council is expected to hear the science committee’s findings on how much herring is needed to support the area’s ecosystem.

To some, herring’s role is obvious, even if acceptable catch levels are not.

“The ecosystem starts with herring,” said the Chatham dogfish fisherman. “Am I the only one that remembers that part in elementary school? When they drew a circle around a herring and said the food chain starts here.”

Refugee art in a 'Sanctuary City'

"Protection,''by Dariush Rose, in the group show "Stories from Far and Near: Refugee Artists in New Haven.'' Rose is from Iran. Other artists in the show are from Congo, Iraq and Mauritania, all usually pretty terrible places, but especially in the last few decades.

New Haven, by the way, is a "Sanctuary City''  -- one of those U.S. cities whose municipal leaders have declared that they and their local police forces won't assist U.S, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to nab illegal alien living and perhaps hiding there. While this has pleased some minority groups in those cities, it has infuriated many other people at this massive violation of U.S.  law. Of course, when one of these illegally protected people is arrested for a horrific crime, the outrage is red hot.

Engineering a revival in R.I.?

It was heartening to read in The Providence Sunday Journal on Aug. 15 about the rapid growth of engineering education at four of Rhode Island’s universities – Brown University, the University of Rhode Island, Johnson and Wales University and Roger Williams University.  (Readers should not forget that the Rhode Island School of Design, with its famous industrial design department, could also be a part of this complex.)

This development, perhaps more than in other in recent years, could spawn the new, high-value-added economic activity that the Ocean State so desperately needs. It bears noting that the mid- and late- 19th and early 20th Century booms in the state had a lot to do with the fact that our region was at the forefront of Industrial Revolution engineering.

-- Robert Whitcomb

Late summer blues

"Nigralle'' (mixed media on canvas), by Deborah Barlow, in her Aug. 31-Sept 25 show with Yizhak Elyashiv,  at the Dedee Shattuck Gallery, Westport, Mass.

"Inebriate of Air - am I -
And Debauchee of Dew -
Reeling through endless summer days -
From inns of Molten Blue."
--Emily Dickinson, No. 214, St. 2, 1860 

Robert Whitcomb: Forever and a day to build something

Excerpted from Aug. 18 Digital Diary column in GoLocalProv.

Please, city, don’t hold this up too! MSI Holdings LLC wants a few waivers to build an 11-story retail/residential building on what is now a parking lot on Canal Street in downtown Providence, most notably a waiver that would let the owners exceed the official height limit for the neighborhood in the city’s zoning rules.

The Providence Business News also reports that “the applicant has requested waivers from the recess requirement, and ground floor and upper level transparency requirements for the portion of the building that faces a narrow alley, called Throop Street.’’ Few people would see that side.

The applicant  ought to get the waivers promptly. Having lots of parking lots downtown in place of buildings is deadly. They shout urban decay. Density, on the other hand, speaks of vitality and prosperity. Jam in those buildings!

Time and time again, excessively rigid zoning rules have prevented what would be perfectly respectable structures from going up in Providence, or has grossly delayed them. The parking lot that this building would cover is an eyesore. Let’s get as much bustle as we canfrom people and businesses in downtown Providence, an eminently walkable place.

Which gets me to how long it takes to get anything done in Rhode Island.

The Rhode Island Department of Transportation expects to  finally award a bid in October to build the long-delayed (for 10 years!) pedestrian bridge over the Providence  River, with completion expected by November 2018. It looks like this thing will cost about $20 million.

The bridge will link College Hill and Fox Point with downtown, creating various commercial and other synergies. It should become a kind of tourist site and popular meeting place. Let’s hope that a brilliant architect designs it. Friedrich St. Florian?

Of course, because of the necessary oversight of publicly funded projects, the zoning-ordinance labyrinth, constituency politics and the vagaries of the economy, public projects usually take much longer than private ones. Still, 10 years is far too long! Businesses and individuals take negative notice of places where minor but needed repairs, such as filling potholes, let alone big projects,  seem to take eons to happen. Such delays are particularly frustrating in a place as small as Rhode Island, where you might think it would be easier to get things done.

It’s a problem around America.

Common Good, run by my  friend Philip K. Howard, has a very useful and proscriptive report out called Two Years, Not Ten Years: Redesigning Infrastructure Approvals  that among otherthings discusses the huge costs of delaying infrastructure permits.  To read the report, please hit this link. 

Robert Whitcomb is the overseer of New England Diary.

James P. Freeman: Charlie Baker's quiet reinvention of state government

As the national Republican Party self-immolates as a consequence of its traumatic homage to the incendiary and self-destructive Donald Trump, Massachusetts Republicans should seek solace in knowing that Gov. Charlie Baker is quieting reinventing state government and, in the process, creating a model of New Republicanism.

Baker – and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito – are governing in style and substance that is moderate, pragmatic and unpretentious (there are no hints at being a “compassionate conservative,” for instance) which, even in the firmly progressive commonwealth, is highly effective. It should be considered a new form of Republicanism and a model of success -- especially for the few national Republicans vocalizing an oath of fidelity to the party’s core values.

Even The Boston Globe has taken notice. In a front page story on Aug. 8, it noted that Baker has -- “without grandstanding for the media or waging partisan battles – successfully courted the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature, declaring victory on many of the major issues he’s tackled in the past 19 months with rarely a word of opposition from longtime lawmakers.”

Citing “no bold agenda but with a potent combination of high-level government experience, a strong grasp of complicated public policies, and just plain charm,” Baker, remarkably, has emerged as “the dominant figure on Beacon Hill.”

Among his achievements: slowly (it took decades to reach this point; dozens of legislative sessions and eight governors since the1970s) repairing and reforming the troubled MBTA; addressing the opioid crisis (in March he signed into law limits on opioid prescriptions); increasing tax credits for low-income workers; creating fairness in the workplace with equal pay for comparable work; reducing the state workforce as a means of balancing the budget; and, just the other week, celebrating completion of a $1 billion economic development bill.

And the work continues…

Baker-Polito, a political synchronized diving team, are now plunging into the swampy green pool of state regulation in search of efficiency and efficacy, not accolades. As reported by The New Boston Post, their administration is “eliminating nearly 15 percent of Massachusetts state regulations and amending at least another 40 percent in a top-to-bottom overhaul aimed at making state government more efficient and business-friendly.” These are waters that the previous administration, under former Gov. Deval Patrick, never dared wading into, given the progressive proclivity that more and greater government regulation is better and best for its citizens.

When the governor launched this regulatory initiative, he laid out three options for all executive office departments to consider during this methodical promulgation process: either retain, amend or rescind regulations. Those deemed unnecessary and obstructive in making the commonwealth a “better place to live, work and grow a business,” would be amended or rescinded, according to Brendan Moss, Baker’s deputy communications director.

Thus far, 336 regulations are slated to be amended and 122 are to be rescinded, with hundreds more under the hot white spot light of review. As Moss further explains, “members of the administration met with municipalities, businesses, and individuals at over 100 listening sessions across the state and we look forward to finalizing this comprehensive review in the near future.”

Baker’s best act of 2016 is, actually, inaction. He rightly decided not to immerse himself into the presidential contest; he neither embraced Trump or attended the convention in Cleveland, thereby immunizing himself – unlike so many so-called “principled” Republicans -- from association with the embarrassing national ticket. Instead, he has quietly gone about the people’s business. According to veteran observers, reports The Globe, Baker “listens and wants to understand everyone’s views – and is willing to adjust his own.”

As a testament to Baker’s sensible reforms and keen political instincts, he is, for the second year in a row, the most popular governor in the country. For many this development would have been simply unimaginable just two years ago during the gubernatorial race. But for those listening in 2014 it was inevitable.

Two years ago, while at a campaign stop at The Pilot House in Sandwich, Mass., he spoke of the practical agenda he intended to implement, relying heavily on a theme of restoration and repair. As far as his latest projects -- reducing the saturation of codes, rules and regulations along with economic development – they are rooted in his pronouncements from 2014. Back then he said that Massachusetts “is a complicated place to do business” and that Bay Staters need “to think differently about economic development.” Baker is proof that one can be successful in linking campaigning with governing. A lesson lost on many Republicans today.   

With much work to do (such as state debt and pension reforms), one fact will, however, emerge by the end of the day on Nov. 8: Charlie Baker will be seen as the top of the presidential class of 2020. And perhaps more importantly, his brand of governing – and the heavy lifting of effecting sensible policymaking -- will be seen as a model for the national party and should be emulated by members of the national party to ensure that the Grand Old Party retains its grandeur.

As Labor Day 2016 approaches, Baker’s New Republicanism must be a novel concept to those Republicans still pledging allegiance (without a trace of buyer’s remorse) to its two national candidates, who are positioning themselves, ever so effortlessly and recklessly, for massive electoral losses.

James P. Freeman is a New England-based writer and former columnist with The Cape Cod Times. 

The Cape, distilled

"Chatham II (acrylic on canvas), by Brenda Horowitz, in her show at the Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown. She has a place in Truro, on Cape Cod,  where, the gallery says, she works on compositions "simplified to land, water, sky sometimes a house {to} explore the inherent character of the Cape landscape, where the quality of light reflected by the ocean intensifies the color of nature. The work in the current exhibition was created in plein air in the hills, dunes and marshland of Truro.....'