31, 2008 Or Fiscal Year Beginning And Ending 20: Fill & Download for Free

Of the many, many bills he sponsored or cosponsored, Biden has said that the Violence Against Women Act was his most important. Here are that and the other 41 bills he sponsored and were enacted:S. 3605 (110th): Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedSep 26, 2008 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentOct 13, 2008 Cosponsors1 (1R)S. 3370 (110th): Libyan Claims Resolution ActSponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJul 31, 2008 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentAug 4, 2008 Cosponsors6 (3D,3R)S. 3218 (110th): Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJun 26, 2008 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentJul 30, 2008 Cosponsors1 (1R)S. 3061 (110th): William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMay 22, 2008 Ordered ReportedJul 31, 2008 Cosponsors6 (4D,2R)Enacted via H.R. 7311 (110th): William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008S. 2731 (110th): Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 7, 2008 Ordered ReportedMar 13, 2008 Cosponsors13 (7R,6D)Enacted via H.R. 5501 (110th): Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008S. 2565 (110th): Law Enforcement Congressional Badge of Bravery Act of 2008Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJan 29, 2008 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentJul 31, 2008 Cosponsors10 (6D,4R)S. 2106 (110th): Procedural Fairness for September 11 Victims Act of 2007Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedSep 27, 2007 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentNov 8, 2007 Cosponsors7 (4R,3D)S. 1738 (110th): PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJun 28, 2007 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentOct 13, 2008 Cosponsors60 (41D,18R,1I)S. 1060 (110th): Recidivism Reduction and Second Chance Act of 2007Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 29, 2007 Ordered ReportedAug 2, 2007 Cosponsors34 (27D,5R,2I)Enacted via H.R. 1593 (110th): Second Chance Act of 2007S. 676 (110th): A bill to provide that the Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank or the Alternate Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank may serve on the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedFeb 17, 2007 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentJun 21, 2007 Cosponsors2 (2R)S. 1184 (109th): A bill to waive the passport fees for a relative of a deceased member of the Armed Forces proceeding abroad to visit the grave of such member or to attend a funeral or memorial service for such member.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJun 7, 2005 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentMar 24, 2006 Cosponsors2 (1D,1R)S. 2195 (108th): Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 11, 2004 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentOct 22, 2004 Cosponsors10 (6R,4D)S. 1849 (106th): White Clay Creek Wild and Scenic Rivers System ActSponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedNov 3, 1999 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentOct 24, 2000 Cosponsors1 (1R)S. 574 (106th): A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to make corrections to a map relating to the Coastal Barrier Resources System.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 10, 1999 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentDec 6, 1999 Cosponsors0S. 519 (106th): A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to make corrections to a map relating to the Coastal Barrier Resources System.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 3, 1999 Cosponsors0Enacted via S. 574 (106th): A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to make corrections to a map relating to the Coastal Barrier Resources System.S.J.Res. 220 (103rd): A joint resolution to designate October 19, 1994, as “National Mammography Day”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedSep 21, 1994 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentOct 18, 1994 Cosponsors56 (33D,23R)S. 1764 (103rd): A bill to provide for the extension of certain authority for the Marshal of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court Police.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedNov 20, 1993 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentDec 14, 1993 Cosponsors0S.J.Res. 134 (103rd): A joint resolution to designate October 19, 1993, as “National Mammography Day.”Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedSep 15, 1993 Cosponsors54 (31D,23R)Enacted via H.J.Res. 265 (103rd): To designate October 19, 1993, as “National Mammography Day”.S.J.Res. 62 (103rd): A joint resolution to designate the week beginning April 25, 1993, as “National Crime Victims’ Right Week”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 10, 1993 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentMay 6, 1993 Cosponsors24 (15D,9R)S.J.Res. 56 (103rd): A joint resolution to designate the week beginning April 12, 1993, as “National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 3, 1993 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentMar 24, 1994 Cosponsors25 (13D,12R)S.J.Res. 279 (102nd): A joint resolution designating April 14, 1992, as “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 25, 1992 Cosponsors13 (9D,4R)Enacted via H.J.Res. 410 (102nd): Designating April 14, 1992, as “Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.”.S. 1963 (102nd): A bill to amend section 992 of title 28, United States Code, to provide a member of the United States Sentencing Commission whose term has expired may continue to serve until a successor is appointed or until the expiration of the next seSponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedNov 13, 1991 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentAug 26, 1992 Cosponsors1 (1R)S. 1568 (102nd): A bill to amend the Act incorporating the American Legion so as to redefine eligibility for membership therein.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJul 26, 1991 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentDec 2, 1991 Cosponsors1 (1R)S. 1552 (102nd): White Clay Creek Study ActSponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJul 24, 1991 Ordered ReportedNov 20, 1991 Cosponsors3 (2R,1D)Enacted via H.R. 3012 (102nd): White Clay Creek Study ActS. 1451 (102nd): Benjamin Franklin Memorial Fire Service Bill of Rights ActSponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJul 11, 1991 Cosponsors46 (29D,17R)Enacted via H.R. 2448 (102nd): Benjamin Franklin National Memorial Commemorative Medal and Fire Service Bill of Rights ActS. 3266 (101st): Crime Control Act of 1990Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedOct 27, 1990 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentNov 29, 1990 Cosponsors1 (1R)S.J.Res. 373 (101st): Delaware-New Jersey CompactSponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedOct 2, 1990 Ordered ReportedOct 11, 1990 Cosponsors3 (2D,1R)Enacted via H.J.Res. 657 (101st): Delaware-New Jersey CompactS.J.Res. 309 (101st): A joint resolution designating the month of October 1990 as “Crime Prevention Month”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMay 8, 1990 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentSep 20, 1990 Cosponsors54 (30D,24R)S. 2224 (101st): A bill to authorize appropriations for the Administrative Conference of the United States for fiscal years 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994, and for other purposes.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 1, 1990 Ordered ReportedJul 12, 1990 Cosponsors0Enacted via H.R. 3897 (101st): To authorize appropriations for the Administrative Conference of the United States for fiscal years 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994, and for other purposes.S.J.Res. 264 (101st): A joint resolution to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the National Sheriffs’ Association.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 1, 1990 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentJun 28, 1990 Cosponsors54 (30D,24R)S.J.Res. 257 (101st): A joint resolution to designate March 10, 1990, as “Harriet Tubman Day”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedFeb 20, 1990 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentMar 13, 1990 Cosponsors31 (18D,13R)S.J.Res. 205 (101st): A joint resolution designating December 3 through 9, 1989, as “National Cities Fight Back Against Drugs Week”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedSep 26, 1989 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentDec 5, 1989 Cosponsors24 (13D,11R)S. 1338 (101st): Biden-Roth-Cohen Flag Protection Act of 1989Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJul 18, 1989 Ordered ReportedSep 21, 1989 Cosponsors33 (28D,5R)Enacted via H.R. 2978 (101st): Flag Protection Act of 1989S. 604 (101st): A bill to amend title 31 of the United States Code to increase settlement authority and expand coverage relating to claims for damages resulting from law enforcement activities.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedMar 16, 1989 Passed Senate (House next)Oct 27, 1989 Cosponsors4 (3D,1R)Enacted via H.R. 972 (101st): To amend section 3724 of title 31, United States Code, to increase the authority of the Attorney General to settle claims for damages resulting from law enforcement activities of the Department of Justice.S.J.Res. 240 (100th): A joint resolution to designate the period commencing on May 16, 1988 and ending on May 22, 1988, as “National Safe Kids Week.”Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJan 25, 1988 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentMay 13, 1988 Cosponsors59 (31R,28D)S. 1851 (100th): Genocide Convention Implementation Act of 1987 (the Proxmire Act)Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedNov 5, 1987 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentNov 4, 1988 Cosponsors58 (39D,19R)S. 1822 (100th): Sentencing Act of 1987Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedOct 27, 1987 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentDec 7, 1987 Cosponsors3 (2R,1D)S.J.Res. 329 (99th): A joint resolution to designate the period of December 1, 1986, through December 7, 1986, as “National Aplastic Anemia Awareness Week”.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedApr 22, 1986 Ordered ReportedSep 19, 1986 Cosponsors26 (13D,13R)Enacted via H.J.Res. 611 (99th): A joint resolution to designate the period of December 1, 1986, through December 7, 1986, as “National Aplastic Anemia Awareness Week”.S. 923 (97th): Pretrial Services Act of 1982Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedApr 8, 1981 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentSep 27, 1982 Cosponsors1 (1R)S. 1482 (96th): Classified Information Criminal Trial Procedures ActSponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJul 11, 1979 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentOct 15, 1980 Cosponsors3 (3D)S. 1682 (95th): A bill to provide for the implementation of treaties for the transfer of offenders to or from foreign countries.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedJun 13, 1977 Enacted — Signed by the PresidentOct 28, 1977 Cosponsors1 (1D)S.J.Res. 65 (93rd): A joint resolution requesting the President to issue a proclamation designating the week of April 23, 1973, as “Nicholas Copernicus Week” marking the quinquecentennial of his birth.Sponsor: Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]IntroducedFeb 19, 1973 Cosponsors0Enacted via H.J.Res. 5 (93rd): Joint resolution requesting the President to issue a proclamation designating the week of April 23, 1973, as “Nicolaus Copernicus Week” marking the quinquecentennial of his birth.Search Bills in Congress

There is no simple clear cut answer to this is going to be a long one. Our problems long began before CPEC and CPEC has little to do with what’s fundamentally wrong with the Pakistani economy.First, the state of the economy:When asked about worsening fiscal position where the deficit escalated to 8.9 percent of GDP for last fiscal year, the government said that out of total collected tax revenue of Rs3.8 trillion, debt servicing consumed Rs2.1 trillion and then after providing share to provinces, the government had to borrow to meet defence, development and running of the government expenditure.A comparison of macro-indicators at end fiscal year 2018 with FY 2019 suggests that there has been a fast track deterioration of the economic situation during the last one year of the PTI rule.The following are the key indicators showing how things have gone wrong with the Pakistan’s economy.- GDP growth was recorded at 5.8 percent in 2018. As a result of slowdown in economy, growth rate for 2019 is expected to be 3 percent or even less.- Fiscal deficit has increased to Rs3.4 trillion at the end of June 2019 compared to Rs2.2 trillion when PML-N government left in June 2018. Amount wise this is the largest ever deficit in our history. In terms of percentage, fiscal deficit has been recorded at 8.9 percent compared to 6.6 percent on June end 2018. As percentage of GDP, 8.9 percent is the highest in last 30 years and 8.9 percent also has to be seen against PTI’s own set target of 5.1 percent in September last year. Missing the target by miles reflect complete lack of understanding on the part of PTI’s economic team. The high fiscal deficit has a direct consequence on the amount of borrowing as the following debt numbers will reflect.- Total debt and liabilities on the end of June 2018 was Rs30 trillion, which has now gone up to Rs40 trillion. This is the largest ever increase in debt and liabilities in one year. Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities in first 71 years was Rs30 trillion but under PTI government, one third more has been accumulated. This is unprecedented and reflects poor management of expenditure and revenue. If the trend continues like this, it is feared, the whole economic structure would collapse as our economy will not be able to sustain this.- Tax revenue was at a record level at more than Rs3,800 billion in 2018. First time in Pakistan history, tax revenue didn’t register any increase during 2019. During PML-N Government’s five years, the tax revenue increased 20 percent per annum in 4 out of 5 years. This was in spite of extremely low inflation and without significant devaluation - the two factors that automatically help increase tax revenues. It is said that the current revenue target of Rs5,550 billion seems very difficult to be achieved. It’s about 44 percent higher than the last year’s actual collection.- Inflation was at a record low at 3.9 percent in 2018. Last inflation figure reported by the present government is 10.3 percent.- SBP policy (interest) rate was 6.50 percent in mid-2018. It has been to 13.25 percent by the PTI government.- Stock Market was 42,847 at end PML-N government. It’s now hovering around 30,000 after touching 28,000.- Foreign exchange reserves were $15,913 million (SBP reserves $9,510 million) at end of PML-N government. Now it’s $15,630 (SBP reserves $8,271 million). This is in spite of around $12 billion obtained from friendly countries and IMF in last one year.- The only positive thing happened during the last one year is that the current account deficit which improved during PTI government. It was $19,897 million (6.3 percent of GDP) during 2018 fiscal year. It’s now $13,508 million (4.8 percent of GDP) in 2019. It’s ideal to reduce current account deficit by increasing exports. That has the best impact on the economy. The government, however, did it without increasing exports but due to reduction in imports. It is said that the policy to impact imports has considerably slowed down the economy.- Compared to GDP of $313 billion in 2018, our GDP has come down to $280 billion - a reduction of $33 billion only to achieve reduction of $4 billion in imports.- As a result of GDP decline, per capita GDP has gone down by more than 8 percent.- Large scale manufacturing has had negative growth during last one year.- Agriculture growth was less than 1 percent.- Massive currency devaluation took place with rupee going from 116 by end of PML-N government to around 160. This is the largest devaluation in last several decades with significant downside impact on our economy.- FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) has plummeted and is down by more than 50 percent.- As a result of significant reduction in growth and high inflation, the common Pakistani has been the worst affected. In last one year, more than 45 lac people have gone below the poverty line. In addition more than 15 lac people have lost their jobs.According to official projections, the GDP growth is expected to be around 2.4 percent while inflation will be in the range of 13 percent to 15 percent. The discount rate is expected to go further up in the range of 15 percent-16 percent.As a result, during the present fiscal year about five million people will go below the poverty line. This is on top of 4.5 million people who suffered this misery past one year. With declining growth rate, another 1.5 million or more Pakistanis will become unemployed.In the first two years of PTI rule, it is feared that about three million Pakistanis will become unemployed as against the party’s commitment of providing 10 million jobs over five years.Economic situation going from bad to worseThe Executive Summary is as follows:The debt crises of Pakistan began long before CPEC was even conceptualized. Pakistan currently is in the intial stages of a debt trap but to say it’s because of CPEC is a bad application of the correlation equaling causation fallacy.Pakistan’’s debt trap is due to its incredible inefficient and badly thought out government spending which is directed more towards plugging in leakages in it’s projects and public sector enterprises rather than meaningful investments for growth that lead to a high ROI in the future. Along with a non existent tax base that is actually shrinking even further.Lets go over the timeline first:Source: Pakistan’s Public debtSource: Pakistan’s Public debtThe following are the key insights to take away from this:CPEC was formally announced in April 2015. But Pakistan’s debt problem began in the 2007–2009 period, long before CPEC was announced.The primary cause of Pakistan’s debt is domestic debt rather than external debt. This is telling for a few reasons: External debt is normally tied to development projects. So a high external debt means that the country is borrowing loans from abroad to fund domestic development projects that spur growth and have good ROIs in the future that our coming generations can take advantage of.However, our external debt profile has not changed much. It’s our domestic debt that has sky rocketed. Domestic debt is tied closely to the government meeting it’s fiscal deficits or current expenditures. That is, the government is borrowing money from local banks or printing its own money just to meet it’s day to day expenditure.It’s ok for governments to take loans from abroad to fund major development projects and then pass on the debt for those projects to future generations as they will reap the harvest and return for those projects and it will lead to a betterment in their lives.If I borrow money today to buy a car for my son, I can make the payments for it as long as i live and then pass on the remaining to my son since he can take advantage of the car as well.But if i borrow money to pay for my booze and cigarettes and then pass on the debt i incurred for those to my son, I have curtailed his spending power in the future without passing on any meaningful betterment in his life in the future.That’s unfortunately what the Pakistan government has been doing: Borrowing from local banks to finance its day to day expenditures.Actually, we are currently borrowing to fund our entire defense, development and government administrative expenditures after paying back our debt obligations and our shares to the provinces.This has crowded out the private sector from bank capital for loans in order to grow their business as the banks would prefer to lend to the government as a safer bet. So the private sector growth has slowed leading to a lower tax revenue from businesses.Imran Khan has always been quite vocal about how Pakistan’s main problem is corruption, people not paying taxes and wealth stashed abroad. $200 billion stashed abroad in Swiss banks, which when bought back could be used to pay off our debt. Apparently the figure has been revised down to $12.5 billion and even that has not been bough back.As far as taxes go, the government keeps coming up with stats like “If every Pakistani paid 1000 rupees we could do blah blah blah”. Has Mr. Khan ever toured the rural countries from his Bani Gala residence? Nearly half of our population is below the age of 18 and earning below $2 a day. Where exactly are they supposed to scrounge up the money.Corruption then gets dragged in. I can honestly say anti-corruption drives in Pakistan and “Accountability” is used more as a political tool to keep civilian elected politicians in line more than anything. The Judiciary and Military and Civil service seem surprisingly immune from them.Also, Pakistan ranks on the same level of corruption as Vietnam which is growing at a rate of 6.8% and destined for a new Asian tiger ranking.The problem in Pakistan is legalized corruption: Where the law permits expenditures that the state has no business indulging in.An officers mess hall spending lakhs of rupees to upgrade the air conditioning of their living room and another few lakhs to maintain a pretty lawn outisde, it’s not considered corruption in Pakistan. But it is a waste.When the Director of some third rate government insitution gets a free fuel, a driver, a car, a house and perks and privileges in his formalized salary and work benefits, it’s not corruption. But it is a waste.We’ve restricted our scope to corruption because the idea of Zardari getting a 10% cut on a submarine deal or Sheikh Rashid accepting money bribes under the table inflames our passions. But most of the corruption in Pakistan doesn’t happen like that. Most of the corruption in Pakistan wouldn’t even be considered corruption.Its in the forms of perks, benefits, cars, drivers, petrol subsidies, free housing and countless other benefits distributed among elites and their networks of patronage which encompass millions of supporters for different political factions and entities.When the government distributes massive amounts of funds for discretionary spending by parliamentarians in their districts and said funds are spent on schools with no teachers, roads with no bidding and other pointless activities designed more to distribute resources among followers than actual growth, i have to ask if a poor country like ours can afford this.Pakistan’s problem isn’t a low tax base or corruption. It’s systemic waste. Legalized waste. Of precious tax payer money.On SOEs that run into billions of rupees in losses. On development projects that are offer no clear return on investments. Ghost schools. Inflated and bloated state organizations and their salaries. And countless other forms of legalized waste.Pakistan’s government institutions are often classified as “rent seeking” for a reason: they are still mired in the colonial era structures left behind by the British. The state was designed by the British colonialists to extract resources for the industrialization of England, to purchase the loyalty of local clan chiefs and tribal leaders who were loyal to the crown and to enable the aristocratic lifestyles of the ruling elite.We have barely gone beyond that way of thinking and the state currently continues to perpetuate it’s rent seeking strategy with long term economic plans being developed but continuously disrupted by political turmoil.And the political turmoil itself also bears discussion: The establishment would always prefer a weak parliament where no party has a strong majority so that civilian officials are unable to surmount a challenge to the unelected establishment.Unfortunately, weak civilian governments make weak economic policies since they are unable to gather the political will needed for tough economic measures. Especially when establishment agents are lurking around the corner to sponsor protests that cut civil leaders down to size.The military dictatorships often don’t fare much better either. While benefiting from massive amounts of US military and civil aid, their economic policies are not superior to the civilians despite protestations to the contrary.Actually, if you look at it from the data centric viewpoint, the PPP was actually the government from the 2000 to present day period that performed best in terms of boosting exports, and that too in a tough global environment during the 2008–2009 recession era.Which political party has been the best for Pakistan's economy? Trade stats reveal allOne of the core problems causing the debt crises in Pakistan is the current account deficit where imports have outstripped exports resulting in pressure on Pakistan’s dollar reserves when servicing foreign payments and debt obligations. Growing exports are a vital way to resolve this issue and to manage debt levels. Note that Pakistan’s current account deficit began during the Musharraf era and got carried on from there.Even if the trade deficit is growing, this is not necessarily a bad thing if the deficit is because of development related activities where machinery and infrastructure is being imported instead of luxury items like bulletproof BMWs (which the government imported massive quantities of). Countries like Turkey also have significant trade deficits but their trade deficits are due to productive imports that boost local economic growth.Also, the way that Pakistan has tried to reduce the current account defecit in terms of trade has been through constant currency devaluations in order to make exports more competitive. This policy has been consistently failing for a decade. Pakistan’s exports are noncompetitive because we have some of the highest electricity rates for our textile factories and other businesses. And we have failed to invest enough in small technology firms that could have made a niche out for themselves as businesses that dont require much upfront capital investment but offer immense revenues in dollar denominated currencies.Pakistan’s largest resource pool right now is its young population and if we properly trained and educated even a fraction of them and helped them set up local companies or exported them as talented man power, we could boost our exports enormously. Right now our primary foreign exchange is coming in the form of remittances.But instead we keep devaluing the currency and manage to increase maybe $500 million to $1 billion increase in exports and 3–4 billion USD decrease in imports?While inflating our debt obligations by almost 40–50%, shaving $30–35 billion USD off of our economy, choking imports and reducing economic activity to a low 2–3%?For $4 billion in account deficit reduction?In any case, growing exports won’t do much when they are matched with increasing borrowing from local banks due to high government expenditures that are mostly to cover for massive losses from 5 key elements:The five real fault-lines in the rupee-based economy are:the Rs1.7 trillion circular debtRs1.6 trillion leakages in Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs)trillion-rupee leakages in public procurement projects$2 billion leakage in the gas sectorThe Rs734 billion debt in the government’s commodity operations.These are the five sectors that need wholesale reforms. And, these are the five serious fault-lines where our reform basket is absolutely empty (resulting in the skyrocketing of our debt to Rs40 trillion).Source: ContinuityThere is no point in talking about increasing the tax base when these massive leakages in government revenue exist. It’s akin to pouring water in a jug with a hole at the bottom.Imran Khan has looked at the yawning deficits and declared austerity on the solution to our problems.Government expenditures are being slashed, the monetary policy tightened and more taxes being imposed.Thing about the tax revenue increase programs this past decade is is that they always have the same story: Government announces new tax, agriculture and retail push back, the government withdraws the tax plan and tries to squeeze out more taxes from the current, already squeezed small tax base. This leads to current tax payers start to find ways to avoid taxes and leads to tax base actually shrinking.Which is whats happening right now.Also, the imposition of taxes on retail sector has been done in the worst way possible: Indirect taxation, which is always just passed on to the end user and leads to sky rocketing inflation while eating into the already tiny margins of retailers like street vendors.Tell me: What exactly is the point of maintaining humongous tax drains like the Federal Bureau of revenue when they are incapable of collecting taxes directly from tax payers?And in some places, we area actually spending Rs 1000 to collect Rs. 100 in tax…The failure to develop an adequate tax base combined with incredibly wasteful government expenditures is at the heart of our current economic crises, not CPEC.The tendency to blame China for Pakistan’s debt problems is an angle pushed far more from Washington, New Delhi and Tokyo than anywhere else simply because that narrative suits their strategic interests.And while the irony of the Indian government excusing Pakistan’s poor economic management causing debt to blame China instead is not lost on me, it’s simply not true.As the Pakistani public is well aware of by now, crisis interventions by outside donors are no more than a stopgap solution to what has become a chronic problem: Pakistan, for all intents and purposes, does not have a tax base. Only about 1 percent of the population pays income tax. According to an IMF working paper authored by Serhan Cevik in 2016, Pakistan had a “tax revenue gap” equivalent to 10 percent of national GDP (or roughly $28 billion in 2016) and could potentially double its tax revenue-to-GDP ratio.While not even high-income countries manage to collect the full total of their potential tax revenues, the paper pointed out that Pakistan’s collection rate falls “significantly below” even countries of comparable circumstances. Not much has changed in the last two years. Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue confessed this past June that it would miss its original revenue collection target for the 2017-2018 fiscal year by 162 billion rupees ($1.32 billion).Until it builds an adequate tax base, Pakistan’s fiscal stability will continue to rely on outside donors. In other words: there won’t be any fiscal stability.Wanted: A Solid Tax Base in PakistanIn any case, the only thing Imran Khan has done is to impost MORE taxes on the already burdened tax base which is small enough as it is. And the reaction to that has been current tax payers taking their money abroad or finding ways to hide it because even they have reached their breaking point.Meanwhile vast swathes of the underground economy remain untaxed. Indirect taxation continues to be favored over direct taxation. Small businesses are seeing their already small margins shrink.And the end result of this sad story is that the FBR has recorded its lowest recent revenue collection in the near past. And our tax base, small as it is, is actually declining now.The Catastrophe of the IMFI could not have said anything better than what has been said by Mr. Abdul Sattar in his incredible take down of the disaster that has been the IMF and it’s economic policies. The IMF is a rapacious institution run to serve imperialist resource extraction projects across the globe and to think the IMF and it’s packages are solution to our problems is a folly beyond imagining. And the dark past of the IMF’s “austerity” mantra has a long track record of wrecking developing world economies.Long but worthy read:The US's voting share in in the IMF is 17.16 percent and in the World Bank 16.41 percent. Japan holds the next highest voting shares with 6.27 percent and 7.87 percent respectively. Washington also has the unique privilege of appointing the president of the World Bank and is the only country entitled to a permanent place among the Bank’s executive directors.So, it is no surprise that these institutions were employed as a tool to serve the interests of the global hegemon, punishing states that dared to challenge the rapaciousness of Western capitalism. For instance Salvador Allende, the first elected socialist leader of Chile, infuriated the US and its Western allies by asserting that his country should take care of its own natural resources and run the economy. This did not go down well with the arrogant modern imperial powers that are then said to have forced the World Bank to stop giving loans to the elected government in 1972, triggering an economic chaos that culminated in a military coup. Soon after the coup, the doors were opened for military dictator General Pinochet, whose brutal regime not only assassinated Allende but also decimated up to 130,000 Chileans in a 17-year despotic rule. The World Bank showered $350.5 million between on Chile 1973 and 1976, almost 13 times the $27.7 million it gave during the three-year Allende presidency.Integration of the developing countries' economies was also one of the main purposes of these institutions. To achieve this, they came up with the idea of the Structural Adjustment Programme that sought to pressure the Third World countries into privatizing industries and the service sector, cutting in government spending, liberalizing capital markets (which leads to unstable trading in currencies), promoting market-based pricing (which tends to raise the cost of basic goods) and raising interest rates.The World Bank instituted its SAPs in 1980 and the IMF imposed them in 1986. According to a research paper by Asad Sami, during 1980-93, 70 developing countries were subjected to 566 stabilization and structural adjustment programmes – with disastrous consequences. The author claims that between 1984 and 1990, Third World countries under SAPs transferred $178 billion to Western commercial banks. The enormous capital drain prompted Morris Miller, a Canadian former World Bank director, to remark, “Not since the Conquistadors plundered Latin America has the world experienced such a flow in the direction we see today." Such policies led to the stagnation of growth in developing countries besides doubling their debt burden to over $1.5 trillion by the end of the 1980s, doubling again to $3 trillion by the end of the 1990s.The ruling elite of the Western capitalist world ruthlessly exploited the developing countries, especially those of Latin America and Africa. To understand how such policies ruined the lives of millions across the world, one needs to see what happened in Peru, Mexico and other parts of the globe. In 1990, an IMF-sponsored stabilization package produced catastrophic consequences in Peru. Within no time fuel prices increased 31 times – by 2,968 percent – and that of bread 12 times – by 1,150 percent. The prices of most basic food staples increased by six or seven times – 446 percent in a single month – yet wages had already been compressed by 80 percent in the period prior to the adoption of these measures in August 1990. IMF SAPs were first imposed on Mexico in 1982 and by 1992 infant deaths due to malnutrition tripled, the minimum wage fell by 60 percent and the percentage of the population living in poverty rose from less than half to more than two-thirds.Such policies also hit Africa. The situation of the continent was not rosy prior to the arrival of the international monetary institutions in 1980 but even then during 1960-1980, Sub Saharan Africa’s GDP per capita grew by 36 percent. Between the 1980s and 2000s, it actually fell by 15 percent. Dictation by the international monetary institutions led to the rise of rampant poverty and by 2015, 413 million people were living on less than $1.90 a day. Despite following these anti-people policies, the average life expectancy for Sub Saharan Africa is only 47 years (the lowest in the world), a drop of 15 years since 1980. Forty percent of the population suffers from malnutrition that causes low birth weight among infants and stunts growth in children.Advocates of a free market economy could brag about the increasing trade that the mineral rich continent witnessed from 1989 to 1999. It is estimated that Sub Saharan Africa’s trade as a percentage of GDP (a key indicator of globalization) increased from 78.1 percent to 95.6 percent; in dollar terms, trade grew from $175 billion in 1990 to $187 billion in 1999; for the same period, foreign direct investment jumped from $923 million to $7.9 billion in 1999.But contrary to the tall claims of international monetary institutions, export expansion and rising foreign investment in Africa neither increased growth nor reduced poverty or debt. In reality, most African exports are raw materials, and non-oil commodity prices dropped by 35 percent on average from 1997 and 2004. Tax holidays and profit repatriation might have helped foreign companies to accumulate immense wealth but made very little difference to the lives of millions of Africans.Per capita income, one of the tools to measures the development of a country, also fell between 1980 – when SAPs were imposed on 36 of Sub-Saharan Africa’s 47 countries – and 2004. It fell for most Sub Saharan countries by 25 percent during the 1980s and for 18 countries these incomes were lower in 1999 than in 1975. In 1960, Sub-Saharan Africa’s per capita income was about one-ninth of that in high-income OECD countries; by 1998, it had deteriorated dramatically to about 1/18.Africa’s external debt has increased by more than 500 percent since 1980, to $417 billion in 2017. SAPs have transferred more than $229 billion in debt payments from Sub-Saharan Africa to the West since 1980. Africa spends four times more on debt interest payments than on healthcare. This combined with cutbacks in social expenditure caused healthcare spending in the 42 poorest African countries to fall by 50 percent during the 1980s. More than 200 million Africans have no access to health services as hundreds of clinics, hospitals and medical facilities have been closed.The catastrophic impacts of the policies imposed by international monetary institutions were not confined to Africa and Latin America, as discussed in the first part of this article; they also played havoc with the lives of millions in Asia and other parts of the world as well. In Asia, the IMF and the World Bank first encouraged financial liberalization that partly led to the financial crisis in South East Asia during the decade of the 1990s, and they then prescribed a disastrous recipe to address this crisis.Several experts believe that the crisis was caused in large part by South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia's heavy reliance on short-term foreign loans and openness to hot money. When it became apparent in 1997 that private enterprises would not be able to meet their payment obligations, international currency markets panicked and Asian currencies plummeted. What they forget to mention is the ideology of international monetary institutions that encourage the reliance of countries on short-term foreign loans and openness to hot money which help speculators fulfill their gargantuan appetite for profit and money.After pushing these countries towards a crisis, the IMF treated the Asian meltdown like other emergency situations, giving assistance only in exchange for structural adjustment policies, which was totally unnecessary because these states were not facing a budgetary deficit issue. Nonetheless, the fund instructed governments to cut spending, which deepened the economic slowdown. In South Korea, for example, a country whose income approached European levels, unemployment skyrocketed from approximately 3 percent to 10 percent. 'IMF suicides' became common among workers who had lost their jobs and dignity.In Indonesia, the worst-hit country, poverty rates rose from an official level of 11 percent before the crisis to 40-60 percent, and GDP declined by 15 percent in one year. Malaysia stood out as a country that refused IMF assistance and advice. Instead of further opening its economy, Malaysia imposed capital controls, in an effort to eliminate speculative trading in its currency. While the IMF mocked this approach when adopted, the Fund later admitted that it succeeded.The IMF recipe proved to be very disastrous for the common Indonesian who greatly suffered because of the policies imposed by the global financial body. Prior to the 1997-98 financial crisis, Indonesia had a relatively comfortable debt situation. The government borrowed primarily from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and a group of bilateral donors grouped in the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI), for funding its development budget. Jakarta approached IMF in 1997 for a $43 billion bailout and within a few years, the bailout turned out to be a great curse for the masses, adding to their miseries and making their lives difficult. In January 2003, the government of the then president Megawati Soekarnoputri raised the prices on fuel (22 percent), telephone (15 percent) and electricity (6 percent). This was happening in a country where inflation was 10 percent in 2002 and more than half of the country's 220 million population lived on less than $2 a day and burdened with more than 40 million unemployed souls.To tide over the crisis, it was suggested that Indonesia should take specific steps to liberalise trade and investment which included: reducing tariffs on all imported food products to five percent and cutting non-agricultural tariffs to 10 percent by 2003; opening banks to foreign ownership by June 1998; and lifting restrictions on foreign banks by February 1998. Despite taking these drastic measures, the country's financial woes did not decrease. The official debt burden increased from 27 percent of GDP prior to the crisis to more than 100 percent by the end of 1999, before declining gradually. In fact Indonesia, which was ranked as middle-income and middle-indebted before the crisis (at the same level as its neighbours, Thailand and the Philippines), came to be ranked as belonging to the SILIC (severely indebted low income countries) category.Such reckless policies also contributed to the immiserating of the people in the Philippines where the government kept domestic wages low at the behest of the international financial bodies. This badly affected the marginalized sectors of society, forcing 54 percent of the population to live in absolute poverty while the government debt service was eating up 50 percent of the national budget.This was the brief history of the disastrous impacts caused by the policies of the global financial institutions. It is difficult to imagine why we still insist on going to such institutions. The policies of international monetary institutions clearly indicate that they seek to benefit the Global North. Their agenda is to facilitate the plundering of third-world countries by the advanced capitalist states. Their mission is not opaque. Their purpose is not mysterious. They are very vocal in making it clear that the Structural Adjustment Programmes are meant to promote the free market. They want developing countries, including Pakistan, to reduce import restrictions, work for the advancement of exports, carry out the privatization of public industries, control wages and leave the social sector at the mercy of market forces.Which of these points could help the economy? Let us begin with privatization. The mantra of selling state concerns was used to convince people that it would help the country repay loans. We started the process of privatization in the 1980s, which gathered pace after the restoration of democracy in 1988. According to the finance ministry our total debt and external liabilities was $20.90 billion in 1990, rising to $38.86 billion in 2007 and $99.1 billion now. We have sold out more than 160 state-run entities since the 1980s, rendering hundreds and thousands of people jobless. Instead of seeing the country free from debt, what we see today is nothing but a phenomenal surge in our external debt and liabilities which is likely to haunt our coming generations for decades or maybe centuries.Did these much-vaunted reforms at the behest of international monetary institutions bring any positive change in the lives of millions of Pakistanis? The answer is not difficult to imagine. While the World Bank claims poverty has been reduced, asserting it fell to 29.5 percent in 2014 from 64.3 percent in 2002, Pakistan’s first ever official report on multidimensional poverty, launched by the PML-N government in 2016, says nearly 39 percent of Pakistanis live in multidimensional poverty. The other social development indicators that were meant to be visible after the economic reforms seem to be nowhere either. The country houses more than 25 million out-of-school children. More than 40 percent of children are stunted. Infant mortality rate was 63.3 deaths per thousand live births in 2018. Eighty percent of diseases are caused by contaminated water which is a rare commodity for the majority of the poor, and Hepatitis has become an epidemic in several parts of the country.Since the arrival of the Tabdeeli Sarkar, inflation has skyrocketed. The prices of petrol and gas have witnessed a phenomenal surge. The champions of employment creation are planning to render tens of thousands workers jobless by privatizing state-run concerns. Given all this, it is more likely that the prescription of the IMF will further add to the miseries. Therefore, it is important that we think of the alternatives. Following the IMF's dictation will do no good. If the advisers of Zardari, Nawaz and Imran are unanimous in seeking help from global financial bodies then the people must realise that they just want to draw to hefty salaries from the public exchequer but want workers' wages to be stagnated. They want to see austerity in the lives of millions of people but would love to stay in five-star hotels and make expensive foreign trips from the taxes of common people. It is time we came up with our own alternative.Source #1 :Is the IMF the cure?Source #2: Is the IMF the cure?We have been under IMF led programs for decades. They said privatize industries, we privatized nearly 160 industries since the 1980s and yet our debt levels have gone up rather than down. We have devalued a currency to the point that it’s 160 rupees to a dollar now, yet our exports are meager while our debt obligations and economic size has shrunk.We shouldn’t blame the IMF: We should blame ourselves. The IMF was never set up to help us. Their macro stabilization programs have had mixed successes and are a generalized template solution that doesn’t take into account region or country specific condition. They apply one size fits all solutions to countries as diverse as Laos, El Salvador. Egypt and Pakistan.The IMF is designed to serve the interests of the people who hold voting shares in it’s board. The IMF conditions and strings that are applied to it’s loan programs are designed to kick down the doors of protections for local, developing economies so they can be rapaciously exploited by American companies and firms. Wages are slashed, social safety nets discarded, taxes on businesses and industries withdrawn, mineral rights given away at throw away prices. The IMF is designed to enable the neo-colonial exploitation of the Global south and has played it’s part in the wealth transfer from the south to the Developed North long after those countries stopped being colonies on paper.It’s time we parted ways with this parasitic institution and looked for home grown solutions and alternative financing institutions like the AIIB.GrowthThe Austerity driven model of economic stabilization proposed by the IMF and other economic institutions had disastrous results, not just in the above mentioned states but also Greece during the recent economic crises.The incredible disaster of the Greek austerity debacle is something that will go down in history books. There are many fingers to point in this drama: The IMF (to a lesser extent this time) and the Greek government with their own bad spending and number fudging. The EU banks and the political chiefs who steered it’s fate perhaps gave the single greatest blow to the EU project when they pushed for austerity to “punish” Greece for some perceived sin.When the recession hit, and a new Socialist government exposed New Democracy’s cooked books, investors fled. The Greek government could not rollover its debt and risked default. Greek banks, which held large amounts of government debt, became precarious. German and French banks also had invested so heavily in Greece that their stability was in jeopardy. The Greek government and banks were so closely intertwinedthat a default by one could bring down the other.The sensible solution at this point would have been to compel foreign banks to write off large parts of their Greek investments. The banks knew the risks when they made their loans and presumably priced that into the interest they charged. The European Central Bank stoutly resisted this, fearing for the stability of these imprudent banks.Instead, the EU and other international financial institutions offered what has widely been described as a “bail-out.” This was not, for the most part, money to support human services or other forms of consumption. Instead, this was money for Greece to send right back to its external creditors. In essence, the international institutions were bailing out their own irresponsible banks but laundering the money through the Greek government.As a price for this “bail-out,” the EU and its partners demanded crippling austerity: tax increases, widespread lay-offs of public employees, and massive cuts in pensions and other social supports. Laying off so many workers and pauperizing pensioners sharply reduced demand, which triggered further lay-offs and wage cuts in the private sector. As the depression deepened, unemployment topped 25 percent. When austerity devastated the Socialists’ working-class constituency, the party was effectively destroyed.As powerful as the EU is, however, it was unable to rewrite the basic rules of economics. Each round of austerity further depressed the economy, reducing revenues and increasing Greece’s deficit. Even from the creditors’ perspective, austerity was self-defeating.Rather than recognizing the error of their ways, the international organizations doubled down on austerity, demanding still deeper cuts to government employment and basic public services. The hypocrisy was rich: Greece’s deficit was growing precisely because it was complying with the EU's austerity plan, whose implementation predictably misfired.With their economy in free-fall and the EU showing no inclination to reduce the pressure, Greek voters turned to anti-austerity parties. On the right, this elevated the neo-fascist, swastika-flashing Golden Dawn, whose leaders faced charges for killing political opponents. The majority, however, went to Syriza, a leftist group that pledged to stare down the EUand end austerity.The EU, however, stonewalled, forcing Syriza to choose between taking Greece out of the EU and implementing further rounds of crushing austerity. Syriza blinked in this stare-down, fracturing its membership and earning the ire of its voters. Since then, it has been governing in fragilecoalitions with small conservative parties, largely abandoning the aspirational program it ran on.Eventually, the International Monetary Fund pressured the EU to relent on austerity. But by then, the Greek economy had shrunk by more than a quarter, numerous Greek families had horror stories of losing their homes, being unable to support themselves, or lacking medical care for treatable conditions, and Syriza had been thoroughly discredited with Greek voters.Will we learn from the Greece austerity debacle?Contrast the EU’s austerity push with the Keynesian Stimulus driven economic recovery championed by President Obama in the US during the 2008 recession which urged that in the face of slowing Economic Growth the government must inject a stimulus into the economy to stir up consumption and spending and avoid a short recession turning into a long one.Another group, the Keynesians, subscribed to the policies advocated by their namesake in the aftermath of the Great Depression, when John Maynard Keynes argued that, by taking care of unemployment, the economy would look after itself: the need was to stimulate consumption and demand to prevent a negative spiral of declining confidence, lower spending, and more job losses and firm bankruptcies. This is, in effect, the policy pursued by President Obama, with large-scale stimulus packages (although the magnitude has been debated), including substantial investment in the automobile industry. A third group of supply-side economists argued that the problem was over-regulation, or ‘red tape’, and advocated massive deregulation. They believed that abolition of employment rights would enable wages to fall and unwanted labour to be shed, allowing firms to compete better in a global market. However, a new school of thought emerged, labelled ‘austerions’ by the economics Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman.Five years on, the results of the ‘great austerity experiment’ are at last becoming clear (Fig 1). In the USA, where a Keynesian approach was adopted, the economy has recovered and is now on a sustained upward trajectory. The Eurozone is experiencing mixed fortunes. Some countries, such as Germany, are also experiencing sustained growth, but those that adopted stringent austerity policies, such as Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal, have yet to recover. Iceland, one of the worst affected countries, held a referendum on austerity; 93% of the population rejected it and, so far, austerity has been delayed and limited. As a result, Iceland has had much better economic performance than the latter group of austerity cases (in part, enabled by its ability to devalue its currency and, in so doing, boost fishing exports). Paradoxically, the credit-rating agencies, which were once in the vanguard of calls for austerity, are now downgrading Italian banks explicitly because of concerns that austerity is choking off growth.The UK did make an initial recovery but there too the imposition of stringent austerity measures by the newly elected coalition government in 2010 arrested it. This evidence has not gone unnoticed and, in a series of elections across Europe in 2012, voters have rejected austerity and elected politicians offering an alternative, most notably in France but also in German regional elections. Yet their reasons for doing so are not simply because these policies have failed to fix the economy. They are also rejecting them because they are seeing the signs of the human cost that they incur, something that many politicians have sought to ignore.Austerity: a failed experiment on the people of EuropeWhen Austerity has been such a debacle across the Globe as a policy measure to stabilize economies, why exactly should the government engage in it yet again at a time when the economy is slowing down and austerity measures will heap unnecessary pain on already hapless masses?The Keynesian stimulus approach has already show tried and true effectiveness in the US and other western hemisphere economic recoveries. CPEC as an investment tool is an excellent way to achieve such a stimulus by spurring economic activity and growth and allowing the government to stabilize it’s finances while it works to cut away the wasteful and nonproductive expenditures and grow its tax base at the same time.CPEC transitions economy away for global warming eraRecently I shared this news clipping about Pakistani and Chinese scientists on the verge of a scientific breakthrough where they could develop a strain of hybrid rice that can withstand drought and high heat conditions:Pakistan, Chinese researchers on the brink of hybrid rice breakthroughI recall that 2 or 3 years ago when the CPEC master plan was revealed and there was a huge concern over a previously unrevealed agricultural aspect of CPEC. Everyone up until then had assumed it was an infrastructure, energy and logistics related project.In all honesty, I consider the agricultural aspect of CPEC to be the most important one because it’s based around three core objectives:Transition Pakistan’s agriculture away from water intensive crops to crops that utilize less water but contribute more to the GDPTransition from current breed of crops to a new strain that are more resistant to the drought and arid conditions we will face in the 21st century of Global WarmingTransition from the British canal based system of watering crops via flood irrigation which is incredibly wasteful to new systems like Drip Water irrigation and crop zoning etc that are more efficient at water usage.Pakistan is lunging into a serious water crisis. The country is rapidly moving from being a water abundant country to a water-scarce country.With its annual water availability falling below 1,000 cubic metres per person, it may in fact have already crossed this threshold. This is partly due to depletion of its fresh water resources because of increasing population, adverse climate variations like drought and inconsistent monsoon patterns, and lack of storage facilities. And it is partially due to the unchecked demand for these many limited available resources.The scope of the crisis can be demonstrated by a few key facts: About 92 percent of Pakistan is classified as semi-arid to arid and the vast majority of Pakistanis are dependent on surface and groundwater sources from a single source – the Indus River basin.More than 90 percent of the country’s water is being used by the agriculture sector where conventional irrigation methods are undertaken.About 90 percent of the country’s agricultural production comes from land irrigated by the Indus Basin Irrigation System, firmly linking national food security to water levels in the Indus River basin. And, Pakistan’s water storage capacity is limited to a maximum 30-day supply, far below the 1,000-day storage capacity recommended for a country with its climatic characteristics.With water availability per person declining year by year, and demand for food production continuously increasing, Pakistan faces not only a water crisis but also serious concerns regarding its future food security. This situation also has clear implications for the government’s efforts to become an upper middle income country by 2025.The relevant authorities should carry out a study to assess the national water demand which should focus on different water users, water balance, traditional and emerging demands, and the impacts of climate change on demand by 2025 and 2050. In order for the government to take informed decisions, sectoral demands have to be estimated for all sectors. This will give an idea to the policymakers about which sectors consume most water.Studies like these will also help realize the contribution each sector makes towards the national economy as per their water usage. For instance, according to a report, four major crops that consume about 80 percent of the country’s water resources (wheat, rice, cotton and sugarcane) generate less than five percent of the national GDP.Furthermore, experts suggest that rain water harvesting must be introduced in local households, in both urban and rural areas. Flood irrigation should be a criminal act that is still being practiced in Pakistan; this has to stop. Improved irrigation methods and crop zoning are the country’s need at the moment. There is a need to reuse water in houses; for example, the water used in our kitchens can be reused in our toilets.Disappearing waterI understand that agriculture is not the most interesting subject and in this day and age we have just assumed the constant availability of food.But climate change is going to complete alter the environmental, economic and social landscape of the Pakistani territories. And it is imperative that we pursue the agricultural related initiatives of CPEC at all costs and as fast as possible.Let me stress that a little more strongly: Even if we take on $100 billion of debt under CPEC, it will be worth it if for no other reason, we can get our agriculture to survive in the Global Warming era.It is disingenuous to talk about finances when we are talking about the very survival of the country. If you think I’m being over dramatic, I would urge you to read up on the catastrophic consequences of what will happen if we continue to keep our water usage and agriculture as is and refuse to adapt. We are seeing a mini version of this dark future in Karachi where water mafia must be paid to get your water tanks filled and access to clean water is shrinking every day.Imagine that on a nationwide level with violent mobs and riots over water shortages, food prices sky rocketing due to crop failures and militarization of water access to secure scarce water resources for the state and it’s elite.The Maldives are currently on the chopping block of Climate Change and people believe that they as a state will be wiped out by rising sea levels. Should we tell the Maldives that it’s not financially feasible to construct infrastructure that will adapt them to the Climate change era?Quorans who are often suspicious of CPEC as a colonization project: India is one of the key partner with Israel on how to adapt biotechnology in the agricultural sector so that water usage is optimized and crops adapt to the hot, arid and water stressed future. And even increase their yields in some cases. So if it’s ok for India to undertake such projects, then why not Pakistan?One more thing: While ~50+% of our economy stems from the services sector, the other half is predominately still agricultural at 23% and Industrial at 18%.Besides ensuring that our agricultural sector survives into the 21st century with the adaption of cutting edge agricultural tech from China, CPEC also allows us to begin to transition our economy away from sectors that are in danger from climate change towards new sectors that will surive the global warming era.An example of that is trade logistics: CPEC’s massive road, rail, port and highway network is planned to be integrated into China’s OBOR project so that we can develop new sources of revenue in the form of logistics related fees from Chinese companies and traders utilizing CPEC infrastructure.This is a good example of an economic sector Pakistan currently doesn’t have but it will definitely need in the future to diversify away from purely Agricultural related exports.Take a look at some of our exports by category data in 2018:source: Pakistan Exports By CategoryOne of the more sensible and realistic calculations for our earnings from CPEC toll fees was given at $2-$2.5 billion USD a year.CPEC toll income — myth and reality | The Express TribuneOur agricultural exports in 2018 are at $15 b USD a year.With 2.5 billion USD in toll fees, we have managed to diversify our export or dollar related earnings by around 16% away from our top earning crops.This is a good start. And we need to continue building on it. Our economy must transition away from purely agriculture related earnings in the Global Heat Wave of the future and move towards sectors that are immune or semi immune to Global Warming.This is how CPEC plans to accomplish this using a mix of financing for the agricultural sector, new plans for fertilizer usage, new watering techniques and sustainable agriculture through more revenue per crop capita:For agriculture, the plan outlines an engagement that runs from one end of the supply chain all the way to the other. From provision of seeds and other inputs, like fertiliser, credit and pesticides, Chinese enterprises will also operate their own farms, processing facilities for fruits and vegetables and grain. Logistics companies will operate a large storage and transportation system for agrarian produce.It identifies opportunities for entry by Chinese enterprises in the myriad dysfunctions that afflict Pakistan’s agriculture sector. For instance, “due to lack of cold-chain logistics and processing facilities, 50% of agricultural products go bad during harvesting and transport”, it notes.Enterprises entering agriculture will be offered extraordinary levels of assistance from the Chinese government. They are encouraged to “[m]ake the most of the free capital and loans” from various ministries of the Chinese government as well as the China Development Bank. The plan also offers to maintain a mechanism that will “help Chinese agricultural enterprises to contact the senior representatives of the Government of Pakistan and China”.The government of China will “actively strive to utilize the national special funds as the discount interest for the loans of agricultural foreign investment”. In the longer term the financial risk will be spread out, through “new types of financing such as consortium loans, joint private equity and joint debt issuance, raise funds via multiple channels and decentralise financing risks”.The plan proposes to harness the work of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to bring mechanization as well as scientific technique in livestock breeding, development of hybrid varieties and precision irrigation to Pakistan. It sees its main opportunity as helping the Kashgar Prefecture, a territory within the larger Xinjiang Autonomous Zone, which suffers from a poverty incidence of 50 per cent, and large distances that make it difficult to connect to larger markets in order to promote development. The prefecture’s total output in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery amounted to just over $5 billion in 2012, and its population was less than 4 million in 2010, hardly a market with windfall gains for Pakistan.However, for the Chinese, this is the main driving force behind investing in Pakistan’s agriculture, in addition to the many profitable opportunities that can open up for their enterprises from operating in the local market. The plan makes some reference to export of agriculture goods from the ports, but the bulk of its emphasis is focused on the opportunities for the Kashgar Prefecture and Xinjiang Production Corps, coupled with the opportunities for profitable engagement in the domestic market.The plan discusses those engagements in considerable detail. Ten key areas for engagement are identified along with seventeen specific projects. They include the construction of one NPK fertilizer plant as a starting point “with an annual output of 800,000 tons”. Enterprises will be inducted to lease farm implements, like tractors, “efficient plant protection machinery, efficient energy saving pump equipment, precision fertilization drip irrigation equipment” and planting and harvesting machinery.The plan shows great interest in the textiles industry in particular, but the interest is focused largely on yarn and coarse cloth.Meat processing plants in Sukkur are planned with annual output of 200,000 tons per year, and two demonstration plants processing 200,000 tons of milk per year. In crops, demonstration projects of more than 6,500 acres will be set up for high yield seeds and irrigation, mostly in Punjab. In transport and storage, the plan aims to build “a nationwide logistics network, and enlarge the warehousing and distribution network between major cities of Pakistan” with a focus on grains, vegetables and fruits. Storage bases will be built first in Islamabad and Gwadar in the first phase, then Karachi, Lahore and another in Gwadar in the second phase, and between 2026-2030, Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar will each see another storage base.Asadabad, Islamabad, Lahore and Gwadar will see a vegetable processing plant, with annual output of 20,000 tons, fruit juice and jam plant of 10,000 tons and grain processing of 1 million tons. A cotton processing plant is also planned initially, with output of 100,000 tons per year.“We will impart advanced planting and breeding techniques to peasant households or farmers by means of land acquisition by the government, renting to China-invested enterprises and building planting and breeding bases” it says about the plan to source superior seeds.In each field, Chinese enterprises will play the lead role. “China-invested enterprises will establish factories to produce fertilizers, pesticides, vaccines and feedstuffs” it says about the production of agricultural materials.“China-invested enterprises will, in the form of joint ventures, shareholding or acquisition, cooperate with local enterprises of Pakistan to build a three-level warehousing system (purchase & storage warehouse, transit warehouse and port warehouse)” it says about warehousing.Then it talks about trade. “We will actively embark on cultivating surrounding countries in order to improve import and export potential of Pakistani agricultural products and accelerate the trade of agricultural products. In the early stages, we will gradually create a favorable industry image and reputation for Pakistan by relying on domestic demand.”Exclusive: CPEC master plan revealedAnd Logistics is only part of the equation: Chinese investments are a diverse portfolio of energy, tourism, mining, public transportation and real estate to give a few examples. Most if not all of these are good diversification away from climate change impacted economic sectors that we expect major disruptions in once water shortages and droughts start to hit more frequently in the next decade.I really want to under line this point again because recall that in the beginning of the answer I talked about how it’s ok to take on debt that ensures the survival and prosperity of our future generations, we should only avoid debt that is for day to day running of current government expenses.CPEC debt is a debt that we are undertaking today to ensure that our children have a future in an era where the Indus Basin will begin turning into a desert and our children will grow up eating crops and meats that are far different from the ones we grew up eating because in their era, those crops and sources of food might not exist in our region anymore.The TLDR Conclusion:Pakistan’s Debt is because of two major reasons:Lack of tax baseEnormous wastage and leakages in government spendingPakistan has been under IMF programs for decades and they have never fixed the government’s problems because the IMF exists to push for a neo-liberal free market order that favors the US rather than fix Pakistan’s problemsAt a time of slow economic growth, embracing an IMF led austerity drive is a suicidal quest. The 2008 economic crises and government responses to it showed that Keynesian style stimulus packages to stir up the economy is what leads to recovery.CPEC is a Keynesian style stimulus for the Pak economy at a time when it’s slowing down. The OBOR, AIIB and CPEC style of infrastructure and trade led growth is critical for low growth developing countries to stir economic growth and avoid the misery of Greek austerity.Beyond just stirring economic growth, CPEC is part of Pakistan’s transition away from an agricultural/semi industrialized country to a more balanced mix of logistics/industry/trade/agriculture/consumption. It also allows the country to adapt to the water stressed, heat wave era of the Climate Change epoch of history.Not everything about CPEC is rosy. This would be a dishonest answer if I said that. We do need to investigate how much our local industries would be impacted by Chinese imports. We do need to investigate that the projects in CPEC have the right ROIs given their expenditure. That these projects are aligned with our long term aims. And that the debt repayments can be met with the ROI from these projects. These are basic precautions.But in general, CPEC is a lifeline for a country like ours thats trapped in debt and low growth in the face of annihilation from climate change. We’re supposed to face the potential heat death of the planet with our economy chained to a wall.The old Pakistan is gone. This will be our second major transformation after 71. And in some ways, it will be more dangerous to navigate and more critical to our survival. The Indus Basin has always been there in the living memory of mankind. It might not be in the near future.We will be walking our children to schools in the deserts of southern Punjab. And driving past the dried out caverns of the now dead Ravi. The very rice we eat will taste different. I’ll tell my children stories of how fruit used to be so cheap and abundant in my life time. How we’d let water run into the street while washing our cars. How Monsoon used to be a fun time to play in the canal rather than a tropical flood that washed away entire communities.A memory can only survive in the minds of the living. When the earth changes, we must change with it. The age of arrogant men telling women to stay in the home is over. The age of you turning your nose up at your neighbor because his faith is different from you is over. It’s a fight to survive the heat death of the earth, we will need all the help we can get. We need to rethink our ideas about “honor” and “Izzat” and right and wrong. The uncaring laws of the universe dont care for our mortal hang ups.CPEC will turn farmers into truck drivers, gun smiths into bio tech technicians and cloth weavers into aqua farmers.I suppose in a way, it’s like changing shape and form, changing bodies and the chemicals that animate them. CPEC will change us all. And there might be no future without it.The translucence of flames beat against the airagainst our skins. This can be done withor without clothes on. This can be done withor without wine or whiskey but never without water:evaporation is also ongoing. Most visibly in this casein the form of wisps of steam rising from the just washed hairof a form at the fire whose beauty was in the earth’sturning, that night and many nights, transcendent.I felt heat changing me. The word for this istransdesire, but in extreme cases we call it transdireor when this heat becomes your maker we saytransire, or when it happens in front of a hearth:transfire.On Trans by Miller ObermanA man drives an improvised motorcycle truck, balancing a precarious load behind him. Perhaps the best image to portray our economy, straddled by debt, innovating it’s way to survival in the 21st century.Image source: China’s $62 Billion Bet on Pakistan

Short answer: yes.Slightly longer answer: unless you were piping in a hugely expensive cable package, your reserve retirement will easily pay for it, your boat, probably your car, too, AND possibly the food and beverages you will need to host cable-watching parties…the modern reserve retirement is probably better than most civilian retirement plans, excepting some civil service and many public safety professionals. Not including an active duty military pension, A-list entertainers, (some) professional athletes in a few of the top tier sports, and golden-parachute type CEO packages, you are highly unlikely to find a better retirement plan. But like all military and public safety plans, you have to put your sweat and tears, and possibly blood, into it…but, if you are willing to put that blood, sweat, and tears into 20+ years of at least part-time service (and honestly, most of that will be for about 2 days a month and a couple of weeks per year, for which you will probably be paid quite well for the time spent involved, not to mention other benefits that probably exceed the benefit package for most full-time jobs in America today), the end result is well worth it. And you don’t put a single penny of your own $$$ into it: it’s defined benefit, inflation-protected, and essentially limited only by how much effort you want to put into accruing “reserve points,” as defined in much greater depth below.Edited 3 Jan 2020: the new Blended Retirement System began 1 January 2018. Many servicemembers who had not yet retired were eligible to “opt in” to the BRS; I have heard anecdotally that most of those eligible to opt in did NOT do so…Under the BRS, which is mandatory for those who first entered the military on/after 1 January 2018, individuals still are not required to put any of their own pay in…but they won’t get much out of it (only the Govt 1% minimum automatic TSP defined contribution after the first 60 days until 26 years of service, when it ends) unless they do, when they can put in 5% of their basic pay and get 4% more matching contributions (for a total of 10%, I believe: 5% from the member, 5% from the Govt), although their TOTAL contributions are limited only to the standard 401K limits (something like $22,000 per year)…The Long Answer, to questions not asked, for fuller understanding is below:IN addition to the other answers:Reserve retirement under 10 USC 12731, meaning as a “non-regular retirement,” is earned through completion of 20 “qualifying” years.For each qualifying year, the servicemember must earn at least 50 “reserve retirement points.”Points are earned in many ways, the most common:One point for every day of active duty or active duty for training, can only earn one point on any calendar day of active duty. (Up to 365 active duty days can be credited per year.)One point for every period of “inactive duty for training,” or “IDT,” and can earn up to 2 points of IDT on any given calendar day. (Up to 130 “reserve points” — of all flavors — not counting any type of active duty, can be credited in any given year.)Each IDT must be at least 2 hours in length (per DoD Regs), but Service Secretaries may require longer periods to qualify (as in the USMC where IDT must be at least 4 hours in length before it is creditable).15 points for “membership” during an entire 365 day “anniversary year,” which generally begins on the day the servicemember first joined the military until 365 days later, when it rolls over to the next “AY.” (Only time spent in the Reserve Component counts for crediting membership points.)EDITED 3 JANUARY 2020: This is another example of the Govt granting “free money” as an incentive to reservists…the 15 membership points are essentially 3 five-day work weeks, or 2 complete calendar weeks (+1 day)…and the Govt credits them for free, without any work done whatsoever…Over a career of 20 years, that is 300 days (or 300 reserve retirement points, however you wish to view them) added to reserve retirement…10 full months of retirement credit without having done anything except breathe…but only as a reservist, whether on active duty or not. Regulars don’t get this.Membership points are non-paid, and are pro-rated at 1.25 points per 30 days in any AY where the servicemember is a member of the Active Status List of the Reserve Component. Service in a non-creditable status for membership points includes: Regular/Active Component service, service in the Delayed Entry Program after swearing the Oath of Enlistment, but before shipping to basic training, service in the Inactive Status List of the Standby Reserve, service in the Retired Reserve or Fleet Reserve/Fleet Marine Corps Reserve, and service as a Midshipman/Cadet at any Service Academy or ROTC scholarship/college program.Any partial AY in which the ratio of points credited vs. the days counted in that partial AY period is at least .139 is considered a “qualifying partial year.” Multiple “qualifying partial years” can be added together to equal or exceed a single “qualifying year.”No more than 2 points can be earned on any given calendar day, regardless of the combination of methods used to earn the points.“Correspondence points” are non-paid, and can be earned through the completion of authorized military-specific correspondence or on-line coursework, as determined by each Service Secretary. This is usually at the rate of 1 correspondence point for every 3 hours of study. Each Service Secretary determines not only which courses are acceptable for credit of correspondence points, but how many credits will be awarded for completion of each course, e.g., an Army Correspondence Course Program (ACCP) course that is accredited by the Army for 4 correspondence points will normally take about 12 study hours to complete.Funeral Honors Duty, per DoD Instruction 1215.07, is a special type of Inactive Duty (ID) that only requires a minimum of 2 hours of duty to receive one reserve retirement point, and one day’s base pay.(Note 1: Additionally, travel to/from Funeral Honors Duty may be compensated by official travel orders. Only one Funeral Honors Duty may be performed in a calendar day, but another type of IDT may be performed before or after the Funeral Honors, for a maximum of 2 days’ pay and 2 reserve retirement points in a single calendar day.)(Note 2: Funeral Honors Duty is NOT considered Inactive Duty Training, in that no training supporting the Unit’s warfighting mission will be completed while on FHD status.)(Note 3: Funeral Honors Duty is the only type of Inactive Duty (either IDT or ID) that can be performed by members of the Individual Ready Reserve for 1 day’s pay and 1 point, and Funeral Honors Duty may be performed by any Retired servicemember (subject to each Service’s specific regulations) for a daily stipend of $50, plus travel if required, but WITHOUT reserve retirement credit granted for retirees…$50/day taxable, cold, hard cash only.)Points may also be earned for such functions as:assisting with local JROTC or ROTC units.assisting with Young Marines or Sea Cadets programs.marksmanship programs authorized by the Services.other “appropriate” duties as determined by each Service.These points will often be earned at the rate of either 1 point for every 4 hour minimum (max of 2 per day), or 1 point per day.4. Points are not to be confused with pay. Any active duty, or inactive duty for training, may be conducted either WITH, or WITHOUT, pay. I.e., most pay in the reserves is “optional” for any day of AD or IDT, but successful completion of that period of duty MUST be awarded a point. Commanders will determine in advance whether any given period of AD or IDT will be with, or without pay. Any period of AD or IDT without pay MUST be voluntary. (The only type of ID that can be made involuntary is “muster duty,” which is solely for IRR members ordered to report to a particular location for a screening per DoD Directive 1200.7, which directs the annual screening of all members of the reserve component. Muster duty pays 125% of the National per diem rate, perhaps somewhere in the $200 range, for a couple of hours of various screening functions and briefings, but it CANNOT be used to credit any reserve retirement points…$$$ only. Theoretically, failure to appear for mandatory Muster Duty is grounds for various unpleasant consequences, including unfavorable administrative discharges or involuntary recall to active duty. Each Service handles it differently…or not at all in some cases.)Additionally, any period of IDT that is not completed satisfactorily (e.g., arrived for drill weekend too hung over to participate, or refused to train, or engaged in insubordinate behavior, etc.), may be granted the pay for “physical presence” during the entire period of the scheduled period of IDT, but the reserve retirement point may be denied.Any such period of “unsatisfactory IDT” exposes the servicemember to various unpleasant administrative measures (in addition to disciplinary measures if there are actual violations of the UCMJ involved) such as:Promotion restrictions to eligibility for higher grade.Adverse personnel rankings, marks, evaluations, or fitness reporting.Administrative reductions in grade to as low as E-1. (Not officers, and only for enlisted if authorized by Service regulations at any given level of command.)Suspension, and possible permanent revocation, of SGLI insurance coverage.Suspension, and possible permanent revocation, of MGIB-Selected Reserve GI Bill eligibility.Administrative discharge from the Service (only for enlisted, and often with an Other than Honorable discharge characterization…the least desirable discharge that doesn’t involve a Special or General Court-Martial imposing a Bad Conduct or Dishonorable Discharge as sentence).Dropped from the rolls (only for officers, equivalent to an enlisted OTH administrative discharge…career-ending action that is the worst type of discharge for an officer other than “dismissal” as a result of a General Court-Martial [where “dismissal” is equivalent to a Dishonorable Discharge for an enlisted]).Each Service implements its own set of regulations about these administrative sanctions for “unsatisfactory participation,” with the exception of: MGIB-SR and SGLI provisions are common across the Services, but may be enforced with differing degrees of alacrity and steel.5. Upon completion of at least 20 total qualifying years, and otherwise meeting the requirements of Chapter 1223 of 10 USC: U.S.C. Title 10 - ARMED FORCESSee: Estimate Your PayReserve retired pay is calculated by adding all active duty points, all IDT points, and all other reserve retirement points credited to the servicemember.Determine your Retired Pay Base:Final Pay: If you entered active or reserve military service before September 8, 1980, your retired pay will be based on your final basic pay.High-3: If you entered active or reserve military service after September 7, 1980, your retired pay base is the average of the highest 36 months of basic pay. If you served less than three years, your base will be the average monthly active duty basic pay during your period of service.What is My Service Percent Multiplier?ACTIVE DUTYThe longer you stay on active duty, the higher your retirement pay. Each year of active duty service is worth 2.5 percent toward your service percent multiplier.A retiree with 20 years of service would have a service percent multiplier of 50 percent:2.5% x 20 years = 50%Read more about active duty retirement on the OSD website.EDITED 3 JANUARY 2020: the new BRS has changed this. See: Blended RetirementRESERVEReserve service is “converted” to active service by dividing retirement points by 360.7200 points divided by 360 = 20 years of active duty service2.5% x 20 years = 50%Read more about reserve retirement on the OSD website.EDITED 3 JANUARY 2020: the new BRS has changed this. See: Blended Retirement6. Why is the Reserve retirement “service percent multiplier” not converted using 365 (as in “365 days”)?The military pay system uses 30 day base pay periods, i.e., every “month.”But not all calendar months are exactly 30 days long.There are 7 months that have 31 days.There is 1 month (February) that has either 28 or 29 days (based on leap years), i.e., 2 (or 1 in leap years) days short of the 30 day pay period.Because pay is made for 30 days in each month, regardless of how many days are actually in that month, that means there can be only 360 days of pay in any given year:12 months x 30 days = 360 days of pay per yearLeap days are ignored in calculation of service percent multiplier (because no credit can be given beyond 360 days in a year).The 7 extra days (1 each from January, March, May, July, August, October, December) are essentially non-paid even though they may be worked.The 2 days missing from February are essentially paid even though never worked.Total: 7 extra days without pay less 2 missing days with pay = 5 calendar days of the standard 365 day calendar without pay…360 total days maximum possible for service percent multiplier.7. Example 1:Typical grade for reserve retirement for officers is O-5:A good rule of thumb is 24 total qualifying years of service for an O-5.Using a low-end estimate: 4 years of active duty, 20 years of reserve duty:4 years active = 1,460 days total served (not paid…wait for the difference at the next step).20 years reserve = average of 100 points per year (comprised of combinations of active duty, IDT, correspondence, membership, and other points), for 2,000 days total served (again, not necessarily paid, in fact, many reserve retirement points will NOT be paid, especially membership and correspondence/PME points).Sub-Total: 1,460 + 2,000 = 3,460 reserve retirement points credited.3,460 divided by 360 = 9.611 years “equivalent” (as opposed to the standard “20+ years of active duty” upon which an active duty pension would be based…).9.611 x 2.5% = 24% (as opposed to the standard “50% at 20 years” upon which an active duty pension would be based…).High-3 calculation rule of thumb is to use the previous year’s pay chart for a quick estimate: $8,762.40. (Found at 2015 pay chart for O-5 with over 22 years of service creditable for pay, which is also the maximum base pay for an O-5. See: http://www.dfas.mil/dam/jcr:b6ef41d4-f071-45f9-b863-70b202be05a6/2015MilitaryPayChart_2.pdf.)Total: $8,762.40 x 24% = $2102.98 per month in reserve retired pay, at age 60.See the Final Pay for the 2016 pay chart for O-5 with over 22 years of service creditable for pay, which is also the maximum base pay for an O-5: http://www.dfas.mil/dam/jcr:81e6bd2c-a106-461b-851d-c77c7066baa5/2016MilitaryPayChart.pdf.8. Example 2:Typical grade for reserve retirement for an enlisted servicemember is E-7:A good rule of thumb is 22 total qualifying years of service for an E-7.Using a relatively low-end estimate: 3 years of active duty, 19 years of reserve duty:3 years active = 1,095 days total served (not paid…wait for the difference at the next step).19 years reserve = average of 75 points per year (comprised of combinations of active duty, IDT, correspondence, membership, and other points), for 1,425 days total served (again, not necessarily paid, in fact, many reserve retirement points will NOT be paid, especially membership and correspondence/PME points).Sub-Total: 1,095 + 1,425 = 2,520 reserve retirement points credited.2,520 divided by 360 = 7.000 years “equivalent” (as opposed to the standard “20+ years of active duty” upon which an active duty pension would be based…).7.000 x 2.5% = 17.5% (as opposed to the standard “50% at 20 years” upon which an active duty pension would be based…).High-3 calculation rule of thumb is to use the previous year’s pay chart for a quick estimate: $4,577.70. (Found at 2015 pay chart for E-7 with over 22 years of service creditable for pay. See: http://www.dfas.mil/dam/jcr:b6ef41d4-f071-45f9-b863-70b202be05a6/2015MilitaryPayChart_2.pdf.)Total: $4,577.70 x 17.5% = $801.10 per month in reserve retired pay, at age 60.Enlisted reservists tend to retire earlier, and with fewer retired points, than officer reservists. Officers tend to serve more active duty, especially early in their careers, and participate more often in creditable reserve activities such as joining (and remaining) in reserve units. Officers also tend to be more mobile in accepting continuous assignments in distant locations when local reserve/Guard units can no longer accommodate their seniority (or MOS). Finally, officer PME at nearly every grade requires significantly more “correspondence/online” work, and often more days of active duty, than enlisted PME, thus the annual reserve point totals tend to be higher and more years served.See the Final Pay for the 2016 pay chart for E-7 with over 22 years of service creditable for pay: http://www.dfas.mil/dam/jcr:81e6bd2c-a106-461b-851d-c77c7066baa5/2016MilitaryPayChart.pdf.9. Retired Awaiting Pay Age 60.Military retirees (whether Active or Reserve Component) who have more than 20 years of active duty will retire using the standard Active Duty retirement plan (Number Years/Months of Active Duty times 2.5% per year times Final Pay/High-3 Plan, as applicable), and their retired pay will begin immediately upon retirement, as early as age 37.Under the 2012–2018 Temporary Early Retirement rules, certain servicemembers with more than 15 years of active duty may volunteer (or be forced involuntarily) to retire before reaching 20 years. Those rules are complex, and can be found here: 2012-2018 TERA.EDIT 3 JANUARY 2020: Congress extended the authority to use TERA until 2025, but as of now, only the USMC has chosen to do so since the original authority expired. Which doesn’t mean another Service might reengage between now in 2020 and 2025.Both Active and Reserve Component servicemembers may be retired for Disability at any point, if found physically unfit as a result of a line of duty injury or illness and unable to continue to perform their duties. Those rules are even more complex than TERA, and can be found here: Disability RetirementReservists, retiring under 10 USC Chapter 1223 law, are considered “retired awaiting pay at age 60.” (Another common term is “gray area retirees.”)Unless eligible for reduced retirement age under the provisions of NDAA 2008 (see below), they will be eligible to draw retired pay beginning on their 60th birthday.Reservists who die “in the gray area” between their date of retirement, and their earliest eligibility for reserve retired pay (either age 60 or sooner if qualified under NDAA 2008) have the opportunity under various Survivor Benefit Plans to have their retired annuity carried over and paid to their eligible beneficiaries.Their TRICARE military medical benefits, at that point identical to the TRICARE benefits for active duty retirees, will also begin at age 60 for themselves and their dependent family members. (Unlike retired pay or SBP annuities for survivors, TRICARE medical benefits cannot begin earlier than the date the gray area reserve retiree would have turned age 60, regardless of NDAA 2008 provisions for early retired pay.)Retired Reserve Lists:All Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard Reserve Component retirees: whether retired under Active Duty or any other retirement plan, are transferred immediately upon retirement to the respective Retired Reserve category of their Service.Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Component officer retirees: whether retired under Active Duty or any other retirement plan, are transferred immediately upon retirement to the respective Retired Reserve category of their Service.Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Component enlisted retirees (with more than 30 total years of cumulative service on any combination of any Active Duty or Reserve Active Status List, or in the Fleet Reserve/Fleet Marine Corps Reserve; or at the point of retirement for those retirees without 20+ years of active duty; or at the point of retirement for all Disability Retirees): transferred immediately upon reaching their 30th year to their respective Retired Reserve category, or immediately upon retirement for those retired for disability or without 20+ years of active service.Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Component enlisted retirees (with 20+ years of active duty, but less than 30 total years of cumulative service on any Active Duty or Reserve Active Status List, or in the Fleet Reserve/Fleet Marine Corps Reserve): when retired under the Active Duty retirement plan, except for Disability, are transferred to the Fleet Reserve or Fleet Marine Corps Reserve, as appropriate. Time served in the FR/FMCR is inactive service, but when added to all prior active service, immediately upon reaching their 30th year will be transferred to their respective Retired Reserve category.For all gray area retirees, all service on any Retired Reserve category (including FR/FMCR) between date of retirement and the date when eligibility to retired pay begins (whether age 60 or earlier based on NDAA 2008), will count for purposes of determining the years of longevity on the pay charts in effect at age 60. However, unless recalled to active service, no time served in the Retired Reserve (or FR/FMCR) will count to add service credit for the retired pay multiplier (i.e, more active service = more retired pay).The pay table in effect on the date retired pay begins to accrue will be used to determine actual retired pay, including:All accrued longevity within the retired grade.All accrued pay raises included in any pay table since the date of retirement (thus, the retired pay base may be different when retired pay begins than if retired Cost of Living Adjustments were considered, because in most years, the raises provided by Congress to active and reserve servicemembers are different than the amount of COLA for retirees).Example: a reservist retires as a E-7 with 20 qualifying years at age 37. Their retired pay, on the date when it begins at age 60, will be computed as if they were an E-7 with 43 years of service for longevity pay scales. The pay tables used to compute retired pay will be the pay table in effect at the time they turn age 60. Thus, the “gray area retirement” provides inflation-protected prospective retired pay, at no cost to the retiree.10. Starting retired pay before age 60.The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2008 enacted the Reduced Retirement Age for Reserve Component (RC) Soldiers based on Active Duty (AD) performance.See: National Guard and Reserve Early Retirement AgeSome Reserve/Guard members may actually be eligible for a retirement earlier than age 60. In early 2008, the law changed to reduce the Reserve Retirement Awaiting Pay at Age 60 requirement by three months for every 90 aggregate days of mobilization, contingency, or active duty orders performed under 10 USC 12301d (except AGR/FTS duty) during the same fiscal year.The NDAA for 2008 reduced the retirement age for Reserve Component (RC) from 60 to a lesser age, but not below age 50, for those who have served on Active Duty (AD) in an eligible status on or after 28Jan 08. For qualifying service on or after 28 Jan 08, each day on that AD tour could count toward a reduction in retirement age. However, even though each day counts, days are credited in aggregates of 90 days only within any Fiscal Year. A day of duty shall be included in only one aggregate of 90 days.In order to ensure each servicemember receives proper credit, it is incumbent upon the individual to maintain supporting documentation, which includes: Department of Defense (DD) Forms 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge From AD), and DD Forms 220 (AD Report) for periods of AD less than 90 days. For periods of AD not covered by DD Forms 214 or 220, copies of your Leave and Earning Statements with your mobilization orders will suffice. Orders alone are not proof of duty performed, but merely an authorizing document.AD, for this purpose, means service pursuant to a call or order to AD on orders specifying, as the authority for such orders, a provision of law referred to in section 101(a) (13)(B), and performed under section 688, 12301 (a), 12302, 12304, 12305, 12406, and chapter 15 (insurrection), or under section 12301 (d) of Title 10 USC. Active Guard Reserve (AGR) duty under section 12310 of Title 10 USC, will not be included as service on active duty for determining eligibility for reduced age retired pay for non-regular service.The new law (NDAA 2015) allows that time to cross into consecutive fiscal years. However, this only applies to deployments that started after 30 September, 2014 (or deployments that began in FY 2015).This law is not retroactive to 28 January, 2008, which is the date of the original early retirement rule.In other words, a Reservist volunteering to deploy under contingency orders, or for any type of Active Duty Operational Support (ADOS) orders (again, except for voluntary AGR/FTS orders) would be eligible to start their Reserve pension 90 days earlier than age 60 for every aggregate 90 days under such orders are credited.A member of the National Guard who deploys with their unit for 24 months of the next five years (at least 90 days in the fiscal years) would be able to draw their pension at age 58. But this law only applies for deployment time served after Jan. 28, 2008.Recap:Early retirement qualifying service (28 January 2008 – 30 September 2014): Must serve 90 days on active duty within the same fiscal year.Early retirement qualifying service (01 October 2014 – present): Must serve 90 days on active duty; service time can cross into consecutive fiscal years.Qualifying and Non-Qualifying Service for Early RetirementQualifying Service: Most active duty time counts for early retirement, including deployments in support of overseas operations, mobilizations for natural emergencies which are authorized by the governor and paid for by federal funds, and other active duty service including training and attending military schools. However, not all service counts toward early retirement.Non-Qualifying Service: You must have been a member of the Guard or Reserves when you were activated for the qualifying service. Members who originally joined the service as active duty then later transitioned to the Guard or Reserves are not able to count their previous active duty service toward early retirement. Other ineligible Guard or Reserve duty includes actions such as performing weekend drills, 2 weeks annual training, those in full-time AGR or TAR status, muster duty, those who were activated for courts-martial or disciplinary reasons, and those who were listed as not participating at a satisfactory level.Several amendments have been proposed since 2008 to retroactively extend this benefit back to 11 September 2001, but none of these modifications have been approved by Congress.