LFMI

Specialization has bought us precision, and that is no small thing. A narrow view often catches what someone trying to take in everything will miss. But a doctor who set out to cure one organ without asking what the treatment would do to the rest of the body would cause more trouble than they cured. The difficulty begins when a specialist treats one aspect of a life as enough to explain the whole of it.

For the first time since 1995, investment as a share of the economy is higher in Lithuania than in Estonia. According to Eurostat, gross fixed capital formation in Lithuania amounted to 22.1% of GDP in the first quarter of 2026, while in Estonia it fell to 21.7%. Lithuania remained ahead in the second quarter, with investment reaching 22.4% of GDP, compared with 22.1% in Estonia.

Unemployment insurance should serve as a financial cushion when someone unexpectedly loses their job, rather than as a system that encourages people to remain outside the labor market at others’ expense. Yet, Lithuania spends around five times more of its GDP on unemployment-related benefits than Poland, while its unemployment rate is more than twice as high. Poland’s experience shows how much labor-market rules and incentives can matter.

The new agreement of Lithuania’s governing coalition includes a commitment that “people who work must not be worse off than those who do not”. According to experts at the LFMI, this principle is particularly relevant when assessing the unemployment insurance system. Yet in Lithuania, unemployment can still be more financially rewarding than work, especially in lower-skilled and lower-paid jobs.

The catastrophe cannot be explained by the embargo alone; Cuba’s deeper tragedy is the system itself — one that promises dignity to the worker while making ordinary work meaningless, underpaid and morally absurd. That is why today, according to media reports, Cubans lack even the most basic foods: rice, chicken and other everyday products, available only through ration cards after long hours in queues.

The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) warns that, after the recent tax reform, Lithuanian businesses are facing another major regulatory challenge — the implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

Taxpayer’s Respect Day is marked in Lithuania on May 11. Since 2018, at LFMI’s initiative, it has been included in Lithuania’s official list of commemorative days — a reminder that the state is built by those who work, invest, create jobs, take risks, and generate the resources on which public life depends.

Anthropologist Clifford Geertz famously described culture as a web of narratives. The way societies understand the labor market is one such narrative — and it matters, because the story we choose shapes how we regulate and manage economic life.

According to the explanatory note of the draft law, strike activity in Lithuania remains consistently low, while in countries such as France, Italy, and Belgium, strikes are a common and effective tool for defending workers’ interests. But do collective labor conflicts actually improve workers’ well-being in the long run?

“I want more!” – the refrain of Lion Ceccah’s song, chosen to represent Lithuania at the Eurovision Song Contest, seems to have touched something deeper than pop taste alone. Eurovision is Europe’s great annual song contest: a glittering spectacle, a national showcase and a shared cultural ritual watched by millions. For a few minutes on that stage, a country’s song becomes its voice to the world. And Lithuania’s voice this year says: I want more.