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Preserving Lives and
Livelihoods
In the past six weeks,
one
in five Americans
employed in February lost their jobs, and over
60,000 lost their
lives to COVID-19. As Roosevelt Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz argues
in a new paper, the federal government has not done enough to tackle
these intertwined threats: “Though Congress has intervened with
trillions of dollars in stimulus and relief, these rescue packages
have been poorly designed. Cash and unemployment benefits will likely
run out before the crisis is over; state and local governments, facing
increasing expenses and declining revenue, are not receiving the funds
they need; the ‘payroll protection plan’ is both inadequately funded
and ill-equipped to reach those who most need protection.” For future
pandemic relief efforts, Stiglitz proposes four policy
priorities—including further support for health care and insurance
systems (including paid sick leave), funds
for state and local government, a paycheck
guarantee program,
and broader-based liquidity and debt relief for individuals and
households. Read
on.
- Voters want more from
Congress: As new polling from the Groundwork Collaborative
and Roosevelt shows, such measures garner support from majorities of
Americans, with 70 percent of voters agreeing that “we should do
whatever it takes to provide Americans the economic support they need
during this very difficult time.” Asked about a list of 17 policies,
respondents considered all but one–tax cuts for corporations–likely to
be effective. Read
more.
- The CARES Act’s design
flaws: The current Paycheck Protection Program, Stiglitz
notes, is simply not working for America’s most vulnerable. This week,
Roosevelt Fellow Mehrsa Baradaran told
NBC News why: "It uses banks as middlemen. Any
time you create a big program and give banks the ability to choose
which customers it prioritizes, you're going to have disparities . . .
Credit disparities are where past injustices lead to present
disparities."
 #ProtectAllWorkers
As essential workers
strike
across the nation
for International Workers’ Day, a new report from Roosevelt Fellow
Alex Hertel-Fernandez uses original survey research to examine
structural workplace imbalances. Analyzing the data along four
dimensions—experiences with arbitrary or unfair managerial power,
access to workplace information, knowledge about workplace rights, and
access to workplace discussions—Hertel-Fernandez charts a path for
reforming long-broken labor law and redefining what a “good job”
should mean. Those reforms, he writes, “would go far in rebuilding
workplace power for millions of American workers. As the COVID-19
crisis continues to exacerbate the structural inequities of our labor
market, that power has never mattered more.” Read
on.
 Black and Brown Americans Need a Better Normal
As always, those inequities
disproportionately
harm people of color. For the blog, Roosevelt Managing Director of Communications
Kendra Bozarth and Michelle Holder (assistant professor of economics
at John Jay College, City University of New York) share preliminary
estimates of unemployment numbers due next week—Black unemployment at or
above 20 percent and Black male unemployment at or above 23 percent.
In a piece for Inkstick Media, Roosevelt Fellow Anne Price and
Director of Health Equity Andrea Flynn explain how building Black
women’s wealth can bolster the American economy during this crisis and
beyond: “Investments that center on Black women will benefit everyone,
but as we have seen from centuries of policies that have failed Black
women and their families, justice doesn’t just trickle down.”
Read
on.
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