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Post-Neoliberalism,
Post-Pandemic
The Labor Department’s latest
unemployment report confirms what over
33 million Americans have experienced firsthand in the last two months: We are in
the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And the nation’s
inadequate response to the shock of COVID-19 is no accident,
as
Roosevelt President & CEO Felicia Wong explains in
Democracy: “Our response is rooted in a powerful set of political beliefs
that have dominated American thinking over the last half century
.
. . The first is a fear of moral hazard—helping the poor too much. The
second is an automatic preference for private-sector solutions. And
the third is the idea that individual investment in human capital will
lead to a more productive, better-compensated workforce.” The humane
and resilient economy we need, she writes, is only possible if we
discard those dogmas and recognize public, private, and social
institutions—like unions—as equal decision-makers. If we’ve learned
anything from the Great Recession, austerity will only hinder that
process, as Roosevelt Director of Progressive Thought Mike Konczal
argues on the latest
episode of Pitchfork Economics.
- Protect workers:
Among the nation’s priorities should be ensuring that responses taken
to date—including the CARES Act—actually help those most in
need. On
NPR’s All Things Considered, COVID-19
Congressional Oversight Commission member (and Roosevelt Managing
Director of Corporate Power) Bharat Ramamurti explains how aid is
falling short. “What we've seen is that more often than not, those
corporate boards and CEOs [receiving federal funding] are going to . .
. look out for their shareholders and their executives first and their
workers last. So my concern is that taxpayers are going to be ensuring
that big-time investors and executives don't take any losses in the
short term but that workers at these companies are not going to be
able to stay on payroll, stay connected to their health insurance and
be able to provide for their families.”
- Guarantee jobs: “The
current focus on stimulus is deeply flawed, reproducing inequality by
cutting taxes for businesses and thereby conveying billions to the
already wealthy,” Roosevelt Fellow Darrick Hamilton and Harvard
University’s Daniel Carpenter write for Slate. “Government
jobs programs, on the other hand, deliver the benefit directly to
workers; are subject to less lobbying than corporate bailouts; and
would extend a job guarantee, more stable finances, and meaningful
work to millions of Americans.”
Read
on.
- Revive the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation: For the blog, Roosevelt Director of Governance
Studies Todd Tucker outlines five
reasons rebooting this New Deal-era institution
could repair disrupted supply chains and broken
markets and pave the way for a Green Reconstruction
Corporation.
 We Need a Green New Deal
A
new paper from Roosevelt Chief Economist Joseph
Stiglitz and
climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern finds that a green COVID-19
stimulus could both boost economic growth and halt climate change. As
Roosevelt Director of Climate Policy Rhiana
Gunn-Wright tells
Michelle Goldberg
of the New York
Times, though a Green New
Deal is more necessary than ever, it’s far from inevitable: “We don’t
make policy decisions based on just, ‘What is the best choice?’ It’s a
political process. It’s not a science fair.” But as the coronavirus
crisis has persisted, voters are increasingly more supportive of a
Green New Deal, per
new polling from Data for Progress.
 The Case for
Reparations
“The COVID-19 crisis only heightens
the urgency of Black reparations. Long overdue, they are now more
essential than ever,” Roosevelt Senior Fellow Sandy Darity and
folklorist Kirsten Mullen write in a Newsweek op-ed. “The
federal government can pay for reparations. The rapid enactment of the
legislation of a $2.2 trillion economic rescue package proves Congress
can find the needed money when motivated to do so. We know, now, the
debt can be paid. We only need the will to do it.” Read
on.
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