An equitable response to the COVID-19 pandemic requires structural change. View this in your browser and share with your friends. <[link removed]>
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Austerity Is Not the Answer
The need for structural policy change has never been clearer. Nearly 40 percent <[link removed]> of low-income American households have now experienced job loss <[link removed]> during a crisis that’s disproportionately harmed <[link removed]> our nation’s most vulnerable. And as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell explained <[link removed]> this week, our recovery will be slow without swift government action on the scale this crisis requires: “Additional fiscal support could be costly, but worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery.” The bill introduced by House Democrats this week—the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act—is a step in the right direction, with $1 trillion in aid to state and local governments and another wave of $1,200 cash payments, among other essentials. But as Roosevelt President & CEO Felicia Wong writes for the blog, the bill does not do enough to mitigate long-lasting macroeconomic consequences, prevent corporate extraction, or rebalance power. Read why. <[link removed]>
- The dangers of austerity: This coming Monday, a webinar hosted by the Roosevelt Institute, Groundwork Collaborative, and partner organizations will trace the history of American austerity and explain the urgent need for increased federal spending—with featured panelists Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, historian Kim Phillips-Fein, and Community Change President Dorian Warren.RSVP now. <[link removed]>
- Green stimulus: Evergreen—a group co-founded by Roosevelt Fellow Bracken Hendricks—and Data for Progress have unveiled a $1.5 trillion coronavirus stimulus plan, which pitches federal funding for state and local clean energy programs and technology incentives.Learn more. <[link removed]>
- Rewrite the rules: “Helping businesses to keep paying their workers, as Rep. [Pramila] Jayapal’s Paycheck Guarantee Act does, is the most efficient way to stop millions of Americans from being laid off, protect access to health care at a time when it is especially needed, and keep businesses of all sizes from permanently shuttering,” says Roosevelt Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz. <[link removed]>For Barron’s, Roosevelt Fellow Lenore Palladino suggests Seattle councilmember Kshama Sawant’s“Amazon tax” proposal as a nationwide model <[link removed]>.
The Right to Employment
A federal job guarantee has deep roots in the presidency of FDR, whose Economic Bill of Rights included a right to employment. Now, the idea may be the ticket for a V-shaped recovery. Radical Imagination host Angela Glover Blackwell and Roosevelt Fellow—and member of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’seconomic unity task force <[link removed]>—Darrick Hamilton explain in a New York Times op-ed: “An updated version of Roosevelt’s vision would increase bargaining power and expand the social safety net for all workers. By hiring workers at the beginning of a downturn, a permanent job guarantee would operate as an automatic stabilizer in perpetuity, maintaining consumer spending and protecting us from recessions—making our economy more resilient as well as more inclusive.” Read more. <[link removed]>
- Hidden rules of race: “Black [people] are generally the last hired, and they will bear the brunt of this unless we do something transformative,” Hamiltontold the Washington Post <[link removed]>this week. As heexplained to PBS NewsHour <[link removed]>, “this pandemic has demonstrated that we have a great deal of public power where we can intervene to limit economic insecurity and vulnerability.”
Antitrust + Labor Policy = Worker Power
Much of employers’ power exceeds the reach of antitrust policy. Rebalancing the scales for workers, therefore, requires an antitrust-plus agenda, including labor policies that raise the minimum wage and promote unionization. In a new Roosevelt Institute report <[link removed]>, Roosevelt Fellow Suresh Naidu and the University of Chicago’s Eric A. Posner catalogue and evaluate the effectiveness of various proposals; and for the blog, Roosevelt Editorial Manager Matt Hughes explains how COVID-19 has reframed the conversation <[link removed]>.
What We’re Reading
The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying <[link removed]> - The Atlantic
Why The Crisis May Make Powerful Corporations Even More Powerful <[link removed]> - NPR
How the Coronavirus is Killing the Middle Class <[link removed]> - The New Yorker
The American Unemployment System Is Broken by Design <[link removed]> - Vox
Don’t Blame Econ 101 for the Plight of Essential Workers <[link removed]> - The Atlantic
Democratic Campaign Vets Unveil 2020 Climate Push <[link removed]> - Axios
COVID-19 Reality Has a Liberal Bias <[link removed]> - New York Times
Biden Is Planning an FDR-Size Presidency <[link removed]> - New York Magazine
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