Roosevelt Rundown: Six Ways to Address Today’s Price Changes

The Roosevelt Rundown features our top stories of the week.
View this in your browser and share with your friends. ([link removed])


** Inflation 101
------------------------------------------------------------

To understand why price changes are happening—and how to address them with policy—we have to dig deeper ([link removed]) than headline inflation numbers.

In a new issue brief, Roosevelt’s J.W. Mason and Lauren Melodia break it all down.

“. . . energy, automobiles, and a handful of industries directly affected by the pandemic account for all of the excess inflation this year . . . Higher interest rates and fiscal austerity will not address any of these problems,” they write ([link removed]) .

“If inflation fears lead the Fed to raise rates aggressively or Congress to scale back or abandon the Build Back Better agenda, those policy decisions will turn today's temporary disruptions into a permanently weaker economy with higher unemployment and greater racial and income inequality.”

Read on for six tools policymakers can use instead in “Rethinking Inflation Policy: A Toolkit for Economic Recovery.” ([link removed])


** A New Approach to Economic Governance
------------------------------------------------------------

This week, the G7 Panel on Economic Resilience—on which Roosevelt President and CEO Felicia Wong represented ([link removed]) the US—released its final report ([link removed]) .

The panel’s proposals offer a new approach to economic governance, recognizing the central role governments must play in shaping markets ([link removed]) , raising labor standards, and making the collective investments necessary to address global challenges.

Last week’s historic global minimum tax agreement—a recommendation of the G7 panel—is a big step in that direction, as Wong said on Marketplace ([link removed]) .

It’s also a victory for democracy, writes ([link removed]) Roosevelt’s Todd N. Tucker, and could “upend the Senate minority’s expansive veto powers.”

Learn more in “How the Global Minimum Tax Deal Could Bolster Democracy and Make Government Work Better.” ([link removed])


** The Building Blocks of a Better Economy
------------------------------------------------------------

As negotiations continue around President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, the bottom line remains the same: We can’t afford not to invest in climate, education, and care.

For the blog, Roosevelt experts explain why private markets can’t or won’t address these urgent needs, and how these overdue public investments would promote equity and boost the economy.
* “We Need Build Back Better’s Climate Investments—for the Economy, Equity, and the Planet” ([link removed]) by Rhiana Gunn-Wright and Kristina Karlsson
* “How Build Back Better’s Investments in Universal Pre-K and Community College Address Racial and Gender Inequities” ([link removed]) by Trisha Maharaj and Joseph Miller
* “Build Back Better’s Care Investments Offer a New Way to Think about the Role of Government” ([link removed]) by Steph Sterling


** Up Next at the Four Freedoms Awards
------------------------------------------------------------

"Democracy doesn't belong to the politicians. It belongs to the people," US Senator Raphael Warnock said at this week’s Four Freedoms Awards ceremony, the first of three in the coming weeks.

Warnock, this year’s Freedom of Worship Medal recipient, was speaking with Community Change co-president Dorian Warren, who also interviewed Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, the recipient of the Freedom of Speech and Expression Medal. Watch a recording of the virtual event on our Facebook page ([link removed]) .

And this Wednesday at 7pm, tune in ([link removed]) for night two, when we’ll be honoring immigrant rights and economic justice advocate Deepak Bhargava and worker rights activists Sixta Leon Barrita, Rubiela Correa, Sonia Pérez Garcia, and Maria Isabel Sierra—all of whom will be interviewed by United We Dream’s Cristina Jimenez.


** What We’re Reading
------------------------------------------------------------

Unemployment Isn't a Good “Fix” for Inflation [feat. Roosevelt’s J.W. Mason and Lauren Melodia] ([link removed]) - The Week

The Thorny Truth about Socially Responsible Investing [feat. Roosevelt’s Lenore Palladino] ([link removed]) - Vox

Private Equity Funds, Sensing Profit in Tumult, Are Propping Up Oil ([link removed]) - New York Times
Report: Corporations Are Tanking America’s Best Shot at Fighting Climate Change ([link removed]) - Grist

============================================================
If you are interested in supporting the Roosevelt Institute, ** click here ([link removed])
.

Copyright © 2021 Roosevelt Institute, All rights reserved.
** RooseveltInstitute.org ([link removed])
570 Lexington Ave, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10022

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.