A big proposal for a big problem: “This package is at the scale of the problem,” said Heidi Shierholz of the liberal Economic Policy Institute. State and local aid, unemployment insurance expansions/extensions, $400 billion to fight COVID, and more. They got the economics right. This is a very bright spot in a difficult time.”
The Fiscal Times
January 19, 2021
Raising the federal minimum wage would increase wages for more than 23 million Americans, according to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, which examined the public cost of the Raise the Wage Act introduced by Congress in 2019. The Economic Policy Institute has reported that low-wage workers today are forced to work longer hours just to achieve the bare minimum standards of living compared to workers half a century ago, in part due to decline in purchasing power.
Creative Loafing Tampa
January 19, 2021
According to a 2018 report by the Economic Policy Institute, the average income for the top 1% in Washington made 24.2 times more than the other 99%.
The Center Square
January 19, 2021
Another lingering concern has been that more stimulus could “overheat” the U.S. economy, in which aggregate demand outpaces growth, but such concerns could be overstated.
“These criticisms should be ignored,” wrote Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, noting Biden’s proposal is “highly unlikely to lead to any durable uptick in inflation or interest rates,” which are the normal indicators of an overheated economy.
Bivens noted the Fed is primed to raise interest rates if inflation starts to rise, and that the U.S. economy is now harder to overheat since, ironically, more income is concentrated in wealthier households that are more likely to save rather than spend it.
Courthouse News Service
January 19, 2021
“The recovery from the Great Recession was delayed by years because we failed to act at the scale of the problem,” said Heidi Shierholz, a former Labor Department chief economist who is now at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. “This is a huge break from past mistakes.”
New York Times
January 19, 2021
While economists and researchers at progressive groups such as NELP and the Economic Policy Institute tout the broad economic benefits of a minimum wage increase, other researchers say the negative potential impacts, such as job losses and reduced work hours, are likely to outweigh the gains.
Bloomberg Law
January 19, 2021
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, rejects the argument that a wage hike would lead to job losses.
“That claim of job loss isn’t supported by evidence — it’s likely an overestimate of negative employment impact. But even if you accept their findings, they still find the benefits far outweigh the costs,” Shierholz, formerly the Labor Department’s chief economist under Barack Obama, told CBS MoneyWatch.
CBS Moneywatch
January 19, 2021
And things aren’t turning around. In early January, we got a very bad employment report for December 2020. Aside from an overall national decline of 140,000 jobs, economist Elise Gould at the Economic Policy Institute noted “state and local government employment continued to decline” for the fourth month in a row, feeding a cumulative “shortfall of 1.4 million from pre-pandemic conditions,” especially in education.
Forbes
January 19, 2021
“Last week was the 43rd straight week total initial claims were greater than the worst week of the Great Recession,” Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute wrote.
The Fiscal Times
January 19, 2021
By Josh Bivens, a statement by the Economic Policy Institute
Today, President-elect Biden announced a proposed relief and recovery package that provides relief that is commensurate with the scale of the economic challenge facing the United States, due to the harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The urgent economic priorities facing the nation are simple: get control over the spread of the virus and then ensure that U.S. households, businesses, and governments spend and invest enough to radically reduce unemployment and boost workers’ wages. The Biden package ticks these boxes. The continuation of enhanced pandemic-related unemployment insurance programs, the substantial fiscal aid to state and local governments, the investments in virus control and mitigation, and the increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour are all absolutely essential for rapid relief and a fast and equitable recovery.
24/7 Wall Street
January 19, 2021