“Inequality in our economy causes a lot of problems,” said Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “There’s a growing awareness that we can actually do something about it.”
Bloomberg
November 16, 2020
“The Trump administration never did lay out a coherent, comprehensive, engaged trade strategy,” said Thea M. Lee, an economist and the president of the Economic Policy Institute. “It was much more scattershot: Throw up a tariff here, do a deal with China, disparate elements that didn’t seem to talk to each other.”
“But there are a lot of tools in that toolbox, and I would like to see the Biden administration be thoughtful and strategic about how to use them,” Ms. Lee said.
The New York Times
November 16, 2020
The bottom line: Most progressive economists agree that “the president and the White House don’t have many levers to pull on stimulus without Congress,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “It’s super limited.”
But most of the potential regulatory changes to juice the economy, like waiving permitting requirements, tend to conflict with other progressive priorities, such as environmental protection.
Axios
November 16, 2020
Josh Bivens, the director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, argued that the path to recovery would take years and far more funding than is being discussed for the next round of relief.
Salon
November 16, 2020
The pattern is particularly pronounced for executives. Since 1978, C-suite compensation has risen 940%, in comparison with 12% for the typical employee, according to the Economic Policy Institute. That provides the US the highest ratio of executive to worker compensation (354:1) on the earth, almost twice the subsequent closest nation, Switzerland (148:1). The final time the US witnessed this level of inequality, Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller have been constructing their monopolies in steamships, railroads, and oil through the robber-baron period within the late 1800s.
Quartz
November 16, 2020
Despite the positive jobs report cited by McConnell, about 1 million people applied for unemployment insurance last week, more than any time during the Great Recession, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Many workers are exhausting their state unemployment benefits as the pandemic drags on – the number of state claims dropped by 436,000 last week – and federal emergency unemployment benefits will expire on December 26 without congressional action.
Truthout
November 16, 2020
A decir verdad, los trabajadores negros tienen más probabilidades que otros trabajadores de desempeñar trabajos de primera línea donde corren un mayor riesgo de exponerse al coronavirus, según un análisis del Economic Policy Institute. Esto afecta a los adultos mayores porque “los afroamericanos tienen más probabilidades de vivir en hogares de familias extensas”, explica Taylor. “Es más probable que el trabajador esencial propague la enfermedad dentro de un determinado hogar, en particular a la persona mayor más vulnerable”, añade.
AARP
November 16, 2020
Without such assistance, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that 5.3 million state and local jobs will be lost by the end of 2021, exceeding job losses of the Great Recession and deepening – or creating – another economic downturn.
LexisNexis
November 16, 2020
Outdated unemployment insurance systems in some states collapsed from the influx of applicants who lost their job during the pandemic. As a result, only 71% of applicants received benefits by April 11, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
The Southern Illinoisan
November 16, 2020
Years later, policymakers would make similar mistakes by failing to properly address the material needs of Black households during the Great Recession. Research forecasts that by 2031, Black household wealth will be nearly 40% lower than it would have been had the Great Recession never occurred. In contrast, White household wealth is projected to be 31% lower than it would have been absent the Recession. For the average Black family, this means that median wealth will be roughly $100,000 lower than it would have been without the recession. Further still, data from the Economic Policy Institute shows that median household incomes for African American households are down nearly 1.9% compared to pre-recession levels. Taken together, these figures show the failure of public institutions to address the hardship created by the racially biased predatory lending practices that contributed to the Great Recession.
California Health Report
November 16, 2020