To be clear, there’s little that the Biden administration can do administratively that would have the same impact on the economy as a stimulus package, says Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. But the administration can set in motion changes—on worker protections, student debt, the Federal Reserve’s lending to state and local governments, and more—that could “lead to a more equitable economy,” Shierholz says, boosting consumer spending and hopefully giving the overall economy “a shot in the arm.” Here are a few of the options in Biden’s toolbox, according to economists:
Mother Jones
December 15, 2020
Many economists, however, say workers need more pay to make it through the crisis, and delaying wage increases will only cause more economic damage.
Here & Now‘s Tonya Mosley speaks with Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, and Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
WBUR Here and Now
December 15, 2020
Index of per enrollee costs for comparable health-care benefits*
Source: Economic Policy Institute
Bloomberg
December 14, 2020
The JOLTS report was “a clear and confirming sign that the recovery is not charging ahead,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, who noted in a commentary that the figures don’t even capture November’s slowdown in job growth. “With hiring and job openings at these levels, the economy is facing a long slow recovery, unless Congress acts,” she wrote.
The Balance
December 14, 2020
The U.S. could be headed for a “double-dip recession”—a second recession that begins before recovery from the first is complete—if Congress does not provide some sort of relief before the end of the year, said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.
“The response to the virus has been so poor, and it’s becoming clear in the labor market,” Shierholz said.
The Balance
December 14, 2020
According to a University of California at Berkeley analysis, raising the minimum wage in the 1960s directly led to a 20% drop in income inequality for Black Americans. According to the Economic Policy Institute, a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour would increase wages for 38.1% of all Black workers. It is perhaps the most powerful single measure to lift wages and opportunity for the poorest workers and a major step toward shrinking America’s chiasmic racial and gender wage gap.
The Triangle Tribune
December 14, 2020
But as Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) wrote for The American Prospect last month, “there is plenty that President Biden can do to support working people that doesn’t require Congress.”
“One key area is the federal contracting system. While the president cannot—without Congress—increase the federal minimum wage, the president can, through executive power, increase the minimum wage of workers on federal contracts,” Shierholz noted. “The impact would be substantial.”
Common Dreams
December 14, 2020
In late October as the coronavirus pandemic raged, the Economic Policy Institute released a study showing that it isn’t just morally right but an economic necessity to deal with poverty in this country and fast. “If America does not address what’s happening with visionary social and economic policy,” as that study put it, “the health and well-being of the nation are at stake. What we need is long-term economic policy that establishes justice, promotes the general welfare, rejects decades of austerity, and builds strong social programs that lift society from below.”
Common Dreams
December 14, 2020
This is not simply an esoteric parliamentary debate that has no impact on people’s lives. PAYGO rules, and austerity politics in general, have caused real pain. In a paper entitled “The bad economics of PAYGO,” the Economic Policy Institute noted that, “The recovery from the Great Recession was the slowest in post-World War II history, and the degree of fiscal austerity can entirely explain its slowness.”
This “slowness” meant increased unemployment, increased hunger, decreases in access to health care, and an overall increase in mortality. Yes, austerity politics kill.
Jacobin
December 14, 2020
Georgia is ripe for this kind of economic message. According to an analysis done by the Economic Policy Institute, 34.7 percent of Georgian workers would get a raise if the federal minimum wage were increased to $15 an hour. That’s over 1.5 million people earning on average an extra $3,700 a year.
The Hill
December 14, 2020