During the Obama administration, Mr. Bernstein served as the executive director of the White House task force on the middle class. Before joining the administration, he was a senior economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, where he studied income inequality and low-wage labor markets. He served as the deputy chief economist at the Labor Department from 1995 to 1996.
Wall Street Journal
November 30, 2020
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Biden intends to name Cecilia Rouse to head the CEA. Rouse is from Princeton and would be the first Black woman to head the CEA. Larry Mishel, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute, described her to me Sunday evening as a solid choice—like him, she’s a labor economist, which means by definition that her academic interests centered around wages and poverty and education.
In addition, the Journal reported that Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey will sit on the council, and they’re both solid progressives. Finally, Neera Tanden will be the first woman of color to head the Office of Management and Budget. These are all people who believe in government intervention in the economy and aren’t going to be howling at the president about deficit reduction. So this is all good news. The priorities of this group will tend much more toward full employment than austerity. “There’s going to be more emphasis on workers under Biden than any president in my lifetime,” Mishel says.
Daily Beast
November 30, 2020
Passing a stimulus bill is a political process that involves consensus, but Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said Yellen has the gravitas and grasp of issues to potentially persuade Republicans. Further stimulus is imperative, Bivens said, because “we are in for very, very rough economic times.”
MarketWatch
November 30, 2020
The surge in online shopping has led to the boom in these low-wage jobs. They are also disproportionally held by Black and Hispanic workers.
Getting cut out of unemployment insurance could mean that workers will have to make “terrible choices between things like paying rent and buying medicine,” says Heidi Shierholz, an economist at left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “People will take whatever jobs they can get.”
Quartz
November 30, 2020
In the US, state programs did see an increase in the number of work share claims. However, these programs still made up a small percent of the unemployment benefits. For the week ending July 18, there were 413,385 unadjusted claims, compared to 12,810 last year and 1.3% of total unemployment benefits.
Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, told Business Insider the US should have more education and outreach about the programs so workers and businesses can be more aware of their advantages.
“Businesses in the US, this idea of ‘Oh we’re in a downturn, I’m going to try to hang on to my employees until things get better,’ that’s not very well socialized in this country, which is unfortunate because it can be a really excellent way for businesses, for employees, and for the overall economy to help make it through a period of weak demand,” Shierholz said.
Business Insider
November 30, 2020
Celine McNicholas, the head of governmental affairs for the progressive Economic Policy Institute…[behind paywall].
Law360
November 30, 2020
Universal Childcare. One year of child care costs more than one year of tuition at most states’ four-year public colleges. Families need safe, accessible, affordable child care. We can alleviate poverty and change the trajectory of life for millions of American children with a substantial investment in childcare and early childhood education. Read this report from The Economic Policy Institute calling for “An Ambitious National Investment in America’s Children” and sign up to join Childcare Changemakers to enlist in the campaign for universal and equitable childcare for all families.
The Nation
November 30, 2020
A famed Economic Policy Institute chart shows that productivity and wages, which previously had a tight correlation, began to break away in 1979. Since then, productivity has grown six times more than pay. More-productive workers should be paid a wage that matches their increased value, but in this 40-year stretch, the lion’s share of the benefits have gone to corporate treasuries and owners of capital. An analysis by the RAND Corporation released in September found that the bottom 90 percent of American workers would be taking home $2.5 trillion more per year if economic inequality were at the same level it was in 1975. That’s about $50 trillion transferred from one class to another.
The American Prospect
November 30, 2020
Since 2000, the United States has lost roughly 5 million manufacturing jobs and more than 91,000 factories. And as the Economic Policy Institute has reported, America’s ongoing trade deficit with China cost 3.7 million U.S. jobs between 2001 and 2018.
Boston Herald
November 30, 2020
“There are many middle-income, middle wage workers and their families who struggle to make ends meet without a single paycheck…this is not an isolated experience of a few people that are particularly low wage or low income,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “This is true for the vast majority of people in this country who don’t have, let’s say, $400, to pay for an unexpected expense.”
These folks may very well turn to credit cards, Gould said, which can have long term implications for their ability to secure credit in the future.
“Another big problem that’s happening right now is that people are facing eviction, because they didn’t have the money to pay for their rent,” Gould added. “And the ramifications of those kinds of financial losses on your record, can be long term and can offer, really, hardship in the future in terms of being able to secure credit, being able to rent another place.”
KTVU-TV
November 30, 2020