“It’s not obvious to me why we should shove more firms like Carnival closer to bankruptcy — and threaten to extinguish even more jobs than have already been destroyed — just to allow hedge fund vultures to reap the benefits of having their predatory loans be Carnival’s only option,” Josh Bivens of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute wrote last month.
Politico
July 16, 2020
That’s never really worked out before. These people were arguing about “re-skilling” during the slow recovery from the Great Recession, too, said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the progressive Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor.
“Those claims were wrong back then,” Shierholz said. “It’s more blatantly wrong now.”
The Huffington Post
July 16, 2020
Economists have repeatedly warned that allowing the enhanced unemployment benefits to expire at the end of July would slash the incomes of more than 30 million Americans by 50-75%. According to Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, such a steep income cut could also cause massive job losses and a decline in economic growth.
Common Dreams
July 16, 2020
Economic Policy Institute reseracher Josh Bivens told Common Dreams that budget cuts in the context of the pandemic-triggered recession are a recipe for economic disaster.
“We have noted estimates of the state and local shortfalls between now and the end of 2021 hover around $1 trillion,” said Bivens, “and if we do nothing to close that gap, we’ll end 2021 with roughly 5 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy than we otherwise would have had.”
Common Dreams
July 16, 2020
That can make it very hard to determine if your job is safe, or if you’ve been furloughed, if your job is coming back. For some, those job losses will be permanent. About 11% of Americans who are out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic don’t have a good chance of getting called back to their old jobs, according to recent research from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. And with coronavirus cases increasing in several states, there are recent signs that layoffs may start to increase again and hiring will slow down.
CNBC
July 16, 2020
“It’s not obvious to me why we should shove more firms like Carnival closer to bankruptcy — and threaten to extinguish even more jobs than have already been destroyed — just to allow hedge fund vultures to reap the benefits of having their predatory loans be Carnival’s only option,” Josh Bivens of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute wrote last month.
Politico
July 16, 2020
The enhanced UI benefits have been deemed the “best” part of the economic response by Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz, economists at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Not only did it help keep people home in the middle of a global health crisis, but it also kept money moving through the economy. Consumer spending is critical for any sort of recovery. “Cutting off a policy that helps households maintain spending is a terrible idea, both for these households’ welfare and for macroeconomic stabilization,” writes Bivens.
CNBC
July 16, 2020
That’s never really worked out before. These people were arguing about “re-skilling” during the slow recovery from the Great Recession, too, said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the progressive Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor.
“Those claims were wrong back then,” Shierholz said. “It’s more blatantly wrong now.”
The Huffington Post
July 16, 2020