But so long as hiring continues, liberal economists believe that public opinion will change and fears of a recession will fade. The White House analyses are “grounded in data,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
“People will understand that if we continue to have extremely low unemployment that the idea we’re in a recession just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” she said.
Associated Press
August 4, 2022
“If they continue on a hawkish path much longer, a recession is quite probable. This would be a huge and avoidable policy mistake,” said Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute, who backed Powell’s renomination because of pro-worker changes made to the Fed’s operating framework. The damaged caused, he argued, would be “far greater than that by single-digit inflation rates.”
Reuters
August 4, 2022
Josh Bivens, the director of research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute, echoed those warnings on Wednesday and warned “the cost of a recession would be far higher than any benefit to piling on more contractionary policy to rein in already-fading inflation.”
New York Times
August 4, 2022
“Part of the issue is that as an inflation control strategy, interest rate hikes are not so great right now,” said Josh Bivens, research director at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. “I think a lot of the sources of inflation we’re seeing are things that interest rate hikes aren’t going to really get at.”
Scripps TV
July 20, 2022
The rate of unionisation is now even lower than it was before workers had a federally protected right to join unions. That is no coincidence. Unions give workers and their communities the power to ensure that the American economy’s productivity gains are shared more evenly. As unions have withered, the benefits of increased economic capacity have flowed to a very small share of the population.
The Economist
July 20, 2022
“People most hurt by high inflation are also seeing a ton of job growth,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. “Given the burden of high inflation and high job availability, it’s not at all a surprise to me that you’d see people doubling up on jobs.”
The Washington Post
July 20, 2022
according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, net productivity rose 61.8 percent, while the hourly rate of pay for the average worker increased by only 17.5 percent.3 In other words, even though today’s worker is more productive than ever before, she has seen wages stagnate, prices increase, profits disappear into deep pockets, politics favor the wealthy, and working conditions worsen.
Nonprofit Quarterly
July 20, 2022
“Higher unemployment lowers wage growth much more reliably and by larger amounts than it lowers inflation,” notes Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, noted last week. “Currently, wage growth is decelerating. This means there is no genuine need for a recession to pull wage growth down to sustainable levels.”
Common Dreams
July 20, 2022
Teresa Ghilarducci is the Schwartz Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research. She’s the co-author of “Rescuing Retirement” and a member of the board of directors of the Economic Policy Institute.
Bloomberg
July 20, 2022
