Beth Akers, E21
Over the past several weeks, since Covid-19 outbreaks have largely closed down the US economy, 36 million people have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance benefits. For as many as two-thirds of them, a funny thing happened—they got a raise. During normal circumstances, workers laid off from their jobs can get somewhere between 35 and 55 percent of their lost wages replaced by unemployment insurance benefits. Unemployment insurance programs are administered by states rather than the federal government, so the exact benefit depends on where the worker lives and the specific policies adopted in their state.
Read more here....
Douglas Clement, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Desmond Lachman | The National Interest
James Capretta explains that when the crisis recedes, the entire federal budget needs recalibration to head off an intractable cycle of rising interest payments crowding out necessary public investments.
READ MORE
Desmond Lachman | The Bulwark
The toxic combination of a record-high global debt-to-GDP ratio and the deepest worldwide economic recession in the postwar period do not indicate a quick recovery. As policymakers in the US mull opening up the economy in an attempt to prevent further damage, they must recognize that there is no miracle bounce back coming. Even if the virus disappeared tomorrow, the world economy and global financial markets will still be stalked by structural risks.
Allison Schrager, E21
Edmund Phelps, the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics, is Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University. He did and continues to do groundbreaking work on unemployment, growth, and innovation. His most recent work addresses how to restore dynamism to the economy. Read more here.
Hendrix, Kober, Gelinas, Malanga, Armlovich & Husock, Manhattan Institute
James Pethokoukis | @JimPethokoukis | "Political Economy"
Why do some nations become free and prosperous while others don't? According to guest James Robinson, freedom and prosperity arise when a state is strong enough to secure liberty and provide public services and a society is strong enough to prevent the state from becoming despotic.
Aparna Mathur, Abby McCloskey, and Erin Melly | American Enterprise Institute