Economic policy guides to reduce inequality for the 2020 U.S. election-year presidential and congressional transition
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Change is coming to Washington, D.C. No matter who wins the presidential and congressional elections in 2020, a new set of economic policymakers will transition into government. They will come to power at a time of immense economic turmoil. A new Trump or Biden administration, and the new Congress,…
Revamping U.S. small business rescue programs amid the coronavirus recession
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The coronavirus economic rescue programs enacted by Congress this past spring failed to prevent layoffs and firm bankruptcies among the smallest employers in the United States. Existing resources, such as the Paycheck Protection Program, helped firms that needed a marginal boost to get through the w…
Combating the market power of U.S. corporations over workers and consumers
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Recent economic research establishes that the United States suffers from a growing market power problem. Market power, often referred to as monopoly power, means consumers pay more for the goods and services they need. Workers earn less. Small businesses have a harder time succeeding. Innovation slo…
Taxing wealth and investment income in the United States
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The federal income tax does a poor job of taxing income derived from wealth. The root cause of this problem is that the tax code allows taxpayers to defer (without interest) paying tax on investment gains until assets are sold. Moreover, even when assets are sold, the investment gains are taxed at p…
Achieving universal paid family and medical leave in the United States
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The coronavirus pandemic and the recession it caused lay bare a familiar challenge for U.S. workers—balancing family and job responsibilities without access to paid family and medical leave. When a new child arrives, loved ones get sick, or a serious illness strikes, people need time away from work.…
Building worker power in the United States
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Wages have stagnated for most U.S. workers over the past 40 years while the labor market institutions that promote worker power have faltered in a pro-business and anti-worker policy environment. These two phenomena are two sides of the same coin—productivity decoupled from wage growth results in em…
Improving automatic stabilizers to combat U.S. economic recessions
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The new coronavirus pandemic and the recession it caused show that the typical set of economic policies used to fight recessions in the United States should be designed to automatically turn on and off in a downturn. It is impossible to predict when the economy will fall into a recession and, on the…
Addressing the U.S. racial economic mobility and inequality divides
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Economic mobility in the United States has been declining over the past half-century at the same time that economic inequality has been rising. Research by Harvard University economist and former Equitable Growth Steering Committee member Raj Chetty and his co-authors shows that rates of absolute in…
Reforming Unemployment Insurance across the United States
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Longstanding problems with the Unemployment Insurance system in the United States are immediately evident amid the coronavirus recession and echo the problems experienced during the Great Recession more than a decade ago. These include: Administrative failures at state Unemployment Insurance agencie…
Experts discuss transformative ideas for 2020 U.S. economic policy debate at Vision 2020 event
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Eliminate banks as the “middleman” for federal anti-recession aid. Cancel all student loan debt. Give workers a say in how their workplaces reopen and empower them to form unions. Provide federal relief to childcare programs to prevent them from shutting down permanently. Get Congress to do its job…