The coronavirus recession is an opportunity to cancel all U.S. student loan debt
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This past March, as a coronavirus relief measure, Congress suspended payments on a lion’s share of federally owned student loans for 6 months. When this temporary loan forbearance expires on September 30, it should be extended—permanently. Many borrowers will not be prepared to begin making payments…
Equitable Growth webinar will explore bold policies to ensure a broad-based economic recovery
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The coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic recession have exposed and exacerbated many systemic inequalities in U.S. society, especially for Black and Latinx families. Even after a decade of growth following the end of the Great Recession in 2009, with low inflation and historically low unemp…
Green stimulus, not dirty bailouts, is the smart investment strategy during the coronavirus recession
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Overview In March, the federal government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security bill, more commonly known as the CARES Act. The law aims to provide relief for businesses and Americans struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic recession. It also had the…
Global medical trade in the time of the coronavirus pandemic
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The coronavirus pandemic has placed the opportunities and challenges of our intensely integrated world economy in stark relief. The movement of people across borders generates fear of contagion. And the reliance on foreign countries for crucial medical supplies needed in the United States creates fe…
Good U.S. fiscal policy could have made us stronger before the coronavirus recession and can make us stronger afterward
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When U.S. policymakers seek to restore the U.S. economy in the wake of the coronavirus recession, what will constitute success? Returning the economy to its prepandemic state is not sufficient. It’s not even desirable. Yes, unemployment was low, and job growth was strong. But that economy was also c…
Two things state and local governments can do to mitigate the coronavirus recession in the United States
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The U.S. economy is infected by the coronavirus pandemic, and a deep recession is practically inevitable. Congress and the Federal Reserve will lead the effort to fix the economy with fiscal and monetary stimulus, but state and local governments, too, have an important role to play. Even the massive…
Improved public school teaching of racial oppression could enable U.S. society to grasp the roots and effects of racial and economic inequality
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Every February for the past 45 years the United States commemorates African American history—a month dedicated to learning about and celebrating the accomplishments and stories of black Americans throughout our nation’s history. Typically, Black History Month is observed through various activities a…
Equitable Growth launches Vision 2020 book with discussion of research and policy ideas
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The need for systemic change, the power of government to improve the U.S. economy and society, and the importance of connecting research, evidence, and data to the U.S. policymaking process dominated the conversation among a panel of scholars at the February 18 introduction of the Washington Center…
Equitable Growth introduces book of innovative policy ideas for 2020
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The Washington Center for Equitable Growth today is publishing a collection of 21 essays, with innovative, evidence-based, and concrete policy ideas to shape the 2020 policy debate. The essays, which will be introduced at an event in Washington, DC, cover a wide range of economic issues, including t…
Reforming U.S. antitrust enforcement and competition policy
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This essay is part of Vision 2020: Evidence for a stronger economy, a compilation of 21 essays presenting innovative, evidence-based, and concrete ideas to shape the 2020 policy debate. The authors in the new book include preeminent economists, political scientists, and sociologists who use cutting-…