Tag: Trump botched COVID-19 response tanked the U.S. economy

The Pandemic Depression Is Over. The Pandemic Recession Has Just Begun.

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Signs of a slower, grinding recovery sure look familiar.

There is a straightforward narrative of the economy in 2020: The world shut down in the spring because of the coronavirus pandemic, causing an economic collapse without modern precedent. A sharp recovery began in May as businesses reopened.

That is accurate as far as it goes. But the snapback effect over the summer has masked something more worrying: We’ve entered a longer, slower grind that puts the economy at risk for the indefinite future.

In the details of government employment data — covering hundreds of industries — can be seen a jobs crisis that penetrates deeply into the economy. Sectors that in theory shouldn’t be much affected by the pandemic at all are showing patterns akin to a severe recession. Continue reading.

Workers Face Permanent Job Losses as the Virus Persists

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Soon, a wave of people will have been out of work for more than six months, the threshold for long-term unemployment.

The United States economy is facing a tidal wave of long-term unemployment as millions of people who lost jobs early in the pandemic remain out of work six months later and job losses increasingly turn permanent.

The Labor Department said on Friday that 2.4 million people had been out of work for 27 weeks or more, the threshold it uses to define long-term joblessness. An even bigger surge is on the way: Nearly five million people are approaching long-term joblessness over the next two months. The same report showed that even as temporary layoffs were on the decline, permanent job losses were rising sharply.

Those two problems — rising long-term unemployment and permanent job losses — are separate but intertwined and, together, could foreshadow a period of prolonged economic damage and financial pain for American families. Continue reading.

House approves $2.2T COVID-19 relief bill as White House talks stall

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House Democrats on Thursday approved a massive, $2.2 trillion package of coronavirus relief, lending political cover to party centrists in tough races while putting fresh pressure on Senate Republicans to move another round of emergency aid before the coming elections.

The vote arrived only after last-ditch negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday failed to yield a bipartisan agreement — and it sent a signal that the prospects for such a deal before Nov. 3 have dimmed considerably.

The bill was approved by a tally of 214 to 207, but to secure passage, Pelosi and her leadership team had to stave off a late revolt from a surprisingly large number of centrists who were furious that Pelosi had staged a vote on a bill with no chance of becoming law. Continue reading.

Survey shows 60% of US families struggling to get by as McConnell dismisses new COVID-19 relief bill

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On the Senate floor Wednesday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated once again that he has no intention of providing badly-needed aid to struggling families across the U.S. even as new research found that nearly two-thirds of households with children are having trouble making ends meet.

McConnell dismissed the Democratic Party’s latest version of the HEROES Act as a “political stunt,” making it clear that like the bill which passed in the House in May—which has now languished in the Senate for 138 days—the $2.2 trillion relief package which House Democrats unveiled on Monday is not likely to reach the millions of families who need it.

“As always, his priorities are appalling,” Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, tweeted, noting McConnell’s determination to push through the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett—who has frequently ruled in favor of powerful corporations—to the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading.

‘One more serious try’ on COVID-19 relief yields progress but no deal

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The lead negotiators haggling for another round of emergency coronavirus relief met in person Wednesday for the first time in weeks, with both sides citing headway in the search for an elusive compromise — but no deal to report.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchinhuddled for roughly 90 minutes in the Speaker’s office in the Capitol, emerging with hopes that an evasive bipartisan agreement is within their grasp.

“We’re gonna go back and do a little more work again,” Mnuchin said. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of areas.” Continue reading.

The covid-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history

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Job losses from the pandemic overwhelmingly affected low-wage, minority workers most. Seven months into the recovery, Black women, Black men and mothers of school-age children are taking the longest time to regain their employment.

The economic collapse sparked by the pandemic is triggering the most unequal recession in modern U.S. history, delivering a mild setback for those at or near the top and a depression-like blow for those at the bottom, according to a Washington Post analysis of job losses across the income spectrum.

Recessions often hit poorer households harder, but this one is doing so at a scale that is the worst in generations, the analysis shows.

While the nation overall has regained nearly half of the lost jobs, several key demographic groups have recovered more slowly, including mothers of school-age children, Black men, Black women, Hispanic men, Asian Americans, younger Americans (ages 25 to 34) and people without college degrees. Continue reading.

Behind the White House Effort to Pressure the C.D.C. on School Openings

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Documents and interviews show how senior officials sought to play down the risks of sending children back to the classroom, alarming public health experts.

WASHINGTON — Top White House officials pressured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer to play down the risk of sending children back to school, a strikingly political intervention in one of the most sensitive public health debates of the pandemic, according to documents and interviews with current and former government officials.

As part of their behind-the-scenes effort, White House officials also tried to circumvent the C.D.C. in a search for alternate data showing that the pandemic was weakening and posed little danger to children.

The documents and interviews show how the White House spent weeks trying to press public health professionals to fall in line with President Trump’s election-year agenda of pushing to reopen schools and the economy as quickly as possible. The president and his team have remained defiant in their demand for schools to get back to normal, even as coronavirus cases have once again ticked up, in some cases linked to school and college reopenings. Continue reading.

Slimmer coronavirus aid package introduced in House

New $2.2 trillion proposal aimed at kickstarting bipartisan talks, placating rank-and-file lawmakers

House Democrats unveiled a $2.2 trillion pandemic relief package Monday night as part of a last-ditch attempt to secure new aid before the Nov. 3 elections.

Even as talks resumed between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on a potential compromise, Democrats sought to increase the public pressure by offering their own revised wish list that Republicans have said is still too costly. The White House has sought to hold the line at $1.5 trillion and some Senate Republicans have pushed to keep the price tag even lower.

The new draft Democratic measure, which could get a floor vote later this week if bipartisan talks founder, amounts to a slimmed-down version of a $3.4 trillion bill the House passed in May. After brief talks over the weekend, Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke by phone again Monday and agreed to resume talks Tuesday morning, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted. Continue reading.

Job Rebound Is ‘Losing Steam’ as Crisis Passes Six-Month Mark

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New filings for unemployment benefits rose last week, signaling continued layoffs even before autumn chills outdoor business.

Six months into the pandemic-induced economic crisis, the layoffs keep coming.

About 825,000 people filed for state unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That figure, which does not reflect seasonal adjustments, is far below the more than six million a week who were filing as layoffs peaked in the spring, but higher than in the worst weeks of many past recessions. Millions are relying on unemployment benefits to meet their basic expenses.

Worse, progress is slowing: Applications for state jobless benefits rose last week, and have been falling only slowly since midsummer. Continue reading.

‘The hits just keep coming’: Congress stumbles from crisis to crisis

Lawmakers had faced a shutdown, impeachment and pandemic. Now, they’re in a Supreme Court fight with epic ramifications.

Ancient Egypt had only 10 plagues. The 116th Congress says, “Hold my staff.” 

The House and Senate have spent the past two years staring down some of the most consequential political events of recent decades: the longest-ever government shutdown; a presidential impeachment; a deadly global pandemic; a deepening economic recession that has led to Depression-era levels of unemployment; a long-overdue national reckoning over race and police brutality; and growing tension with China and Iran and even Saudi Arabia.

But there’s more. This includes natural calamities, from fire tornadoes to wildfires to murder hornets; the death of civil rights icon John Lewis and other influential figures in politics; QAnon extremists marching toward the halls of Congress; and a polarizing president who is known for creating his own conflicts. Continue reading.