The COVID-19 pandemic has generated severe public health and economic impacts in the Appalachian region as throughout the U.S. Focusing now on Ohio, with preliminary findings for Pennsylvania, PERI researchers Robert Pollin, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Shouvik Chakraborty and Gregor Semieniuk propose a recovery program as a counterforce against the region’s economic collapse in the short run while also building a durable foundation for an economically viable and ecologically sustainable longer-term recovery. The Ohio study demonstrates how a robust climate stabilization project will also serve as a major engine of economic recovery and expanding opportunities throughout the state.
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The Bank's Take on the Paycheck Protection Program
With a spending authority of $521 billion before June 30th, the Small Business Paycheck Protection Program accounted for nearly one fourth of the $2 trillion CARES Act. Its purpose was to subsidize businesses with fewer than 500 employees so they could limit layoffs and pay benefits. But PERI researcher Michael Ash, with Zeke Ash and Rich Puchalsky show that significant shares of the overall funding were received by banks that merely brokered the government awards to these businesses, garnering large service payments with no risk. The authors argue that there were alternatives to setting up the program in this manner, including the government managing the program directly.
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Ideas for Transforming Economics
PERI researcher Jayati Ghosh’s lecture to the UNCTAD-YSI Summer School “Why Do We Need to Transform Economics and How Do We Do It” advances a powerful critique of mainstream economics and proposes a range of approaches for advancing effective heterodox alternatives. She concludes by urging students to “Be bold: don’t be afraid to ask awkward questions of anyone, don’t let anyone slap you down using the well-worn techniques of the socially powerful, don’t be intimidated by institutional hierarchies and power structures. The more fearless you are, the more you accomplish; and the more other people whom you can persuade to be fearless with you.”
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Are Bankers Essential Workers?
A progressive political agenda calls for public banking and finance institutions (PBFIs) to be widespread and large enough to meet the challenges of catastrophic climate change, economic exploitation, racial exclusion, and sustainable economic development. To fully succeed, we need the federal government and the Federal Reserve to underwrite PBFIs to the same extent they have supported private finance over the last several decades. Drawing on recent activist efforts and proposals, this article by PERI’s Gerald Epstein and Esra Nur Ugurlu, and published in Catalyst journal, describes models developed abroad and in the U.S. that transform the financial system into useful institutions that move us toward these goals.
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