Thread by @HBoushey

The coronavirus is first and foremost a public health crisis, requiring a public health response.

It is also an economic problem— potentially a severe one.

How to help workers laid off in the coronavirus crisis, my latest in @latimesopinion
latimes.com/opinion/story/…

The most urgent economic & health priority is to ensure sick workers are able to stay home w/o fear of losing their jobs or their paychecks.

Research shows #PaidSickDays can reduce transmission of the flu by 40%, yet millions of workers lack access to it voxeu.org/article/pros-a…

The most straightforward way to provide sick pay is for Congress to require that all employers provide it to their employees—and the program needs to be permanent so we’re not scrambling the next time a catastrophe hits. medium.com/@heatherboushe…

This won’t help gig workers, but Congress can—as House Democrats have proposed—offer emergency extended leave to those who need it, paid for by the federal government, which will cover everyone. vox.com/2020/3/12/2117…

Beyond that, we need to take action to avoid or mitigate a painful recession.

That job is made much harder by two factors that have nothing to do with coronavirus:

1. High eonomic inequality has created fragilities that exacerbate any shocks to our society.

There is less money in the hands of the people who do most of the consuming, and recessions weaken consumption even more with potentially disastrous results.

2. The Fed has traditionally played an outsize role combating recessions, but now has a limited toolbox that is largely designed to support financial market liquidity and lower interest rates, both of which it’s already used amid the current market meltdown to little effect.

With limited options for monetary policy, we have to rely on fiscal policy—spending & tax policies so customers have money to spend & manufacturers have buyers for their products.

We should have been relying more on fiscal policy in prior recessions, too.

When a recession is likely, we need to get $$ directly & quickly into the hands of people lower on the income ladder, and we need to make sure those programs ramp up quickly as the recession begins.

See: #RecessionReady by @equitablegrowth & @hamiltonproj equitablegrowth.org/recession-read…

People are already being laid off, so we need to ensure that the Unemployment Insurance system covers all those who need it.

Congress should make it easier for people to access the system so that those out of work have some financial security. equitablegrowth.org/the-only-thing…

We also need to expand the nation’s nutrition assistance program, as @dwschanz & @HilaryHoynes wrote in #RecessionReady

With schools closing, state & federal agencies need to make the process for getting supplemental nutrition simpler and faster.
equitablegrowth.org/wp-content/upl…

In the last 2 recessions, Congress and the WH sent direct payments to everyone.

We should plan to do this again and we should automate the trigger so the payments happen so long as the economy is in a recession, explains @Claudia_Sahm #RecessionReady equitablegrowth.org/wp-content/upl…