Mark Paul Profile picture
Aug 7, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Right now, we’re facing a dire public health and economic crisis. And like most things in our structurally racist & sexist economy, the harms associated with these crises are not distributed equally. Let’s dig in!
While #jobsday showed a modest downtick in the U3 rate, which is a good sign, the overall picture of the economy, especially for working-class ppl, remains bleak.
Overall U3: 10.2%
Black U3: 14.6%
Hispanic U3: 12.9%
White U3: 9.2%
The big takeaway from #jobsday is that the recovery has slowed massively, and major congressional action is necessary to help people meet their bills & stay in their homes, help states/local governments avoid massive layoffs, & help get the ongoing health crisis under control.
Unfortunately, Congress still hasn't acted. Instead, they let the life-saving $600/week UI top-off expire. Not only does this damn the economy by massively contracting demand, but it puts millions upon millions of Americans in dire economic situations.
We know that roughly 40% of ppl couldn't cover a $400 emergency expense BEFORE the crisis. How are those people going to weather this storm without more federal assistance?

Sadly, not well.
We know that roughly 1/5 ppl who were working pre-pandemic are now receiving unemployment benefits, but those benefits in many states, especially in areas like Florida where I live, were designed to create, in @GovRonDeSantis 'pointless roadblocks'
#JobsDay tells us there's much to be done, and any inaction will be much, much costlier for black, brown, and indigenous families.

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More from @MarkVinPaul

May 12, 2023
It's book launch day! 📚🎉

We've got countless books about the failures of neoliberalism, but few that put forth an affirmative vision of an economy of, for, & by the people.

So I wrote The Ends of Freedom. In the book I set out to do three things: 🧵 Image
First: Explain how we got here. How did freedom become associated w/ limited government + "free" markets, & how was the term monopolized by the right? What led to this collective failure w/ terrible impacts for our national policy discussions + political imaginations?
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Second: Show how economic rights — housing, jobs, healthcare — have been a part of the American conversation from Day One.

Economic rights were a part of the New Deal + Civil Rights Movement, whose leaders saw them as key to be fully realized along w/ civil + political rights.
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Read 6 tweets
Apr 28, 2022
My new article on Neoliberalism & Climate Change with @anfrafrem is now published in Ecological Economics! It's open access for the next 50 days. A few thoughts: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Activists and scholars increasingly see a major tension between capitalism & climate change. They argue the profit motive is ruining the planet (it is). But the idea that we will transcend capitalism in the timeline necessary to address the climate crisis is, well unlikely.
But the current flavor of capitalism that's dominant, namely neoliberal capitalism, has uniquely hindered our collective ability to address climate breakdown. In this paper, we provide a coherent account as to why neoliberalism specifically hamstrings climate action.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 24, 2022
Washington repeatedly relies on estimates from macroeconomic policy as to the costs of legislation. But what if the “numbers” lawmakers rely on are wrong, and systematically so? That is: What if what the CBO says shouldn’t go? 1/n noemamag.com/the-most-impor…
The CBO came to power in 1974. It was created by Congress in response to Nixon and his team 1) impounding funds & 2) essentially cooking the books over at the OMB. Congress wanted a "fair" referee. So we got the CBO. 2/n
Now, the CBO has no legislative authority. Yet, it has it holds enormous sway over our democracy.

As Sen. Chuck Grassley put it back in 2006, “CBO is God around here.” Indeed, according to the Senator, “policy lives and dies by CBO’s word.” 3/n
Read 11 tweets
Feb 18, 2021
I can't express how grateful I am to @AyannaPressley for her leadership on full employment. The #JobGuarantee has was a central demand of FDR and New Deal Dems along with Civil Rights leaders. It's time to to make the the dream of MLK, FDR, Scott King, and others a reality. 🧵 1/
Full employment has a rich history here in the US. In fact, it was a cornerstone of the Dem party platform from 1944-1988. The country's first experiment w/ direct employment came in the cold harsh winter of 1933-34 w/ the Civil Works Administration. 2/
With two months of creating the program Harry Hopkins, a trained social worker, and FDR employed *4 million* workers through the CWA. That was nearly 1-in-10 Americans employed at prevailing wages. 3/
Read 20 tweets
Feb 5, 2021
Everyone in the West Wing should instead read this @Groundwork paper which puts people at the center of the economy in estimating how much stimulus is needed. Our finding? The economy needs $2-3T on top of the $900B passed to bring back a healthy economy groundworkcollaborative.org/wp-content/upl…
In the paper, we ask a simple question: How much stimulus does the economy need to run a high pressure labor market that will bring widespread employment and rising real wages? We found the economy needed $3-4.5T in stimulus for that. Since, Congress passed $900B.
That was a good down payment. But the economy needs more if we want to prevent a lackluster recovery like we saw in the Great Recession. Taking our foot off the stimulus pedal back then resulted in an entire decade where workers fell further and further behind.
Read 13 tweets
Feb 4, 2021
Larry Summers has put out a bad faith argument in WaPo. Democrats should NOT take him seriously. The primary concern is providing too little stimulus and a prolonged and deeply painful recovery. The potential costs of going too big are negligible. 1/ washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
First, let's talk about the output gap. Summers takes a top down vs a bottom up approach to the output gap.
When considering full employment/ an economy operating at capacity, we can either 1) calculate a top-down measure via GDP output gap (as Summers and CBO do) 2/
Or 2) take a bottom up approach that puts people
at the center of the economy by focusing on employment.

Right now continuing UI claims for all programs are nearly 16 million above pre-pandemic levels according to @hshierholz 3/
Read 10 tweets

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