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Bharat Ramamurti Profile picture
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26 Oct, 4 tweets, 2 min read
In April, I expressed concern that the Fed had made changes to its Main Street program specifically to help oil and gas companies. I pressed the Fed on that at our August hearing.

Now a new report shows 15% of the Fed's new loans were for that industry.

bailoutwatch.org/analysis/fed-b…
Here were my questions for the Fed about this in August. The Fed should not be changing its lending programs just to help out companies that President Trump happens to favor.

And here is my original thread from April highlighting how the Fed's changes to the program mirrored the top requests of the oil and gas industry.

While other central banks are actively avoiding fossil fuels and supporting green industry, the Fed is going the other way.

And even worse, the way it's designed its program means that rich creditors of oil and gas companies are more likely to benefit than oil and gas workers.

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More from @BharatRamamurti

Bharat Ramamurti Profile picture
24 Oct
On clean energy, $15 minimum wage, raising taxes on the rich, reducing the influence of money in politics — and more — the progressive agenda is America’s agenda.

We don’t need to be in a defensive crouch on this stuff — the public is already with us.
This isn’t just nationally. It’s also true in important electoral college states. For example, 70% of Florida voters support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

baynews9.com/fl/tampa/2020-…
Nearly two-thirds of Pennsylvania voters support a $15 minimum wage.

penncapital-star.com/commentary/new…
Read 5 tweets
Bharat Ramamurti Profile picture
21 Oct
The Fed continues to offer contradictory rationales for treating state and local governments worse than private companies. The truth is that nothing is stopping the Fed from offering more help and saving jobs -- it’s just choosing not to. 1/

nytimes.com/2020/10/21/bus…
Fed: All programs that use CARES Act money must include a penalty rate, which is why we charge state and local governments so much in interest.

Also Fed: Our CARES Act facility for corporate bonds purchases them at market price. 2/
Fed: Under the CARES Act, we can only act as a lender of last resort for state and local governments. We are a backstop, and just want private markets to function.

Also Fed: Our CARES Act program for midsize companies actively encourages banks to make loans to businesses. 3/
Read 6 tweets
Bharat Ramamurti Profile picture
16 Oct
NEW: The latest Oversight Commission report is finally out. As the @NYtimes reported last week, Republican foot-dragging has delayed the report’s release for weeks. So what didn’t Republicans want you to see? 1/

nytimes.com/2020/10/09/bus…
The report reflects broad support for expanding the MLF (the Fed’s state and local lending program):

✅Extend the MLF into 2021
✅Lower rates
✅Lengthen repayment term
✅Expand # of eligible borrowers
✅Offer flexibility on loan use
✅Create secondary market facility 2/
Three of the four expert witnesses at our recent hearing backed these changes -- including one of the Republicans' own witnesses. Which witness didn’t? It was this gentleman: 3/

Read 5 tweets
Bharat Ramamurti Profile picture
8 Aug
Let's take a look at the actual text of these executive orders.

Here's the heart of the one on evictions. As you can see, it doesn't create an eviction moratorium. It asks certain federal agencies to see if they can maybe do something on evictions.
Here's the payroll tax one. It's a deferral. That means either employers will continue to withhold your payroll taxes and you won't see any difference, or they won't withhold (unlikely), and you'll have it all withheld from your paycheck when the deferral expires at year-end.
Here is the key part of the unemployment insurance one.

*To be clear, the legal authority to do this is highly dubious.*

But, at best, it's a $300/week federal contribution redirecting money that, by my estimate, would cover about 4 weeks for the currently unemployed.
Read 4 tweets
Bharat Ramamurti Profile picture
22 Jul
NEW with @owenslindsay1: We're heading towards a wage apocalypse unless Congress intervenes. Our proposal builds on the unemployment insurance boost to:

✅Raise wages by $320/week for millions
✅Increase economic growth
✅Create half a million jobs

rooseveltinstitute.org/fair-wage-guar…
As many as 22 million people—around 15 percent of the entire American labor force—have higher incomes on UI now than from their previous jobs.

Even if Congress extends UI, current rules say those people will lose UI if they're offered a job with comparable pay to their last one.
Think about what that means:

As employers pick up hiring, millions could experience painful income cuts as they return to work.

Our economic recovery will be at war with itself: Economic expansion and hiring will produce income losses and contraction.
Read 7 tweets
Bharat Ramamurti Profile picture
20 Jul
The Oversight Commission has just released its third report. In it, we make a number of key findings to help Congress as it considers new Covid legislation, and question some recent Fed and Treasury actions.

The full report is here: 1/

toomey.senate.gov/files/document…
The Fed's Main Street program is still not really doing much. It's supported a single $12M loan.

And as the Commission finds, it's also not designed to help smaller companies "facing serious declines in revenue that cannot take on additional debt to address that problem." 2/
Also on the Main Street program: "it's clear to the Commission that [Treasury and the Fed] are not going to impose mandatory payroll requirements on businesses..unless Congress mandates it in new legislation." Right now, they're not requiring or monitoring anything on payroll. 3/
Read 8 tweets

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