Thread by @AdyBarkan

Wow look! Full employment makes "unemployable" people very employable. And it has tremendous ability to combat racial inequality.

*This* is why we launched Fed Up. Full employment is the most powerful public policy that exists for improving lives.

mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/bus…

By empowering workers to quit if they want, full employment:
Raises wages,
reduces inequality,
combats racial discrimination,
promotes gender equity,
reduces sexual assaults/harassment,
stabilizes schedules,
facilities unionization,
reduces depression&suicide
Enhances skills.

I know there's no such thing as a panacea, but I think that's a pretty unparalleled list of benefits that come as a result of one policy intervention!

#FullEmploymentIsAwesome

Fed Up has been making this argument for 3.5 years.

Folks like @DeanBaker13, @WSpriggs, @econjared, @StephanieKelton, @LarryMishel, and @SandyDarity for upwards of 3 decades.

Folks like @AFLCIO and @SEIU for about a century!

And yet many officials at the Federal Reserve want to forgo these benefits.

The presidents of the @sffed @BostonFed @NewYorkFed and others think that unemployment is too low. Too low!

Seriously.

Although she's been respectful&engaging w/ us, the @KansasCityFed prez has been particularly wrong on this.

For ~7 years she's argued we should slow economic growth to avoid inflation. Many millions wouldn't have their jobs today if full Fed had agreed.

Yet no mea culpa.

In contrast, some @federalreserve leaders have been heroic advocates for genuine full employment.

Lael Brainard has been the strongest voice, anchoring the debate in evidence, rigorous analysis & logic.

America **really really** needs her not to quit & let Trump replace her.

At the @ChicagoFed, Charles Evans has consistently pushed his colleagues to be more ambitious about capturing the benefits of full employment.

His Evans Rule started to shift the terms of debate around 2013.

For past 2 years, @MinneapolisFed's @neelkashkari has been simply remarkable.

His commitment to transparency&self-reflection makes him a model public policy maker. (And my fav Republican!)

Srsly, can anybody refute this? The hawks don't dare try!

medium.com/@neelkashkari/…

For years, Neel's predecessor Narayana Kocherlakota played that lonely role.

Notably, he wrote a landmark blog post 2 years ago this weekend (MLK!) showing how lack of diversity at Fed made it blind to the economic realities in Black America.

Read it.

sites.google.com/site/kocherlak…

At Fed Up, we pounced on Narayana's potent piece of evidence: During the height of Great Recession, no Fed official had ever uttered the words Black or African American!

We organized our allies on Capitol Hill to demand reform. @JordanHaedtler and ErikSperling whipped the votes.

120 full employment champs, led by @RepMaxineWaters @SenWarren @SenSanders & @RepJohnConyers sent a powerful letter to @federalreserve expressing deep concern.

Bad governance was leading to bad policy, and black & brown people were paying the price.

We got results immediately. The @federalreserve adopted a practice of reporting & discussing labor market statistics -- disaggregated by race -- at every policy-setting meeting!

All of a sudden, for the first time in 100 years, racial inequality was front and center at the Fed.

Something else happened too. The @federalreserve's lack of diversity finally became untenable.

To the @AtlantaFed's great credit, it appointed as its head a highly qualified economist w/ expertise in housing&discrimination.

Meet @RaphaelBostic, the first Black Fed prez ever!

And guess what? @RaphaelBostic is now publicly playing for team full employment, explaining that wage growth tastes good to Americans and we want more of it not less.

It matters who sits at the table.

cnbc.com/2018/01/08/fed…

So there you have it.

A little MLK weekend thread about the hidden-in-plain-sight class&race politics at the @federalreserve, + how they impact the lives of every American.

And about how, by speaking out, we can take back our democracy. Even its most opaque & insulated parts.