Recession

Young Workers Hit Hard By The COVID-19 Economy

October 19, 2020 Elise Gould and Melat Kassa, Economic Policy Institute. Educate! COVID-19, Recession, Workers, Youth

Across the United States, millions of workers of all ages suffered job losses in the coronavirus-driven recession, but the economic impact on young workers has been even more intense. Not only have many young people in this country faced the harsh reality of returning to school without in-person classes at their colleges and high schools, the job prospects for those seeking employment have been particularly bleak. Historically, young people are disproportionately disadvantaged in many ways during economic downturns, but this recession has been particularly acute given the sectors of the economy that were hit the hardest.

Activists Mobilize To Help Incarcerated People Get Stimulus Checks

October 16, 2020 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Organize! CARES Act, COVID-19, Prisoner rights, Recession

For months incarcerated people and their families heard conflicting messages about whether they were eligible to receive the pandemic stimulus payments provided by Congress as the Trump administration attempted to block prisoners from receiving their checks. Last week a federal judge slammed the administration with an order to provide the stimulus relief, and now advocates across the country are working to ensure low-income people caged in state and federal prisons can apply for the much-needed federal aid as deadlines loom.

The Nightmare Facing The Poor And Working Class

October 15, 2020 Jeff Schuhrke, In These Times. Educate! Congress, Economic insecurity, Recession, Working Class

As millions of U.S. workers face unemployment, food insecurity and eviction amid the coronavirus pandemic, the limited aid provided by the federal government’s flawed CARES Act from March has long since dried up. Last week, following more than six months of stalled negotiations with congressional Democrats over a new economic relief package, President Trump abruptly announced he was halting talks until after the November election. While the president quickly backtracked and is now reportedly continuing to negotiate, the federal government’s ongoing failure to pass a new relief package spells catastrophe for a U.S. working class...

Debt Collectors Have Made A Fortune This Year

October 15, 2020 By Paul Kiel and Jeff Ernsthausen, ProPublica. Educate! Debt, Debt Collection, Pandemic, Recession

Earlier this year, the pandemic swept across the country, killing 100,000 Americans by the spring, shuttering businesses and schools, and forcing people into their homes. It was a great time to be a debt collector. In August, Encore Capital, the largest debt buyer in the country, announced that it had doubled its previous record for earnings in a quarter. It primarily had the CARES Act to thank: The bill delivered hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stimulus checks and bulked-up unemployment benefits to Americans, while easing pressures on them by halting foreclosures, evictions and student loan payments.

Pandemic Could Push Up To 150 Million Into ‘Extreme Poverty’ By 2021

October 9, 2020 Jessica Corbett, Commondreams. Educate! COVID-19, Poverty, Recession, World Bank

Amid findings that the combined wealth of the planet's billionaires skyrocketed to $10.2 trillion during the coronavirus pandemic, the World Bank warned Wednesday that the public health crisis could cause global extreme poverty to rise for the first time in over two decades and push tens of millions of people into that category by next year. "Between 88 million and 115 million people could fall back into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic, with an additional increase of between 23 million and 35 million in 2021, potentially bringing the total number of new people living in extreme poverty to between 110 million and 150 million," the report says.

Spain Unveils Economic Recovery Plan Amid Pandemic

October 8, 2020 Barry Hatton, AP News. Create! COVID-19, Green Economy, Recession, Spain

Spain’s prime minister unveiled a major plan Wednesday to boost his country out of recession by spending 140 billion euros ($162 billion) of European Union aid to reshape the economy, with the aim of creating 800,000 jobs over the next three years. The program is a response to the sharp downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic and its worldwide disruption of economies. The plan focuses primarily on getting Spain to transition to green energy and a digital economy, which will take up about 70% of the financing.

New Jobs Report Consistent With Weak Economy

October 4, 2020 Jeff Cox, CNBC. Educate! Congress, COVID-19, Jobs, Recession

Weaker-than-expected job growth in September sent a signal that the sharp economic recovery off the coronavirus shutdown may be hitting a wall. The Labor Department reported Friday that nonfarm payrolls increased by 661,000 in September, held back by declines in government employment and an exodus of workers from the labor force. In normal times, that type of hiring pace would be considered a sign of a robust job market. The total, in fact, would have been the best month the U.S. had seen since 1983 – if these were normal times and not amid the Covid-19 era that has changed the benchmarks by which economic data is measured.

The Case For Debt Abolition

September 22, 2020 Astra Taylor, ROAR Magazine. Resist! Debt, Debt Jubilee, Debtor Union, Recession

In 2008, around the same time Lehman Brothers collapsed and the mortgage market began to melt down, I got a call telling me my student loans were in default. I remember trying to grasp the logic as I spoke to the collector. Because I didn’t have money, they were increasing my principal by 19 percent. My balance ballooned, as did my monthly payments, which meant I was even more broke than before. My credit score tanked, further compounding my financial woes. When I got involved in Occupy Wall Street a few years later, I realized my situation was hardly unique. Most people drawn to the encampments were also in the red.

Changing The Washington Guard

September 18, 2020 Roger Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Capitalism, COVID-19, Joe Biden, Recession

At the risk of counting chickens before they hatch, what would the return of Team Blue portend? As is patently obvious, the US is in trouble. Climate driven heat waves and fires grip the nation. An already faltering economy with deep contradictions could only tank given the shock of the pandemic that has necessitated varying degrees of sequestering. In fact, the downturn had already started before COVID-19 hit. An already largely privatized healthcare system run for profit and a social ethic that rejects “socialized” public health measures could only have proven inadequate.

Half Of The US Lacks Adequate Protections Against Evictions

September 16, 2020 Sasha Abramsky, Truthout. Educate! COVID-19, Evictions, Recession, United States

In the aftermath of the 2008 housing market collapse, I spent many months reporting on the “collateral damage” caused by a systemic failure. I remember going into campgrounds in California’s Central Valley, where homeless people crowded in the communal bathrooms, prepping for work. I remember huge homeless encampments alongside railway tracks and dotting the sides of freeway embankments. I also remember going into towns like Stockton and Las Vegas and seeing entire neighborhoods suddenly vacant, the original owners and tenants foreclosed on or evicted.

Isolation And Opioids During The Pandemic

September 16, 2020 Mattea Kramer, Tom Dispatch. Educate! COVID-19, Isolation, Opioids, Recession

In our new era of nearly unparalleled upheaval, as a pandemic ravages the bodies of some and the minds of nearly everyone, as the associated economic damage disposes of the livelihoods of many, and as even the promise of democracy fades, the people whose lives were already on a razor’s edge -- who were vulnerable and isolated before the advent of Covid-19 -- are in far greater danger than ever before. Against this backdrop, many of us are scanning the news for any sign of hope, any small flicker of light whose gleam could indicate that everything, somehow, is going to be okay.

Poll: Financial Pain From Coronavirus Pandemic ‘Much, Much Worse’ Than Expected

September 11, 2020 Joe Neel, NPR. Educate! COVID-19, Poverty, Recession, Systemic Racism

In America's four largest cities, at least half of people say they have experienced the loss of a job or a reduction in wages or work hours in their household since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. That's the finding of a new poll published Wednesday by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Many of these problems are concentrated among Black and Latino households in the four cities, according to the poll, which gathered responses from July 1 through Aug 3.

Philadelphia To Temporarily Block Landlords From Enforcing Evictions

September 9, 2020 Ryan Briggs, WHYY. Resist! Evictions, Houseless, Philadelphia, Recession

Philadelphia court officials will announce a temporary stay on lockouts related to eviction orders Tuesday, PlanPhilly has learned. The move comes as landlord-tenant proceedings begin to ramp up at city courts after months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic and a statewide moratorium on evictions that ended on Aug. 31 despite calls to the Pennsylvania legislature to extend it from Gov. Tom Wolf. But while some restrictions remain in place, the Tuesday reopening of courtrooms means at least some eviction orders could — in theory — move forward.

In The Worst Of Times, The Billionaire Elite Plunder The Working Class

September 4, 2020 Nick Baker, Counterpunch. Educate! Pandemic, Recession, Ruling Class, Working Class

Since March, more than 58 million people in the U.S. have filed for unemployment. The Internal Revenue Service now predicts that the U.S. economy will have almost 40 million fewer jobs in 2021 than they predicted before the pandemic, as a result of the prolonged economic depression. As it becomes widely recognized that the economy is not going to “bounce right back” into full activity – even when coronavirus cases do eventually decline – and that the current depression will continue for a long time, companies are doing anything they can to drive their stock prices higher.

A Week Of Mass Layoffs

August 29, 2020 Matt Ott, AP News. Educate! Layoffs, Recession, Unemployment, Workers

MGM Resorts is laying off 18,000 people as an unchecked pandemic leaves economic scars across a broad swath of U.S. industries, particularly those that rely on healthy crowds of people. The layoffs at MGM, which amount to about a quarter of its U.S staff of about 70,000, caps a wave of job cuts and buyouts this week across a broad array of industries. Economists warn that sizable layoffs will continue and any recovery is likely to falter as long as the virus rages and Congress doesn’t come up with additional financial aid for the unemployed, as well as desperate state and local governments.

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