NEWSROOM
The Guardian: Baby formula crisis: Abbott enriched shareholders as factory needed repairs, records show.
“Abbott chose to prioritize shareholders by issuing billions of dollars in stock buybacks instead of making productive investments,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist for the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic advocacy group. “It’s important that we have high standards for something as vital as baby formula.” 5/20/2...
NEW POLL: Strong Majority of Voters Blame Corporations for Inflation, “Taking Advantage of the Pandemic” to Raise Prices
Amid a fierce debate in Washington around inflation, Groundwork Collaborative has released a new poll with Data for Progress showing voters overwhelmingly believe corporations are raising prices unfairly to earn record profits. The results, as featured in Bloomberg News today, are backed by growing data and research showing the role of corporate profiteering in recent price hikes. “Over and over, corporations are telling us about their corporate profiteering strategies – and the...
Bloomberg: Democrats’ ‘Greedflation’ Claims Run Up Against Scant Evidence.
Voters also feel large corporations are using the pandemic to raise prices and increase profits, according to a survey conducted earlier this month by the progressive think tank Data for Progress in partnership with Groundwork Collaborative. At least 60% support both raising taxes on big companies as well as cracking down on those that raise prices unfairly. 5/19/2...
Salon: Behind the Joe Biden v. Jeff Bezos beef: What their inflation spat is really about.
Director of the Groundwork Collaborative, told Salon that in order to fight inflation, Biden will need to disincentivize companies from applying the profit-driven markups to their products that are causing prices to rise. (Markups represent the difference between a product's selling price and its production cost.) "Since the pandemic, about 54% of the price increases we're seeing are coming from what we call the markup," she said in an interview, citing research from the Economic Policy...
MSNBC: The Beat with Ari Melber.
Dr. Lindsay Owens joined MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber to break down earnings results from 3M, Driven Brands, and Visa, as well as detail the role of corporate profiteering in rising prices. [5/18/22]...
OtherWords: IT’S TIME TO STOP PROFITEERING AT THE PUMP.
For decades, we’ve allowed big oil and gas companies to enrich themselves at the expense of our families, communities, and environment. Now these companies are seizing a moment of geopolitical unrest to pad their pockets even more. Oil companies are celebrating some of their biggest profits in years. In the first three months of 2022 alone, ExxonMobil raked in a record $5.5 billion, ConocoPhillips $5.8 billion, and Chevron $6 billion. On quarterly earnings calls with their shareholders, big...
ICYMI: Groundwork Chief Economist Testifies at House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Corporate Power and Profiteering
Yesterday, Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of research and policy at Groundwork Collaborative, testified at a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. The hearing, titled “Reviving Competition: Rebuilding America's Economic Leadership and Combating Corporate Profiteering,” focused on the impact of corporate concentration and market power on rising prices. “Groundwork has combed through hundreds of earnings...
Slate — What Next: How Corporations Are Taking Advantage of Inflation (Podcast).
Consumers are paying higher prices almost everywhere as inflation continues to rise. But corporate earnings calls have revealed that many companies are using inflation as a cover to jack up prices and increase profits — all on the backs of customers. Guest: Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. 5/17/2...
The Hill: Powell starts second term with greatest challenge yet.
The combination of higher interest rates and steadier price growth could be enough to slow a strong economy in much deeper pain. “This is not the kind of scenario where we’re seeing rising prices that monetary policy was built to address,” said Michael Mitchell, research and policy director at the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive research nonprofit. “By going forward with interest rate hikes right now, they’re actually condemning a lot of people, a lot of workers and families...
TOMORROW: Groundwork’s Chief Economist to Testify at House Hearing on Monopoly Power and Corporate Profiteering
Tomorrow, May 17 at 1 p.m. ET, Dr. Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research, will testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. The hearing titled, “Reviving Competition: Rebuilding America's Economic Leadership and Combating Corporate Profiteering,” will cover how outsized and entrenched corporate power has facilitated rampant profiteering by megacorporations, squeezing...
Noahpinion: Greedflation, gouging and price controls.
Instead, they probably believe that companies are using their existing level of monopoly power to take advantage of the current economic situation in order to raise their prices (and profits) more than they would in a competitive market. For example, here’s a thread by Lindsay Owens of the Roosevelt Institute that basically makes this case. 5/16/2...
TOMORROW: Groundwork’s Chief Economist to Testify at House Hearing on Monopoly Power and Corporate Profiteering.
May 17 at 1 p.m. ET, Dr. Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research, will testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. The hearing titled, “Reviving Competition: Rebuilding America’s Economic Leadership and Combating Corporate Profiteering,” will cover how outsized and entrenched corporate power has facilitated rampant profiteering by megacorporations, squeezing families and...
Economic Policy Institute: Ignoring the role of profits makes inflation analyses a lot weaker.
Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell wrote last week that those pointing to the role of fatter profit margins in driving price inflation are engaged in “conspiracy theories,” and argued that the conspiracy theorists are distracting attention from things that could really lead to lower inflation: faster immigration and removing import tariffs. It’s a pretty unconvincing column all around...
New Yorker: The War on Economics.
Yet we’re not close to consensus on central questions of economic statecraft. Can the cycle of booms, bubbles, and busts be moderated? How much money can a welfare state redistribute to the poor without encouraging dependency? Economists, for all their hardcore mathematizing, still disagree with one another on basic issues. Which raises a question: Was it a mistake to entrust them with public policy in the first place...
Nation of Change: New Warren bill would empower Feds to crack down on corporate price gouging.
Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, applauded the new bill as an “important” step toward reining in corporate profiteering and argued that “a federal price gouging statute would help curtail this exploitative behavior.” [5/15/22]...
Salon: Elizabeth Warren Targets Corporate Price Gouging.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, similarly argued in a New York Times op-ed last week that "plain old corporate profiteering" is a key culprit behind price hikes nationwide. "Companies that historically might have kept prices low to pick up profit by gaining additional market share are instead using the cover of inflation to raise prices and increase profits," Owens wrote. "Consumers are now expecting higher prices at the checkout line, and companies are taking...
Common Dreams: New Warren Bill Would Empower Feds to Crack Down on Corporate Price Gouging.
Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, applauded the new bill as an "important" step toward reining in corporate profiteering and argued that "a federal price gouging statute would help curtail this exploitative behavior."...
Talk Business & Politics: Reports Suggest Corporate America Partially Responsible for Inflation.
The think tank group Groundwork Collaborative compiled two reports earlier this year showing how corporations' profit from the pandemic and raise consumer prices to help to fuel inflation. Groundwork Collaborative found much of corporate America is raising prices on goods and services while also growing net income to sometimes near-record levels...
Groundwork on New Inflation Report: Big Corporations Cash In While Consumers Pay the Price
Today’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows year-over-year inflation at 8.3%, a slight decrease from 8.5% the previous month. Groundwork’s Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud reacted with the following statement: “This morning’s inflation report shows that megacorporations are still taking advantage of this moment to cash in – at the expense of consumers, families, and small businesses. On corporate earnings calls, their strategy is clear: they aren’t just passing along rising costs...
Fox Business: What Can Biden Actually Do About Inflation?
Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, said Biden and Congress need to zero in on big corporations that are "profiteering" off consumers. "Tackling inflation requires taking on the mega corporations that are jacking up prices on consumers in order to make record profits for their CEOs and shareholders," Mabud told FOX Business. "In earnings call after earnings call, CEOs are crowing about their ability to raise prices on...
Tangle: The inflation problem.
Tangle: The inflation problem. In The New York Times, Lindsay Owens said "corporate profiteering" is the real culprit of inflation. "Curious how C.E.O.s were justifying higher prices, my team and I started listening in on hundreds of earnings calls, where, by law, companies have to tell the truth," Owens wrote. "What was striking in the earnings calls was not the supply chain shortages or companies’ typical profit motives; it was the plain old corporate profiteering.” 5/11/2...
Daily American: 'Compounding the Problem': Why to Expect Even Higher Gas Prices in the Coming Weeks.
“Profit margins should be coming down,” Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic policy research group, previously told USA TODAY. Instead, she noted, “they’re actually growing.” Shell's adjusted earnings rose to $9.1 billion from $3.2 billion during the same period last year. BP profits rose to $6.2 billion, which is more than double last year's first quarter profits of $2.6 billion...
USA Today: Oil Giants Reap Record Profits as War Rages in Ukraine, Energy Prices Soar: Here's How Much They Made.
The net profit margin of S&P 500 companies, which include energy giants such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil, in the first quarter has been running at 12.3% based on estimates and earnings reported so far, according to FactSet. That’s down from a peak of 13.1% in the second quarter of last year, but above the pre-COVID-19 level of about 11%. “Profit margins should be coming down,” Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic policy research group...
PRESS CALL TODAY, 10:30 a.m. ET: Groundwork’s Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud, Other Experts To Weigh in on April Jobs Report
Today at 10:30 a.m. ET, Groundwork’s Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud will join the Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s Kate Bahn and the Roosevelt Institute’s Lauren Melodia for a Jobs Day Press Call. Leading economists will share their real-time analysis of the April Jobs Report and what it means for workers, families, and small businesses. “The trajectory of the labor market recovery is a testament to the people-centered investments policymakers made during the pandemic," ...
MSNBC: The Beat with Ari Melber.
Dr. Lindsay Owens joined MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber to discuss her latest piece in The New York Times and the role of corporate profiteering in rising prices...
San Antonio Express-News: Ayala: Is Inflation Fueling Price Hikes, or is it Corporate Profiteering?
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Groundwork Collaborative, whose mission is to develop and advance a progressive economic worldview, was more blunt. The headline on her New York Times commentary said, “I Listened In on Big Business. It’s Profiting from Inflation, and You’re Paying for It.” “Curious how CEOs were justifying higher prices, my team and I started listening in on hundreds of earnings calls, where, by law, companies have to tell the truth,”...
ICYMI – INFLATION: Groundwork’s Executive Director Pens New York Times Op-ed: “I Listened In on Big Business. It’s Profiting From Inflation, and You’re Paying for It.”
This morning, the New York Times published a new op-ed by Dr. Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. The piece makes the strong case that corporate profiteering is contributing to rising prices and calls on policymakers to step in to address it. Dr. Owens and the Groundwork Collaborative have been sounding the alarm for months in the media, the halls of Congress, and alongside partners about corporate profiteering. The organization has pored over hundreds of...
New York Times: I Listened In on Big Business. It’s Profiting From Inflation, and You’re Paying for It.
What was striking in the earnings calls was not the supply chain shortages or companies’ typical profit motives; it was the plain old corporate profiteering. The Economics 101 adage that “inflation is just too much money chasing too few goods” doesn’t come close to the full story. This raises the question: When companies are exploiting consumers in a time of national crisis, when should government step in...
The Guardian: ‘What am I going to do?’: Soaring Prices Fuel Calls for US Government to Step In.
But price rises are not the only issue critics would like to see the Biden administration address. Others, like Groundwork Collaborative’s executive director, Lindsay Owens, have called for a ban or new restrictions on stock buyback programs. Joe Biden’s 2023 budget proposes prohibiting executives from selling their stock three to five years after enacting a buyback program. “The other big winner besides the shareholders in excess cash that’s going to buybacks are the executives,”...
Roosevelt Rundown: How Elon Bought Twitter.
Reading — Revealed: Top US Corporations Raising Prices on Americans Even as Profits Surge [feat. Roosevelt Fellow Lindsay Owens] – The Guardian...
ICYMI: The Guardian, USA Today Show How Inflation Offers Companies ‘Convenient Pretext’ to Jack Up Prices
New reporting from The Guardian and USA Today published today offers more evidence of ongoing corporate profiteering. Corporations are reporting record-breaking profits by raising prices under the cover of inflation – and struggling consumers are picking up the extra costs. The Guardian’s analysis of 100 top corporations’ financials and earnings calls reveals net profits rose by 49% and in one case by as much as 11,000%. These findings are consistent with new BEA data showing...
Common Dreams: Seeing Inflation as 'Opportunity,' Corporations Are Profiting From Price Hikes: Analysis.
The Covid-19 pandemic, a supply chain crunch inseparable from decades of neoliberal globalization, and Russia's war on Ukraine have created a "smokescreen," according to Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, which has drawn attention to the relationship between "corporate greed" and rising prices. "That gray, nebulous area is fertile ground for companies right now, and you hear about it in their earnings calls," Owens told The Guardian. "Inflation itself is the...
USA Today: Critics say Corporate Greed is Making Inflation Worse, Citing Record Profits Despite Rising Costs.
Companies, they say, are jacking up prices by more than is required to offset their rising wholesale costs, padding their profits while using supply snags as cover. “They see (inflation) as an opportunity,” says Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic policy research group. “It’s a convenient pretext.”...
Colorado Springs Independent: Opinion: Calling Joe Biden.
You’re not likely to read about the devastating effects of monopoly from your local, hedge-fund owned newspaper, but a few taps on a keyboard will take you to a wealth of resources. Some favorites include Yale’s Thurman Arnold Project, the Roosevelt Institute, and The Groundwork Collaborative...
Common Dreams: 'Penny Wise and Pound Foolish': Democrats Urged to Reject Pivot to Austerity.
In a statement on Tuesday, ProsperUS spokesperson Claire Guzdar cautioned that "choosing to veer away from investments that succeeded so incredibly in keeping families and the economy afloat over the last two years could derail our economic recovery altogether"—an assessment that economists have echoed, citing the consequences of austerity in the wake of the Great Recession. "Starving our economy of these long-term investments," added Guzdar, "is penny wise and pound foolish and will lead to...
The Incision by Abdul El Sayed: Lindsay Owens on What's Driving Inflation.
I wanted to understand inflation, and the ways that corporations have been hiding behind it to raise their prices. Lindsay Owens is the Executive Director of Groundworks Collaborative, a progressive economic policy think tank. They’ve been tracking inflation and the ways that major corporations have been using it to their advantage — and driving it in the process. She joined me to share more about inflation, what’s driving it, and what needs to be done to slow it...
Brookings and EPI Agree: Rising Corporate Profits are Driving Inflation, Leaving Workers Behind
Yesterday, two leading economic think tanks – the Brookings Institution and the Economic Policy Institute – released new reports that reached a similar conclusion: high corporate profits, not workers’ wages, are driving high prices at the checkout line, and consumers are paying the price. Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens: “It is unlikely that either the extent of corporate greed or even the power of corporations generally has increased during the past two years. Instead...
USA Today: For Voters, Inflation is Top of Mind; Biden's Signature Legislation Doesn't Register.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the progressive economic group Groundwork Collaborative, said congressional Democrats should pass legislation before November to address rising child care, health care and housing costs, as well as taking on corporate price gouging. “Congress gets back in session next week. And they should get down to the floor as soon as possible to vote for legislation to bring down costs for families and to take on corporate profiteering,” Owens said. “These focus...
Public News Service: Minnesota Grapples with Inflation; Report Blames Corporate Profits.
A new report from the Groundwork Collaborative said corporations are taking advantage of the pandemic to drive up costs for things such as prescription drugs, groceries and diapers. The authors pointed to corporate earnings calls in which some CEOs openly boast about their price hikes...
CBS News: Companies Use Inflation to Hike Prices and Generate Huge Profits, Report Says.
"Companies know that consumers expect higher prices right now and they're really seeing how far they can push that," Lindsay Owens, executive director of the left-leaning economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative, told PBS...
Occupy Democrats: Unfree Market: AOC Serves Notice on Corporations Caught Bragging About Rising Consumer Prices and Record Profits.
Groundwork Collaborative has compiled data, across multiple sectors, from corporate earnings calls showing companies brazenly flaunting their near-monopolistic power grip on industries across the spectrum, thumbing their nose at the difficulties faced by American families, while engaging in predatory and unscrupulous business practices that are enabled by a lack of competition...
Politico: The Hunt for Peak Inflation.
“Policymakers should tax excess profits to encourage productive investment, pursue a federal price gouging standard to protect consumers, and make long-overdue investments in our supply chain. Regulators should also enforce existing laws to make markets more competitive and prevent collusion and price-fixing.” — Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research, Groundwork Collaborative...
PBS Newshour: Why Corporations are Reaping Record Profits with Inflation on The Rise.
Lindsay Owens: What we're seeing in this moment is really when that profit maximization and opportunity collides. And the opportunity is the cover of inflation...
Public News Service: Report: Corporate Profiteering Fueling Inflation.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, the group behind the report, said families in Nebraska and across the U.S. are on the hook, as powerful corporations tap the pandemic's economic fallout to rake in record-breaking profits. Last year, corporate profit margins reached their highest level since 1950...
Politico: The Lefty Magazine Flexing Some Biden-era Muscle.
The White House granted the publication access to officials for its recent issue focusing on fixing supply chain problems. Clearly the communications team was pleased. Dayen told West Wing Playbook that White House officials requested copies of the issue (the print magazine publishes just six times a year). At one point recently, Dayen says, a senior administration official told him a copy was placed in the Oval Office...
Politico: Opinion | To Overcome the Republicans’ Culture War, Democrats Need to Punch Up, Not Down.
Democrats can use this inclusive populist narrative to respond to voters’ top issue: inflation. As Lindsay Owens of Groundwork Collaborative has noted, corporate CEOs have repeatedly stated that they are using reports of inflation in some sectors of the economy as an excuse to raise prices on consumer goods...
Salon: Mitch McConnell Leads Republicans in Profiting Off of Corporate Price Hikes.
"They tell investors every quarter our pricing actions more than offset our [cost of goods sold]. They're passing along the rising cost of production, and they're still charging more," Owens added. "And so it's actually quite a straightforward story. It's interesting to me that there's been such a vigorous debate about it, because it's sort of just factually true."...
Star Tribune: Greed or Good Business? A Look at Food Company Profits Over the Past Year.
"Corporate profits are at a record high — and, more critically, corporate profit margins are at their highest point since 1950," said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at the progressive Groundwork Collaborative. "What we're seeing across the board is companies are taking advantage of this moment and jacking up prices beyond what their input costs would justify."...
Groundwork’s Director of Policy and Research Testifies at House Hearing on Impact of Concentrated Corporate Power on Workers
Today, Michael Mitchell, Groundwork Collaborative’s Director of Policy and Research, testified at a hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth on the impact of concentrated corporate power on workers and consumers. “Across companies and across products, large corporations are bragging about their ability to raise prices beyond rising costs,” Mitchell told the Committee. “For consumers, this includes price increases on essential goods such...
THIS WEEK: Groundwork Experts to Testify in House, Senate Hearings on Inflation and Corporate Profiteering
This week, Groundwork Collaborative will be sending two experts to Congressional hearings to testify to members of the House and Senate about how to address one of the major culprits behind inflation: corporate profiteering. The testimonies follow the launch of a new site, which highlights the link between corporate profiteering and rising prices. Today, April 5, 11 a.m. ET: Lindsay Owens, Ph.D., Groundwork’s Executive Director, will testify at a Senate Budget Committee hearing entitled...
ICYMI: Groundwork Executive Director Testifies at Senate Budget Committee Hearing on Corporate Profiteering
Today, Dr. Lindsay Owens, Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative, testified at a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Budget. The hearing, titled “Corporate Profits are Soaring as Prices Rise: Are Corporate Greed and Profiteering Fueling Inflation?”, focused on how corporate profiteering is driving skyrocketing prices and record profits. “The 2021 profit data confirms what CEOs have been telling shareholders for months — inflation has been very, very good for...
Hill Heat: “Fossil Fuel Industries Have Been Important Agenda-Setters in Many Countries”.
Senate Budget chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is looking at the broader phenomenon of corporate profiteering with witnesses Robert Reich and Groundwork Collaborative’s Lindsay Owens...
Law360: Windfall Tax On Profits Would Help Consumers, Panel Told.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of a Washington, D.C.-based economic policy think tank called the Groundwork Collaborative, blamed rising inflation on corporate profiteering, investor demand for higher profits, and supply-chain control held by mega corporations...
Salon: Bernie Sanders to Hold Hearing on How "Corporate Greed and Profiteering" are Fueling Inflation.
"CEOs can't stop bragging on corporate earnings calls about jacking up prices on consumers to keep their profits soaring," Lindsay Owens, executive director at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement about the analysis. "These megacorporations are cashing in and getting richer — and consumers are paying the price." Owens is one of three experts set to testify at the Senate Budget Committee's Tuesday hearing...
Groundwork Launches New Website Highlighting Rampant Corporate Profiteering as Driver of Inflation
Following last week’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) release showing record corporate profits in 2021, the Groundwork Collaborative has launched a new website, endcorporateprofiteering.org, highlighting corporate profiteering as a key driver of rising prices. The new site pulls from publicly-available quarterly corporate earnings calls to expose CEOs crowing about raising prices on consumers to boost their profit margins. “CEOs can’t stop bragging on corporate earnings calls about...
E&E Daily: Committees Prepare for Gasoline Price Battles.
Some Democrats are pushing legislation — including S. 3933 and S. 3802 — to implement new taxes on windfall profits. One key backer is Senate Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is holding a hearing on inflation and corporate greed...
Truthout: Sanders Announces Budget Committee Hearing on Corporate Greed and Profiteering.
The hearing scheduled for Tuesday will highlight a “level of corporate greed [that] has only widened the gap between the top one percent and the working class,” according to the press release. It will feature testimony from former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Lindsay Owens, director of Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic advocacy group...
Herald Chronicle: Opinion: It’s Not Just Inflation, It’s Price Gouging.
My organization, Groundwork Collaborative, recently got our hands on the transcripts from hundreds of these earnings calls. And you won’t believe what CEOs are boasting about. Knowing that the current inflation frenzy is a convenient scapegoat, these companies are charging customers even more to pad their profit margins. They aren’t just admitting it — they’re openly bragging to investors about how well it’s working...
Washington Post: As Inflation Spreads, Rising Prices Fuel Charges of Corporate Greed.
“P&G is a great example. It’s a huge, huge company with an enormous amount of market share,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist of Groundwork Collaborative, a nonprofit that is critical of corporate behavior. “And it throws its weight around in a number of different ways and uses that power to take advantage of the situation.”...
Groundwork’s Director of Policy and Research Mike Mitchell Reacts to March Jobs Report
The U.S. economy added 431,000 jobs in March, according to today’s Jobs Report. In response, Mike Mitchell, director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, released the following statement: “This jobs report demonstrates that public investments – in workers, families, and consumers – are the building blocks for a strong and resilient recovery. But deficit fearmongering and blunt interest rate hikes threaten to impede the labor market recovery and jeopardize...
Fortune: U.S. Companies Post Their Biggest Profit Growth in Decades by Jacking Up Prices During the Pandemic.
The progressive group Groundwork Collaborative, which focuses on economic issues and has repeatedly criticized corporate America for its price hikes during the pandemic, was also quick to come out with a statement after the corporate profit data was released. “CEOs can’t stop bragging on corporate earnings calls about jacking up prices on consumers to keep their profits soaring—and today’s annual profit data shows just how well their inflation strategy is working,” Groundwork’s...
Common Dreams: 'Their Inflation Strategy Is Working': Corporate Profits Soared to Record High in 2021.
Lindsay Owens, executive director at the Groundwork Collaborative, argued in a statement that the new profit figures show that corporate America is successfully weathering inflationary pressures across the economy by pushing higher costs onto consumers—a tactic some CEOs have openly touted during recent calls with investors...
Groundwork Reacts to BEA Report Detailing Record Corporate Profits
Today, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its quarterly report, which highlights the skyrocketing growth in corporate profits in the past year as profits for nonfinancial corporations increased by $461 billion, reaching $1.78 trillion in 2021 — a 34.9% rise from 2020. Lindsay Owens, executive director at Groundwork, responded with the following statement: “CEOs can’t stop bragging on corporate earnings calls about jacking up prices on consumers to keep their profits soaring –...
CNN+: Go There.
The latest from Mykolaiv, Ukraine, where residents are dealing with the aftermath of a Russian attack. Then, head to Virginia to look at price gouging. Lindsay Owens: “A really key factor behind the price increases we’re seeing is a simple one: corporations are raising prices because they can.”...
The New Republic: Biden Has Been Touting the Middle Class for Two Years, but the Middle Class May Not Be Listening.
The organization is hosting a virtual kickoff event with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky on Wednesday. Its board includes the heads of influential liberal economic groups like the Groundwork Collaborative, Americans for Tax Fairness, and the Economic Security Project...
Yahoo! Finance: US Corporate Profits Stayed High Through 2021 Even as Inflation Took Hold.
The Groundwork Collaborative group, which has hammered corporate America over high prices, immediately put out a statement charging that businesses are taking advantage of inflation to raise prices. The “annual profit data shows just how well their inflation strategy is working,” Lindsay Owens, the group’s executive director, said of business leaders. “Megacorporations are cashing in and getting richer — and consumers are paying the price.”...
The National Interest: Did Biden's Approval Rating Drop When the Child Tax Credit Expired?
Per HuffPost, Biden’s approval rating was 4 percent higher among parents when the monthly payments from the enhanced credits started last July, according to researchers at Fighting Chance for Families Action, a project of the liberal groups Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative...
Business Insider: Raising Interest Rates Won't Fix the Real Reason Behind Inflation: Price-Gouging and Corporate Greed.
“Mabud argues that the supply chain, for instance, was weakened over the last three decades through a corporate philosophy called the "just-in-time" method, a cost-saving methodology that ruthlessly eliminates storage costs and material overruns by driving up efficiency in the global supply and distribution chains.”...
The American Prospect: Interest Rate Hikes Aren’t a Solution for Supply Shocks.
“On top of all that, as our friends at Groundwork Collaborative have been hammering, companies have used the opportunity to hide behind inflation expectations to jack up prices in ways that raise their profit margins. Recognizing and combating windfall profits makes more sense than driving interest rates to a level that puts people out of a job.”...
HuffPost: Loss Of Child Tax Credit Payments May Have Hurt Joe Biden’s Approval Rating
"Survey data suggests Biden’s approval was 4 percentage points higher among parents when the payments started in July, according to researchers at Fighting Chance for Families Action, a project of the liberal groups Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative."...
Pitchfork Economics: Did Corporate Greed Break the Supply Chain? (With Rakeen Mabud).
“While many Americans struggle to make ends meet, corporate America’s 2021 profits were higher than ever. So why are corporations making more money while supply chain issues are still driving up inflation for the rest of us? The Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist, Rakeen Mabud, wants you to know that the supply chain is working exactly as it was designed: for maximum profit, rather than reliably getting goods to people. And that’s the problem.”...
The American Prospect: The Great Disconnect.
“Among voters who received the newly generous Child Tax Credit in 2021, evaluations of the economy were more positive than they were among similar voters who didn’t, according to a recent analysis by Data for Progress.”...
ICYMI: Experts Show Why Corporations, Not Workers, Are Behind Rising Prices – and Why It Matters
On Friday, Salon and The American Prospect each published op-eds highlighting a shockingly-neglected subset of economics: corporate profits. In Salon, Groundwork’s Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud draws on corporate earnings call data to argue that corporations are scapegoating workers for higher prices – all while corporate executives are making record profits. Meanwhile, Haifa University’s Associate Professor of History Dr. Eli Cook offers historical context for why economists...
KSQD: Len Beyea’s Talk of the Bay.
“Lindsay Owens on public perceptions of corporate greed, economics, and housing – and the real story.”...
Salon: Stop Blaming Workers for Inflation: Corporate Greed is a Much Bigger Factor. (op-ed by Rakeen Mabud)
But let's call out this story for what it really is: a devious tactic to shift blame from their own role in jacking up prices. At the end of the day, it's greedy corporations that have gotten us into this mess, not workers. In short, the story of price increases today is one of a profit–price spiral – not one driven by workers' wages...
Inequality.org: It’s Not Just Inflation — It’s Price Gouging.
Four times a year, corporations are required by law to update their investors on how they’re doing in terms of sales and profits. These are called “earnings reports,” and the companies will usually hold calls with the investors to walk them through the latest report. My organization, Groundwork Collaborative, recently got our hands on the transcripts from hundreds of these earnings calls. And you won’t believe what CEOs are boasting about...
Salon: Stop blaming workers for inflation: Corporate Greed is a Much Bigger Factor. (op-ed by Rakeen Mabud)
But let's call out this story for what it really is: a devious tactic to shift blame from their own role in jacking up prices. At the end of the day, it's greedy corporations that have gotten us into this mess, not workers. In short, the story of price increases today is one of a profit–price spiral – not one driven by workers' wages...
New Research Shows Oil and Gas Companies Price Gouge Consumers After Record-Smashing Year
Yesterday, President Biden called on oil companies to lower prices at the pump, warning that “oil and gas companies shouldn’t pad their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans.” His tweet supports new findings showing that soaring gas prices for families have been a windfall for energy companies, CEOs, and investors. Groundwork Collaborative’s Executive Director Lindsay Owens gave the following statement: “Every disruption to energy markets has proven to be another...
The Hill: Fed Likely to Raise Interest Rates: Here's How It Might Affect You.
“Rate hikes will increase unemployment, slow down wage growth and hurt the very people who are bearing the brunt of recent price increases. Throwing cold water on the economic recovery will only calcify long-standing inequities in our labor market, harming all of us,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collective, a progressive research nonprofit...
Groundwork to the Fed: Rate Hikes Will Hurt Recovery, Workers
As the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee kicks off its two-day meeting to discuss potential interest rate hikes, please feel free to use the following quote from Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist Rakeen Mabud highlighting the primary drivers of inflation and laying out what is at stake: “Raising interest rates will do nothing to address the root causes of rising prices: pandemic profiteering, concentrated corporate power, and decades of underinvestment in our supply...
Minnesota Post: It’s Not Just Inflation — It’s Price Gouging (op-ed by Lindsay Owens).
If you’ve been slammed lately by higher prices on everything from groceries to rental cars and gas prices, you’re probably wondering what on earth is behind these skyrocketing costs. Corporations are quick to blame this new reality on the pandemic, but another major culprit is hiding in plain sight: Their own profiteering...
Sirius XM: The Michelangelo Signorile Show.
Lindsay Owens joined Joe Sunday on the Michelangelo Signorile Show to discuss the recent CPI numbers and the role of corporate profiteering and war profiteering in rising prices...
Business Insider: Biden has a Ton of Ideas to Keep Putin's Invasion from Hurting Americans' Wallets, but There's 'No Quick Fix'
"There's not a silver bullet or quick-fix solution for the administration right now," Lindsay Owens, executive director of the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative, told Insider. "But I think there are a range of policy actions, including continued investment in the supply chain to help unsnarl supply shortages, continuing to keep a tight labor market, and to ensure that we can staff adequately to help alleviate the supply shortage."...
TOMORROW: How to Fix the Supply Chain with Senator Tammy Baldwin
Tomorrow, March 10 starting at 2 p.m. ET, Groundwork Collaborative, American Economic Liberties Project, and The American Prospect will host a virtual event entitled, “Supply Chain Fragility: How To Rebuild A Resilient System.” The event, which is free and open to the public, will include a keynote conversation between American Prospect Executive Editor David Dayen and Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. WHAT: Policymakers, independent business owners, and economic experts will discuss...
Groundwork Collaborative Ratifies First Union Contract
The members of the Groundwork Collaborative Union ratified Groundwork’s inaugural collective bargaining agreement. This agreement is the first union contract for employees of Groundwork, who formed a union with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU) on April 23, 2020. “Our members are so excited to enact this first contract as a critical step toward ensuring that staff — especially our Black and brown coworkers — are heard, supported, and valued in our workplace,” said...
Other Words: It's Not Just Inflation — It's Price Gouging.
If you’ve been slammed lately by higher prices on everything from groceries to rental cars and gas prices, you’re probably wondering what on earth is behind these skyrocketing costs. Corporations are quick to blame this new reality on the pandemic, but another major culprit is hiding in plain sight: their own profiteering...
Groundwork Chief Economist Testifies at House Financial Services Committee Hearing on Inflation
Today, Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research Dr. Rakeen Mabud appeared at a hearing of the House Committee on Financial Services. The hearing, entitled “The Inflation Equation: Corporate Profiteering, Supply Chain Bottlenecks, and COVID-19,” focused on the critical issues of rising prices and inflation. “There are a range of factors driving inflation right now, including increasing and shifting demand, as well as supply chain...
House Democrats Take Aim at Corporate Greed During Inflation Hearing
“The concern here is that the investor scaffolding that undergirds our entire economy will keep prices elevated for a longer period of time and allow these huge companies to get rich while all of us pay the price,” Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at the progressive Groundwork Collaborative, told lawmakers. Read on The Hill...
The New Republic: After Two Years of Covid, the U.S. Economy Is Thriving. We Have the Great Recession to Thank.
“It is abundantly clear that Congress’s response in 2008, 2009, and 2010 was just too small and stopped too quickly,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative. Even if the Obama administration couldn’t have gotten a trillion-dollar-plus bill through Congress at the start, it could have made it clear that another would need to follow...
Tomorrow: Groundwork Chief Economist to Testify at Congressional Hearing on Corporate Profiteering and Inflation
Tomorrow, March 8, 2022 at 10 a.m., Dr. Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research, will testify before the House Committee on Financial Services at a hearing entitled, “The Inflation Equation: Corporate Profiteering, Supply Chain Bottlenecks, and COVID-19.” Dr. Mabud will provide her expert testimony on one of the key drivers of rising prices: corporate profiteering. She will provide data on historic profit margins, which have...
Groundwork’s Director of Policy and Research Mike Mitchell Reacts to February Jobs Report
Following the release of February’s Jobs Report today, Mike Mitchell, director of policy and research at Groundwork Collaborative, released the following statement: “Today’s job numbers demonstrate that smart, sustained investments in people and families are critical to building a healthy, resilient economy for all. This is especially urgent for Black and brown workers who continue to be left behind in our recovery. “President Biden’s State of the Union Address made it clear...
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: Why Corporate Profiteering Could Be Helping Fuel Inflation.
These and other examples are collected in Corporate Profiteering Findings, a report by the U.S. advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative released earlier this month. The report not only includes comments by executives in investor calls but juxtaposes companies' complaints about higher operating costs with their willingness to spend millions — as Procter & Gamble, Best Buy and Whirlpool did — on buying back their own stock, a way to return cash to shareholders...
Detroit Metro Times: Four Ways Corporate Greed is Driving Inflation.
What corporate executives are willing to say on earnings calls is often a lot more honest than what they’re willing to say publicly. On those calls, they’ve made it very clear that this moment isn’t really about inflation, it’s about profit. My friend Dr. Lindsay Owens, who heads up the progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative, just published a report showing exactly how corporations used inflation to jack prices. You can read the full report yourself, but I think she did a great...
Next City: Hear Us: What’s Up With Inflation, and What Does It Mean for People of Color?
Solana Rice of Liberation in a Generation recently sat down with Mike Mitchell, the director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, to get the 411 on inflation and what it means for people of color. “It’s interesting how much of the conversation around inflation kind of looms as a specter, but we don’t actually talk about what it is, how it’s measured, or how it impacts different folks, right?”...
Fatherly: Most Americans Blame “Corporate Greed” for Inflation, Survey Shows.
“Big corporations aren’t shy in telling their investors how they’re taking advantage of the pandemic to jack up prices and pad their own profits—and the public is noticing,” Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement earlier this week. “Policymakers should listen to voters by cracking down on corporations raising prices unfairly, addressing corporate consolidation and monopoly power, and increasing taxes on corporations.”...
Vox: Inflation, Explained by Eggs.
Some economists and politicians have flagged that a number of corporations have used inflation and current economic conditions as cover for increasing prices. “There’s absolutely, and it’s clear as day in the earnings calls, a larger sense that these companies are passing along higher costs and then some,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of progressive think tank the Groundwork Collaborative. “They are pleasantly surprised that demand is not responsive, and what that says to...
Reuters: $10 toothpaste? U.S. Household Goods Makers Face Blowback on Price Hikes.
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the progressive non-profit Groundwork Collaborative, named diapers as a category with little competition, paving the way for aggressive price hikes...
NEW POLL: Voters Convinced that Corporate Greed is Driving Inflation, Strongly Support Policies Tackling Issue Head-On
Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new poll from Data for Progress gauging the public’s perceptions on recent inflation. The results, as mentioned in Yahoo Finance, showed that a majority of voters blame large corporations for price increases and strongly support policies that address monopoly behavior and corporate profiteering head-on. “Big corporations aren’t shy in telling their investors how they’re taking advantage of the pandemic to jack up prices and pad their own...
Truthout: Poll Finds Most Voters Think Companies Are Exploiting Pandemic to Raise Prices.
The poll of over 1,500 likely voters, conducted by Data for Progress in collaboration with Groundwork Collaborative this month, found that 63 percent of all respondents think that corporations are using the pandemic to pad profits. Only 29 percent said that the companies have no choice but to raise prices to cover operational costs...
Bloomberg: Inflation Pai Means Biden Gets No Credit for Roaring Economy.
“Biden and the Democrats won’t be trusted on the economy without clearing inflation because voters aren’t going to reward the party in power if they feel worse off,” said Lindsay Owens, a former economic adviser to Senator Elizabeth Warren who is now executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic think tank...
Yahoo Finance: Corporate America's 2021 Profits Were Higher Than Ever.
The group is also releasing a new survey this week of 1,549 likely voters from Groundwork Collaborative and Data for Progress that finds 63% of respondents believe large corporations are "taking advantage of the pandemic to raise prices unfairly and increase profits." Even 51% of Republicans agreed with that sentiment...
NBC LX: Companies Used Inflation as an Excuse to Jack Up Prices, and She's Got the Receipts.
Many businesses have posted rising profits and 70-year-high profit margins since the pandemic. But executives have also talked openly in earnings calls about raising prices, and then saying the increases were due to inflation. And Lindsay Owens and her organization Groundwork Collaborative have the receipts to prove it...
Fortune: Bernie Sanders rips McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Amazon for ‘corporate greed’ as they post huge profits and price hikes.
“Sometimes we talk about inflation like we care about it for its own sake. We really care about inflation because we care about the way it affects people,” Rakeen Mabud, chief economist for the economic activist group Groundwork Collaborative, recently told Fortune’s Megan Leonhardt. “These price hikes are really, really hitting vulnerable people hard.”...
Vox: Corporate Pricing is Boosting Inflation — But We’re Still Buying
The inability to dismantle those two phenomena, though, is integral to the ability of certain businesses to continue increasing prices, according to Lindsay Owens, the executive director of progressive economic policy organization the Groundwork Collaborative and a former senior economic policy adviser to Warren...
Fortune: Is Inflation Really this Bad, or are Greedy Companies Profiting Off the Pandemic?
Yet others argue that the price hikes are unjust, including Rakeen Mabud, chief economist for the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive activist group focused on economic issues...
Economic Liberties, Groundwork Call on White House to Address Rampant Corporate Profiteering
In response to growing evidence of corporate profiteering and price gouging, the American Economic Liberties Project and the Groundwork Collaborative released a letter to the Biden Administration calling on the White House to take immediate action. The letter urges President Biden to speak out against rampant corporate profiteering, to convene an emergency meeting of the White House Competition Council, and to encourage the Council of Economic Advisors to study market structure and...
ICYMI: Groundwork’s Lindsay Owens on The Problem with Jon Stewart
Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, joined Jon Stewart’s podcast, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” to talk about concentrated market power, price hikes disguised as inflation, and staggering corporate profit margins – and her viral tweet thread on what Fortune 500 CEOs are saying about how inflation is “good for business.” Listen to the full episode here and email press@groundworkcollaborative.org to speak to Lindsay about the link between...
Biden’s Hack Gap on Inflation
But others in the expansive lefty-economics space say that, in fact, it is not “bullshit” to make these points; that those who believe so don’t appreciate the intersectionality of political power and the marketplace; and that it is a form of political insanity to shy away from a more populist approach. Read on Politico...
White House Economists Push Back Against Pressure to Blame Corporate Power for Inflation
This week, two groups — the American Economic Liberties Project and the Groundwork Collaborative — sent a letter to Biden urging him to order CEA to “study market realities” and determine the connection between corporate profits and higher prices. Read on The Washington Post...
The Problem with Jon Stewart:
We’re doubling up the content—and the problems. Alongside staff writers Henrik and Kasaun, Jon welcomes inflation expert Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, to discuss greedy CEOs jacking up prices...
Red-hot Inflation Has CEOs 'Crowing' and Consumers Crying (Sort of)
And with an economy still expanding at an appreciable rate, there’s no telling when trickle-down inflation will stop. “What we see is across sectors — across companies, CEOs are just crowing about how they can raise prices on consumers all while bringing in record profits,” Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork Collaborative chief economist and managing director of policy and research, told Yahoo Finance Live on Tuesday. Watch on Yahoo! Finance...
Renters Across US Face Sharp Increases – Averaging Up to 40% in Some Cities
“If we think that rent is a really core part of our inflation problem right now, which it is, then we really do need a more comprehensive approach,” said Dr Lindsay Owens, co-author of the report and a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. Owens argued against solutions put forth by some economists seeking to rely on contractionary monetary policies such as raising interest rates through the Federal Reserve. Read on The Guardian...
ICYMI – Groundwork Exposes Big Driver of Recent Price Increases: Corporate Greed
In case you missed it, Groundwork Collaborative’s experts have been sharing their research with Congress, media outlets, and over social media to help policymakers and people across the country cut through the corporate spin and learn more about one of the key drivers behind recent price increases: corporate greed. Lindsay Owens: “You don't have to take my word for it. They're telling us, they're crowing and bragging to investors in these earnings calls.” Rakeen Mabud: “We’ve...
How We Broke the Supply Chain Panel
In this event, the Prospect’s executive editor David Dayen hears from Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at The Groundwork Collaborative, TAP’s editor at large Harold Meyerson and staff writer Alex Sammon, and NYC-based independent journalist Rose Adams, on just how the links in the supply chain crumbled and broke away. Watch on The American Prospect...
Economist is Disgusted by These CEOs who Brag about Their High Prices While Blaming Inflation, Exposes Them on Twitter
Recently, economics and data expert Dr. Lindsay Owens has shared an illuminating explanation on Twitter about how corporate greed affects us all. “As you read today’s inflation report, pay close attention to what the CEOs who set prices are saying. We got our hands on the latest batch of earnings reports, and it’s a doozy,” Owens wrote in a thread on February 10 that has since gone viral. Read on Bored Panda...
How Dems Can Punch Back on Inflation
Groundwork [Collaborative] has a rundown of how mega-retailers used the holiday season as an opportunity to jack up prices under the cloak of inflation. Read on The Message Box...
Five Obstacles Biden Faces in Battle Against Inflation
“When we see supply shortages we can tamp out our demand and make people poorer, or we can boost supply,” said Rakeem Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive research nonprofit, in a Thursday call with reporters. “Investments that really have long lasting positive repercussions will make our economy more resilient.” Read on The Hill...
Ayman Reports
There’s a heated debate over what’s driving inflation. Is it a supply crunch? Government spending? Or corporate greed gone amok? In much of America right now, says @owenslindsay1, “Things look a lot less like your Econ 101 textbook and a lot more like an episode of The Sopranos.” See on Peacock...
Corporations Are Getting Off Scot-free in the Inflation Blame Game
As [Lindsay] Owens mentioned last night, CEOs have been open — giddy, even — about their plans to raise prices on products, despite the fact many of them have seen profits rise during the pandemic. Watch on MSNBC...
The Michelangelo Signorile Show
How are economists and corporations allowed to scream inflation while celebrating record growth? @owenslindsay1 of @Groundwork joins @MSignorile [to discuss] the misplaced anger toward the numbers and what people should be looking at. Listen on SiriusXM...
Rakeen Mabud on Supply Chain Breakdown
You will have heard many things recently about the supply chain—as the reason you can’t find what you’re looking for on store shelves, or the reason it costs so much. But what’s behind it all? Why has the system broken down in this way? Rakeen Mabud is chief economist and managing director of policy and research at Groundwork Collaborative. She’ll join us to talk about the ideas in the article she recently co-authored for American Prospect, “How We Broke the Supply...
Groundwork on CPI: Corporations are Raising Prices, Turning Record Profits
Today’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) release shows year-over-year inflation increased to 7.5%. Groundwork’s Chief Economist Rakeen Mabud responded with the following statement: “Earnings calls are littered with CEOs bragging about how they're able to use inflation as a cover for their price hikes. These higher prices are putting more pressure on struggling families and small businesses – all while CEOs and shareholders net record profits. “The best way to bring down prices is to...
Press Call Thursday, 11:30AM ET: Roosevelt Institute's Lauren Melodia, The Washington Center for Equitable Growth's Kate Bahn, & Groundwork's Rakeen Mabud react to Consumer Price Index Report
Tomorrow, February 10, at 11:30 a.m. ET the Roosevelt Institute’s Lauren Melodia, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth’s Kate Bahn, and Groundwork Collaborative’s Rakeen Mabud will join a press call hosted by Invest in America to react to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ January Consumer Price Index (CPI). Register here. Who: Lauren Melodia, Deputy Director of Macroeconomic Analysis at the Roosevelt Institute Kate Bahn, Director of Labor Market Policy & Interim...
Groundwork’s Director of Policy and Research Mike Mitchell Previews January Jobs Report
Ahead of tomorrow’s Jobs Report, Mike Mitchell, director of policy and research at Groundwork Collaborative, released the following statement: “Tomorrow’s jobs numbers will highlight the need to focus on Black workers, and especially Black women. Amid the Omicron surge, school and day care closures, and the expiration of the Child Tax Credit, women and workers of color are barely hanging on by a thread. “Pulling back on investments and returning to the pre-pandemic status quo...
Media Advisory: Rep. Cicilline Joins Experts For Virtual Briefing on Corporate Greed, Inflation, and Build Back Better
On Thursday, February 3 at 4 p.m. Eastern, Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, will join experts from Accountable.US, Groundwork Collaborative, and Navigator Research for a virtual briefing to discuss how price gouging and corporate greed are contributing to rising prices and how Congress can combat inflation and lower costs. Press may RSVP here. WHAT Rep. Cicilline and experts discuss corporate greed as a...
Armed With Teddy Bears, West Virginia Moms Fight To Save The Child Tax Credit
It’s possible that allowing the child tax credit to expire could damage Democrats’ standing with voters. According to new polling from Fighting Chance for Families, a project of the liberal groups Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative, Democrats in January enjoyed a 9-point advantage over Republicans on the question of “Which party do you trust more to support parents with children?” Read on Huffington Post...
Groundwork Chief Economist Testifies at Congressional Hearing on Pandemic Profiteering
Today, Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research Rakeen Mabud testified at a hearing of the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce. The hearing, "Pandemic Profiteers: Legislation to Stop Corporate Price Gouging," focused on the critical issues of pandemic profiteering and price gouging. Dr. Mabud opened with examples of corporate executives bragging about their ability to raise prices under the cover...
House Panel Debates Bill to Create Federal Price-gouging Policy
Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at progressive advocacy group the Groundwork Collaborative, testified that price hikes are contagious among publicly traded companies. “When one company is able to get away with padding their profits and price gouging, shareholders from across the board want in,” she said, adding that those who don’t endure “massive selloffs.” Read in Roll Call...
Starbucks Profits Soar by 31%—But It's Raising Prices Anyway
During testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday, Rakeen Mabud of the Groundwork Collaborative noted that "in sector after sector, in company after company, corporations are jacking up prices on consumers and using concerns about inflation as cover to do so." Read on Common Dreams...
Top Democrats Rip Corporations for Price Gouging. ‘Executives Brazenly Boast to Investors About Raising Prices.’
A pack of 50 Kimberly-Clark N95 masks cost $23.19 in October 2021. By mid-January, the same box of masks cost $57.15, according to the Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning activist group focused on economic issues. Read in Fortune...
Tomorrow: Groundwork Chief Economist to Testify at Congressional Hearing on Pandemic Profiteering
Tomorrow, February 2, 2022 at 10:30 a.m. ET, Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research Rakeen Mabud will testify at a hearing of the Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce entitled "Pandemic Profiteers: Legislation to Stop Corporate Price Gouging." Mabud will discuss the widespread pandemic profiteering that is enriching corporate executives and shareholders while hurting consumers, workers, and...
Groundwork and The American Prospect Shine Spotlight on How the Supply Chain Crisis Drives Inflation
As inflation continues to weigh heavily on Americans’ minds, a new issue of The American Prospect: How We Broke the Supply Chain released today shines a spotlight on this complex and often-misunderstood issue. Created in collaboration with Groundwork Collaborative, the special issue investigates how current supply chain chaos and rising prices stem from decades of bad policies that prioritized corporate profits above all else. “This project details how we spent a half-century allowing...
The American Prospect x Groundwork Special Issue: How We Broke the Supply Chain
Dr. Rakeen Mabud kicks off a special issue of The American Prospect: The Supply Chain Debacle. The opening story, co-authored by Dr. Mabud and Prospect Executive Editor David Dayen, explains how current supply chain chaos and rising prices stem from decades of bad policies that prioritized corporate profits above all else. Below is an excerpt from the February issue released today: “We spent a half-century allowing business executives and financiers to take control of our supply chains...
How We Broke the Supply Chain
Economic elites have ripped off the public and put us in danger for too long, and they did it largely undetected. We are in the midst of a unique crisis that has clarified the vulnerabilities of this system like never before, and the untold story of corporate takeover and catastrophe ought to trigger a rethinking about whom an economy should serve. Now’s our chance to flip the script and start building toward an economy that truly works for all of us. Read on The American Prospect...
Biden Could Step into Debate on Booming Sports Gambling
“You could read hundreds of stories about this phenomenon, about the stress of longshoremen and supply chain managers and government officials, the consequences for consumers and small businesses and retailers, and superficial attempts at explaining why we got here,” David Dayen and Rakeen Mabud write in the first story of a new project by the American Prospect: “How We Broke the Supply Chain.” Read on the Washington Post...
What Should the White House Do to Combat Inflation? Use Antitrust to Curb Corporate Profiteering
As the country grapples with inflation, the Washington Post asked 12 experts across the ideological spectrum how they would fight rising prices. One of these experts was Lindsay Owens, who makes the case for addressing concentrated corporate power to bring down prices: “Addressing concentrated corporate power isn’t the only tool the president can or should use to bring down prices that are straining family budgets. But given the pernicious and pervasive links between concentration...
Groundwork’s Chief Economist on Federal Reserve Meeting: Rate Hikes Will Do Nothing to Stop Corporate Greed
Today, as the Federal Reserve begins its two-day meeting to determine potential interest rate hikes, Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist Rakeen Mabud released the following statement warning against a premature rate hike: “There is absolutely no reason for the Federal Reserve to raise rates when we are still in the midst of a fragile recovery. Raising rates at this moment will do nothing to address the real culprits behind rising prices: powerful corporations lining their pockets...
Price of Meat on the Rise as Companies See Profits Triple
“So when there’s no competition in a market, you’re not going to get some of those dynamics that allow prices to ease,” said Groundwork’s Rakeen Mabud. The price of beef is up 20% from this time last year. The Biden administration is pointing fingers at the meat industry, which is dominated by just four big companies who control pricing." Watch on NBC News...
WATCH: Rakeen Mabud Talks Inflation, Corporate Greed on Black News Channel
Economist Rakeen Mabud joins Aisha Mills on #AMplified to discuss why people are paying more for consumer goods. ...
LISTEN: Should Supply Chains Really be this Fragile?
Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Lindsay Owens lays out her argument for why corporate profit-seeking contributed to the inflation problem we have today, in the latest economics episode with POLITICO reporter Victoria Guida. Listen on Politico ...
ICYMI: Groundwork’s Rakeen Mabud – “Prices Are Going Up… Because of Corporate Greed”
Following last week’s Consumer Price Index showing a 7% year-over-year increase in inflation, Groundwork’s Chief Economist Rakeen Mabud joined the Black News Channel’s Amplified with Aisha Mills to highlight the issue: “Essentially prices are going up … because of corporate greed. [Companies] are using inflation as a cover to raise prices and pocket the profits…We have handed our economy over to these mega-corporations for decades.” Email press@groundworkcollaborative.org to...
Why the Economy Can Survive Higher Rates
Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic think tank, said the problem with rate increases is they won’t address what folks at Groundwork and some lawmakers see as a major contributor to inflation: big businesses unfairly jacking up prices. Read on Politico...
Groundwork on CPI: Corporations are Hiking Prices, Making Record Profits
Today’s Consumer Price Index shows year-over-year inflation increased to 7.0%. Groundwork’s Chief Economist Rakeen Mabud responded with the following statement: “This morning's CPI release reinforces the urgent need to acknowledge and address the role of corporate greed in driving up prices. For too long, we have tolerated an economy optimized to boost short-term profits at the expense of workers, consumers, and families. Corporate profiteering is driving high prices. And consumers...
ICYMI: Fed Chair Powell, Companies “Raising Prices Because They Can”
Moments ago, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell appeared in front of the Senate Banking Committee. During the nomination hearing, in an exchange with Sen. Warren, he publicly acknowledged that big corporations are taking advantage of inflation for financial gain: Sen. Warren: “Today, nearly two out of three of the biggest publicly traded corporations in the country are reporting fatter profit margins than they reported before the pandemic, which doesn’t sound like they are just passing along...
What Omicron Means for the Economy
“Fundamentally, we’re still in a world where people think the economy is made up of profits and corporate interests, and as long as we think about our economy in that way, we’re never going to get to a point where we’re actually providing the public health resources [along with] the big investments and labor market supports that actually help people thrive. And until we do that, we’re never going to get out of this situation in a healthy way,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and...
White House Allies Split Over Inflation Plan as Biden Trains Attacks on Corporate Greed
“The truth is the link between price hikes and profiteering is hiding in plain sight. It’s clear as day in earnings calls where CEOs can’t stop crowing about their ’pricing strategies,’” said Lindsay Owens, an economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning group that has encouraged the administration to take a tougher position." Read on The Washington Post...
Memo: December Jobs Report
The monthly employment data release for December shows that the U.S. economy added only 199,000 jobs, far fewer jobs than expected. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at Groundwork, says this jobs report – combined with record COVID cases – underscores the deep and urgent need for public investment: “If there was ever a jobs report that called for large-scale, continued investment in the things people need to weather this period, this is it. We...
Dr. Mabud Previews December Jobs Report
In anticipation of tomorrow’s Jobs Report, Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at Groundwork, released the following statement: “We have made tremendous gains over the past year as our economy recovered from multiple protracted crises. But as tomorrow’s job numbers will undoubtedly highlight, this historic progress will be lost unless it is paired with millions of additional good jobs and sustained investments in climate resilience, child care...
Walmart and Kroger Hike Prices for COVID Tests Amid Shortage
“This is pandemic profiteering, plain and simple,” the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive policy organization, said late Tuesday. “Shame on Walmart and Kroger for price gouging these essential tests during the height of the worst pandemic surge.” Read on Truthout...
As Prices Rise, Biden Turns to Antitrust Enforcers
“The Biden administration understands this and knows this,” said Rakeen Mabud, the managing director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal advocacy group in Washington. But, she said, “I would like to see more.” Read on the New York Times...
Groundwork Collaborative on Urgent Need for Build Back Better to Protect Fragile Economic Recovery
Today Groundwork Collaborative released the following statement from Executive Director Lindsay Owens on Sen. Joe Manchin’s recent comments and the status of the Build Back Better legislation: “If Sen. Manchin is concerned about inflation, then he should join us in fighting back against the corporate profiteering that is driving it – rather than trying to derail legislation that will not impact inflation one bit.” “The economic case for Build Back Better is crystal clear...
Groundwork Launches New Ad Campaign: Corporate Greed is Driving Holiday Price Increases
Today, Groundwork Collaborative launched a new digital ad campaign highlighting how profiteering corporations are driving rising prices at the checkout line. The new ad, Unwrap, will run through the end of the year. “We are launching this campaign to cut through the corporate spin and help people understand the real reason for recent price increases: corporate greed,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, an economic think tank. “CEOs and shareholders...
New Inflation Findings: Mega-Retailers Are Raising Prices, Turning Record Profits
Today, Groundwork Collaborative released new findings highlighting the specific ways that mega-retailers are hiking up prices and short-changing the workers who support our supply chains, all while their shareholders and CEOs are raking in record profits at the expense of struggling parents, workers, and consumers. “When people see prices going up at the grocery store they should understand that they are paying the price for rampant corporate greed and price-gouging that are hurting...
Inflation Jeopardizes the Fed’s Goal for Inclusive Employment
“A real commitment from the Fed, and from policymakers across the monetary and fiscal space to a truly equitable recovery means really keeping an eye and a real focus on that Black unemployment rate—and until that is down at par with what every other worker in the economy is facing, we’re not done.” Read on Bloomberg...
ICYMI: White House Releases New Data Showing Meat Processing Companies Taking Advantage of Market Power to Raise Prices and Grow Profit Margins
On Friday, the White House released a new blog post highlighting how corporate greed is driving recent price increases, with a specific focus on price-gouging by meat processing companies. The blog came out following the release of the latest Consumer Price Index, which demonstrated how corporate greed is driving price hikes, including through decades of disinvestment in our supply chains and widespread permissiveness toward corporate extraction. Together, these factors have weakened our...
Groundwork Responds to Today’s CPI Data
Today’s Consumer Price Index shows year-over-year inflation increased to 6.8%. Groundwork’s Chief Economist Rakeen Mabud responded with the following statement: “Rising prices are the direct result of decades of disinvestment in our supply chains and permissiveness toward corporate extraction that has weakened our economy's responsiveness to crises. To tackle inflation, we need to focus on the real culprit behind rising prices: reining in corporate greed and investing in an economy...
Groundwork Previews November Jobs Report
While economists are predicting another strong jobs report this Friday, Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork, warned against efforts to pull the brakes on deeply-needed investments before our economy has fully recovered for all workers and families: “Amid fears of a pandemic resurgence and rising prices, one thing is clear: our leaders must continue to prioritize economic security for all, especially for the Black and brown communities who continue to bear the brunt of this...
Groundwork Collaborative on FTC Supply Chain Announcement: Strong Step Toward Tackling Corporate-Caused Inflation
ICYMI: Corporations Use Inflation Fears as Excuse to Raise Prices, Increase Profits Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s announced that it is conducting an inquiry into how nine large retailers, wholesalers, and consumer good suppliers have contributed to ongoing supply chain disruptions. The FTC will also investigate the impact of empty shelves and skyrocketing prices on consumers and the overall economy. Groundwork released the following statement: “This is a strong step by...
Groundwork’s Rakeen Mabud: “Policymakers must take on the extractive corporate actors that are getting rich off of people’s pain”
Yesterday, President Biden announced he will reappoint Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative, explained to Politico Nightly: “We need federal policies that will help tackle the root causes of inflation: shortages that are the direct result of decades of disinvestment in our supply chains and the corporate extraction that has weakened our economy’s responsiveness to crises. “Policymakers must take on the extractive corporate...
ICYMI: Corporations Use Inflation Fears as Excuse to Raise Prices, Increase Profits
While rising prices continue to take a toll on millions of families, a new Accountable report shows dozens of corporate giants, including Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, and Coca-Cola, used inflation as an excuse to increase prices and enjoy record-breaking profits. This report confirms what Groundwork’s Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud told Popular Information last week: “[A]cross a range of sectors that produce the goods that people need to provide for their families, companies are...
ICYMI: Jared Bernstein, Expert Panel Weigh in on Inflation Debate
Ahead of the CPI data release, the Groundwork Collaborative and the Roosevelt Institute co-hosted a virtual event to break down the myths, misconceptions, and missing narratives in the current inflation debate. In case you missed it, here’s what Keynote Jared Bernstein and a panel of experts had to say: Jared Bernstein, Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers: “The idea that we can, on the one hand, have lower poverty, lower racial wealth gaps, and high-quality job...
Groundwork to Press: The Real Issue is Corporate Greed, Not Inflation
In light of today’s CPI release, we cannot allow Inflation fear-mongering to distract us from the real issues: corporate concentration and decades of underinvestment. Below is a sampling of reporting on recent price hikes that got it right: Popular Information: How concentrated corporate power makes inflation worse. "[A]cross a range of sectors that produce the goods that people need to provide for their families, companies are extracting from their consumers using the excuse of...
How Concentrated Corporate Power Makes Inflation Worse
The costs of these price increases are often borne by those who can least afford them and the benefits go to wealthy shareholders and executives. "[A]cross a range of sectors that produce the goods that people need to provide for their families, companies are extracting from their consumers using the excuse of inflation -- all while lining their shareholders' and CEO's pockets,'' Rakeen Mabud, Chief Economist at the Groundwork Collaborative, told Popular Information. "This has nothing to do...
Memo: October Jobs Day #BeyondTheNumbers
Washington, D.C. — According to data released today by the U.S. Labor Department, the U.S. economy added 531,000 jobs in October, the highest number since July 2021. Groundwork Collaborative’s Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud responded with the following statement: “Today’s strong job and wage growth numbers are welcome news and reflect an ongoing recovery. However, we cannot afford to become complacent when Black and brown workers continue to be left behind. Reverting to the...
Jobs Day Preview: Worker Power
Washington, D.C. — In anticipation of tomorrow’s Jobs Report, Mike Mitchell, director of policy and research at Groundwork Collaborative, shared the following statement: “The rise of labor strikes across the country is truly inspiring, as workers use their collective voices to set wages and working conditions on their own terms. But as tomorrow’s job numbers will demonstrate, this historic leverage for workers must be paired with millions of additional good jobs and sustained...
TUESDAY: Inflation Event with White House Economic Advisor, Expert Panel
Keynote by Jared Bernstein, member of White House Council of Economic Advisers Virtual panel comes a day before the release of new CPI numbers On Tuesday, November 9, Groundwork Collaborative and the Roosevelt Institute will host a virtual event to discuss the myths, misconceptions, and missing narratives in the current inflation debate. The event will provide important context leading into the release of new Consumer Price Index (CPI) data the following day. Jared Bernstein, a member of...
The Fed Is Ready to Rein in its Aid. Market Tremors Are Already Emerging.
“What problems would an interest rate hike solve and what problems would an interest rate hike create?” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, one of many progressive groups that have pressed the Fed to keep rates low until full employment is reached. “How did the American economy end up in a place where our supply chain is so shoddy that we can’t stock frozen pizza? When you think about that, the answer is not related to monetary policy.” Read on...
NEW POLL: Southern Voters Support Robust Investments in Build Back Better Act
Stacey Abrams: “Depending on how officials choose to use and learn from these poll results, it will be clear what their priorities are” Washington, DC – With the release of the Build Back Better framework today, new polling across 12 states in the American South shows broad support for historic investments in Medicaid expansion, climate resilience, and families. Groundwork Collaborative and the Southern Economic Advancement Project (SEAP) unveiled the poll results during a Pandemic...
NEW REPORT: Austerity Has Failed Rural South, Policies Must Change to Support Black and Brown Families Left Behind
Today, Groundwork Collaborative and Insight Center released a new research paper, “The Rural South: Where Austerity Thrives and Black and Latinx Americans Perish” authored by Aisa Villarosa, Jhumpa Bhattacharya, and Azza Altiraifi. The paper uses Mississippi as a case study to highlight how government disinvestment in rural southern communities has marginalized Black and Latinx households, pushing them into poverty, and adversely impacted the overall health of our economy. Later this...
America Needs All of Biden’s Build Back Better Plan
As a former Hill staffer, I must confess that I was pretty surprised by the scale and scope of American Jobs and Families Plans President Biden released last Spring. Congress had just passed the incredibly robust American Rescue Plan – a piece of legislation that would have been unthinkable during the first year of President Obama’s Administration. At the time, I worried that the President might trim his ambitions and whittle down his Build Back Better Agenda out of a concern that moderates...
Groundwork: Child Care Provisions in Build Back Better Would Be “Win-Win” for Families, Economy
Rakeen Mabud: “...what's clear is that all eligible families would be guaranteed assistance…[would] benefit the *overwhelming majority* of US families” As rumors swirl over cuts to the reconciliation bill, it’s important to set the record straight on a key piece of the Build Back Better plan: child care. The United States is woefully behind on child care along two dimensions: high costs for families and low wages for care providers, both of which would be addressed in the child care...
The Proposals to Tackle Racial Equity Included in Biden's Spending Bill Are at Risk
Rakeen Mabud: “Every single dollar that is subtracted from that topline number is one less dollar for the investments that are necessary to move towards a more equitable economy. And frankly, we can’t afford not to do these kinds of investments.” Listen on NPR...
ICYMI: Groundwork’s Michael Mitchell on “Striketober”
Labor strikes are sweeping the country, fueled by pandemic worker shortages as well as decades of low pay, unsafe working conditions, and unchecked corporate power. Director of Policy and Research Michael Mitchell told Business Insider that the strikes reflect a "huge, significant shift in power from workers to corporations and businesses.” “You can see similar moments in the early 1900s, where there was a strong concentration of corporate power, really no real rules around the...
Welcome to #Striketober
Mike Mitchell, the director of policy and research at Groundwork Collaborative, told Insider the strikes reflect a "huge, significant shift in power from workers to corporations and businesses." He says this is because the pandemic and ensuing Recession created so much uncertainty for workers, while inequality increased and wages remained stagnant. Read on Business Insider...
New Research from Groundwork Collaborative Shows Link Between Price Hikes, Monopoly, and Corporate Greed
Today, the U.S. Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price Index increased 0.4% in September, as people paid more for goods such as meats, poultry, and eggs. As you cover this issue, it’s important to understand the real culprit behind rising prices at the checkout line: corporate power. “The more sway mega corporations have over our economy, the more power they have to gouge customers, squeeze Main Street, and exploit workers,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork...
Memo: September Jobs Day #BeyondTheNumbers
As Congress debates President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, the September Jobs Report makes one thing clear: more public investment is needed to achieve full economic recovery and ensure a more resilient and inclusive economic future. As Groundwork Collaborative’s Executive Director Lindsay Owens told the New York Times this week: “If the final package fails to meet this moment, it will be a squandered opportunity of historic consequence. These aren’t just numbers on a...
Groundwork Previews September Jobs Report
Today, Groundwork’s Chief Economist released the following statement in advance of the U.S. Labor Department’s September Employment Report: “The stakes couldn’t be higher for workers and families ahead of Friday’s jobs report. With the Delta variant threatening an already fragile economic recovery and the Black unemployment rate at crisis levels, we can't afford to squander this opportunity to create millions of good-paying jobs and invest in an inclusive recovery. “It’s...
Groundwork to Co-Host EconCon21: “This gathering could not come at a more urgent time.”
Groundwork Collaborative, the nonprofit think tank at the forefront of the fight for a more inclusive and equitable economy, is once again co-hosting EconCon, a virtual conference, on October 6-7, 2021. The two-day event comes amid a critical inflection point for workers, families, and the economy as a whole. “The inequities in our economy had been growing for decades, but the pandemic made them undeniable,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork. “Without smart ideas...
ICYMI: Groundwork’s Lindsay Owens Featured in New York Times Reiterating Economic Case for Bold Reconciliation Bill
As negotiations continue over President Biden’s promised $3.5 trillion infrastructure package, Groundwork Collaborative has been making the case that Congress and the Biden Administration should move quickly to take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to set our economy on a path that is more equitable and just. As Lindsay Owens told The New York Times over the weekend: “If the bill passes as is right now and we get a major sea change in the progressivity of the tax...
Groundwork Applauds Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’ Bill to Extend Federal Unemployment Benefits
This week, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez will introduce a new bill to extend federal unemployment benefits. The federal unemployment benefits expired on Sept. 6 — leaving millions of Americans without this essential lifeline. If passed, the enhanced jobless aid would be retroactive to Sept. 6 and extended until Feb. 1, 2022. Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative, responded to the news with the following statement: “Allowing unemployment benefits to lapse when so many...
Groundwork Announces Jasmin Johansen-Hickman as New Chief of Staff
Groundwork Collaborative announced today that Jasmin Johansen-Hickman has been named the organization’s new Chief of Staff. Johansen-Hickman brings extensive expertise in nonprofit management and operations to the Washington DC-based progressive think tank. “I am thrilled to join an organization like the Groundwork Collaborative that is leading the charge on what a true inclusive economy looks like,” said Johansen-Hickman. “For most of my career, I have worked for organizations...
More than 7 Million Americans Lose Lobless Benefits on Labor Day
“Letting these benefits expire under the current circumstances and the current uncertainty that we're experiencing is tantamount to forcing people to fall through the cracks,” Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the progressive research nonprofit Groundwork Collaborative, said to The Hill last week. “It's not just letting people fall through the cracks." Read on The Hill...
Memo: August Jobs Day #BeyondTheNumbers
Groundwork Collaborative wants to make sure you have the full context on the U.S. Labor Department’s August Employment Report and the investments we need for an equitable recovery and a truly inclusive economy. Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork, reacted with the following statement: “Today's job report shows us in no uncertain terms that when people around the country are not doing well, the economy is not doing well. Delaying or diluting critical investments —...
UNEMPLOYMENT CLIFF: Ending UI Benefits Could Not Come At Worse Time
After Labor Day, roughly 7.5 million people will lose key pandemic-era unemployment benefits established by the March 2020 CARES Act. Dr. Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork, reacted to the impending unemployment cliff with the following statement: “Amid increasing uncertainty in the trajectory of the pandemic, Monday’s unemployment cliff could not come at a worse time. Millions will suffer as they lose this critical source of income and the loss of spending will suppress job...
Experts Agree: Inflation is Transitory, Manageable
The Labor Department reported today that inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased 0.5% compared to last month, down from 0.9% in June and 0.7% in May. The largest year-to-year price increases continue to be in sectors related to the economy reopening. At the same time, prices are increasing more slowly, especially when compared to previous months, for core goods and services. In light of this report, experts agree that the recent price increases are transitory...
Memo: July Jobs Day By the Numbers
Groundwork Collaborative wants to make sure you have the full context on the U.S. Labor Department’s July Employment Report and the investments we need for an equitable recovery and a truly inclusive economy. Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, explained to Forbes how allowing unemployment benefits to expire next month will disproportionately harm Black and brown workers who face higher rates of long-term unemployment: “The historic inequities in the labor...
Groundwork Responds to Sen. Manchin's Letter to Fed
Yesterday, Sen. Joe Manchin urged the Federal Reserve to reassess America’s stance on monetary policy and additional fiscal stimulus to avoid ‘overheating our economy.’ But the evidence is clear that the costs of an unequal recovery are far greater than those of manageable inflation. As Dr. Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research told The Hill: “We cannot let misguided [inflation] fears keep us from investing in the workers and...
ICYMI: New Report Reveals Political Motivations Driving States Ending UI Benefits Early
New internal documents obtained by The Daily Poster show that North Dakota officials made a calculated decision to cut off jobless aid early based on anecdotal evidence and driven by political motivations. North Dakota is one of 26 states that ended the $300 federal unemployment benefit early. As Groundwork’s Executive Director Dr. Lindsay Owens told The Daily Poster: “This slide deck makes clear what we’ve long known about how officials make decisions about the social safety...
Why Trade Policies Are a Matter of Racial Equity
By Grace Western It’s no secret that trade policies in the United States have been captured by wealthy, corporate interests that prioritize growing their power and profits at the expense of working people. For generations, working people have seen their jobs, wages, and the promise of economic security disappear. While many workers across the country have experienced the devastating effects of failed U.S. trade policies, these policies have disproportionately harmed Black workers and...
Consumer Sentiment Offers Another Window into Economic Recovery
“I think what we’re seeing right now is strong wage growth for the bottom of the income distribution for the first time in, in some cases, decades,” she said. If consumer sentiment stays positive, Owens said, that could be a sign those wages are making enough of a difference to offset rising prices. Listen on Marketplace...
Press Call Today, 4PM ET: Economists React to Fed Chair Powell's Testimony
In light of Consumer Price Index projections and in advance of Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell’s appearance before the House Financial Services, it’s important to understand that inflation fears are overstated and misrepresented. We cannot allow misguided fears about temporary, manageable inflation to lead to misguided monetary policies. As Dr. Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research, told Bloomberg Business: “Inflation fears at...
Groundwork Collaborative Names Michael Mitchell Director of Policy & Research
Economic policy expert joins progressive think tank at a critical inflection point for U.S. economy Washington, D.C. (July 8, 2021) – Groundwork Collaborative announced today that Michael Mitchell has been named the organization’s new Director of Policy and Research. Mitchell brings extensive expertise in economic policy to Groundwork, having served as a Senior Policy Analyst and most recently, Senior Director and Counselor, Equity and Inclusion at the Center on Budget and Policy...
Memo: June Jobs Day By the Numbers
Groundwork Collaborative wants to make sure you have the full context on the U.S. Labor Department’s June Employment Report and the investments we need for an equitable recovery and a truly inclusive economy. Groundwork’s Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud said it succinctly: For all the exciting news in this jobs report, don't forget that the Black unemployment rate is still 9.2 percent. That's intolerable. We can't afford to get complacent when so many around the country aren't yet...
The Infrastructure Debate Is About Black Women
By Kate Taylor Mighty From COVID-related deaths to unemployment rates, Black women have suffered disproportionately in category after miserable category throughout the crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. In every boom and bust on record, Black women almost always fare worst — and economists have observed that their exclusion holds back the broader economy. Misogynoir, or the combination of misogyny and anti-Blackness directed toward Black women, is even worse than a scourge on...
Climate Change Puts Homeowners of Color at Greater Economic Risk
When Hurricane Harvey struck Texas in August 2017, it dumped 27 trillion gallons of rain on the greater Houston region, submerging about a quarter of the metropolitan area. To this day, it remains the wettest storm on record in the United States. The hurricane, which research would later find was 15 percent more intense and three times as likely due to climate change, caused financial hardship for thousands of families...
New Research from Groundwork Collaborative Shows Impact of Trade on Black Workers, Economy
New Research from Groundwork Collaborative Shows Impact of Trade on Black Workers, Economy The authors, including Dr. William Spriggs of Howard University, examine how U.S. trade policies interact with a fundamentally broken labor market to harm Black manufacturing workers. These results offer a path forward for more equitable trade policies that center workers and communities of color Washington, D.C. (June 21, 2021) – New research from Groundwork Collaborative highlights how...
ICYMI: Groundwork’s Dr. Rakeen Mabud Featured in The Hill re Inflation
ICYMI: Groundwork’s Dr. Rakeen Mabud Featured in The Hill re Inflation Ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, it’s important to understand that inflation fears right now are deeply misguided. The bottom line: Continued investments in our economic infrastructure are deeply needed, popular, and economically sound. As Dr. Rakeen Mabud, Groundwork’s Chief Economist and Managing Director of Policy and Research told The Hill: “We cannot let misguided...
Groundwork Collaborative names Lindsay Owens, PhD, new executive director
Economic policy expert and political veteran will lead and advance progressive economic agenda Selection hailed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, Labor Leader Sara Nelson, and others Washington, D.C. (June 10, 2021) – Groundwork Collaborative announced today that Lindsay Owens, Ph.D., has been named the organization’s second executive director. Owens, a highly-cited economic sociologist and...
Biden Faces Backlash Over 'Shameful' Capitulation to GOP Governors as They End Unemployment Lifelines
Biden administration officials publicly signaled Friday that they have no intention of putting up a fight as the Republican governors of 25 states prematurely cut off emergency unemployment programs, yanking key lifelines from millions of jobless workers and depriving local economies of billions of dollars...
MEMO: Jobs Day #BeyondTheNumbers
Groundwork Collaborative wants to make sure you have the full context on today's jobs numbers and the investments we need for an equitable recovery and a truly inclusive economy. Read a topline summary below and check out Groundwork’s Chief Economist, Rakeen Mabud’s, take on today’s jobs numbers here. To speak with Dr. Mabud, please contact Jae Aron at press@groundworkcollaborative.org. The May Jobs report shows us the deep and urgent need for continued investment in the people...
Opinion: New developments puncture the GOP’s ‘working-class’ makeover scam
Last month, when the GOP purge of critics of Donald Trump was at its frenzied peak, the party hit on a clever way to put a positive gloss on it. This was necessary, Republicans insisted, to maintain the GOP’s new status as a “working-class party,” by keeping millions and millions of salt-of-the-earth supporters of the former president in the fold. ...
Biden’s budget seeks to level racial, economic playing fields despite ‘out of touch’ Republicans
President Joe Biden wants the country to invest $6 trillion by prioritizing working families and children. One of the largest proposed investments in the American public since the New Deal, Biden’s new budget places a premium on equity in several areas and reducing racial and economic disparities. Including previously introduced proposals such as investments in infrastructure, jobs, childcare and early childhood education, the new Biden budget seeks to reposition Americans. Biden’s...
Bosses are acting like the pandemic never happened
For more than a year, the Covid-19 pandemic changed how America worked. Grocery store cashiers, line cooks, janitors, and millions of others — about a third of the American workforce — saw their jobs become dangerous overnight, as they were asked to keep coming to work in person in spite of the viral threat. Meanwhile, millions more transitioned from going to an office to working from their homes — the percentage of workers logging on remotely rose from 17 percent to 44 percent once...
'End this game': Dems urged to ditch GOP after 'woefully inadequate' infrastructure offer
Republican senators on Thursday unveiled an infrastructure counteroffer calling for just $257 billion in new spending over the next eight years, a proposal that intensified pressure on the Biden administration and Democratic leaders to abandon their push for bipartisan compromise and unilaterally press ahead with a sufficiently bold package. While a group of four Senate Republicans led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia presented the GOP offer as a "serious" $928 billion plan...
Seizing the moment to make our care systems more equitable
The Biden administration’s $600 billion in proposed federal funding for childcare and long-term care is rightly being framed as an investment in the nation’s core “infrastructure.” Indeed, a robust and equitable care infrastructure is as necessary for generating economic activity as roads and bridges, with important spillover effects to the rest of the labor market. Beyond boosting the economy as a whole, investments in care can also be configured in ways that directly address...
Elizabeth Warren wants Joe Biden to go bigger on child care
A new report from the Massachusetts senator argues for a bigger investment in what she argues is a key part of infrastructure. When Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ran for president, one of the first policies she unveiled to establish herself as the wonk candidate was a proposal for universal child care and pre-K. Warren delivered her speech for last summer’s virtual Democratic National Convention from a pandemic-shuttered daycare and used her five minutes of primetime...
The black box economy
The pandemic economy has been strange and unpredictable from the get-go. Throughout the past 14 months, the twists and turns have been surprising: The housing market boomed, the stock market soared, people got into day trading, everyone hoarded toilet paper, and lumber became a must-have. There’s been widespread disagreement about how much support from the government was needed, whether the country was doing too much or not enough, or whether help would come at all. We won’t know...
The resurrection of Reagan's "Welfare Queen"
To supply corporations with exploitable low-wage workers, Republicans and media millionaires are exhuming one of history’s most grotesque lies. In the early 1980s, Ronald Reagan and the GOP settled on a strategy: Building off their “silent majority” dog whistle that signaled a backlash to the civil rights movement, Republicans conjured a racist “welfare queen” myth, pretending that too many lazy, parasitic Americans were getting rich off of unemployment benefits that deterred...
Advocacy groups launch campaign to ‘Stop Deficit Squawks’ in Washington
Groups Call Out Deficit Fearmongering as Pushing an “Artificial Crisis” Used to Block Critical Spending to Help Everyday People WASHINGTON, D.C. — This morning as Congress returns to Capitol Hill, a coalition of nearly twenty progressive advocacy groups launched Stop Deficit Squawks, a campaign targeting so-called ‘deficit hawks’ in Washington. The coalition will push back on the true agenda of ‘deficit squawks’ – groups and individuals that incite fears about the federal...
Progressive groups target Koch network, other critics of Biden spending plans with new campaign
Several progressive organizations have banded together to launch a new influence campaign to target groups, such as billionaire Charles Koch’s political network, which have pushed back on significant elements of President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar agenda. Details of the campaign, called “Stop Deficit Squawks,” were first shared with CNBC. It launched Monday. Nearly 20 groups have signed on to the campaign so far, including Patriotic Millionaires, a group of millionaires who...
US voters want much more Covid-19 relief—and they want it now: Poll
"Simply put, more is required to ensure that we build a more resilient, equal economy that works for more people." A majority of likely U.S. voters—and especially younger ones and people of color—support immediately spending much more on coronavirus pandemic relief than the nearly $2 trillion in President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, a poll published Monday by ProsperUS, the Green New Deal Network, and Data For Progress revealed. "This new polling shows that voters across the...
Joe Biden wants to transform care work in America
We must start by viewing care work as an essential component not just of the economy but of life itself. President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan seeks to revitalize manufacturing and decarbonize the atmosphere. But one of its most vital elements is how it would transform the care economy. The state has always shaped how care is provided, but in this country the sector has been malformed since its creation. Biden’s proposal, following decades of work by activists and academics, would...
The Nation’s Moment of Truth: The economic and moral case for investing in caregivers
Investing in a robust care infrastructure would not only create new jobs, but would also allow many others to come back, spurring the country’s economic engine. This article is a Part 2 of a two-part adaptation of the feature article from the Spring 2021 issue of Ms. Get caught up on Part 1 here. The Biden-Harris administration and the 117th Congress have an opportunity to center care work as essential work through major public investments that could establish universal access to...
Biden is flirting with a better economic paradigm. Young people need him to commit.
As children of the 90s and early aughts, millennials came of age beset by problems both too large to ignore and too expensive to fix: debilitating student debt, worsening climate change, skyrocketing inequality. When we looked to our government to address these problems, political leaders of both parties clutched nervously at their purse strings. “How will you pay for it?” we were asked again and again, less a question than a rhetorical veto. Promised a world of steady...
The Nation’s Moment of Truth: America’s legacy of devaluing care
Our current caregiving crisis is the inevitable outcome of an outdated ideology that has resulted in insufficient investments in our care infrastructure and in our people. The COVID-19 pandemic “is the most discriminatory crisis we [women and girls] have ever experienced,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of U.N. Women, said at the opening of the 65th Commission on the Status of Women in early March. Her statement rings just as true in the U.S. as elsewhere in the world...
Joe Biden is about to test the politics of going big
The Biden administration’s theory of policy so far is to go big. The same goes for its politics. Taken together, President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan and newly introduced $1.8 trillion American Families Plan come out to slightly over $4 trillion in proposed new spending. It’s an enormous investment in American job creation; the last bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress passed in 2015 clocked in at about $305 billion — about one-thirteenth the size of Biden’s...
Planes, trains, and working women
The carpenters training facility near Pittsburgh looked just like the sort of place where President Joe Biden would roll out a jobs and infrastructure plan. There was the circular saw perched on a workbench, easy to spot near the phalanx of American flags behind Biden’s lectern. The emblem of the carpenters’ union, a jack plane within an interlocked ruler and compass, hung high on the wall, perfectly framed in photographs of the president in profile. And then, of course, there was the...
Why big-spending Biden can shrug off GOP warnings of inflation
Republicans are warning that President Joe Biden is taking a risky gamble that he can carry out his massive spending plans without triggering runaway inflation. Biden is betting on history as his defense. The specter of raging inflation — the erosion of consumer purchasing power — has become central to the debate about whether the government can afford Biden’s multitrillion-dollar “Build Back Better” programs. But years can go by before soaring inflation ever takes hold...
“Care is infrastructure, silly”: Feminists defend caregiving funding in Biden’s Jobs Plan
Just a few weeks after President Biden’s American Rescue Plan and his proposed American Jobs Plan demonstrated his commitment to prioritizing care work in the quest towards economic recovery, the idea of investing in the country’s caregiving infrastructure and workforce is being ridiculed and dismissed. We expected it from Senate Republicans who to a person, are opposed to both of the president’s plans—but we were a little surprised to see a POLITICO Playbook article characterize...
This top Biden economist has a plan: Create jobs, address inequality, ignore trolls
The U.S. economy added more than 900,000 jobs last month. For most White House officials, that would be considered a banner number. For Janelle Jones, the top economist at the Labor Department, there is much more work for the Biden administration to do. Jones, the first Black woman to ever hold her position, says it would take a year of similar jobs reports just to get back to where the economy was before the pandemic. But even then, she says, getting back to the status quo is not...
Rejecting Biden's $715 billion proposal, Jayapal says Congress must slash the 'Bloated Pentagon Budget'
Joining fellow progressive lawmakers in rejecting President Joe Biden's request for a $715 billion Pentagon budget, Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Saturday argued that Congress must slash military spending and "invest that money into our communities" as coronavirus infections rise across the U.S. and mass layoffs continue. "This budget adds twelve billion new dollars for weapons of war; just think how that same amount could be used to invest in jobs, healthcare, and fighting...
STATEMENT: Groundwork applauds the Biden administration’s bold approach to investing in our future
Washington, DC – Today, Groundwork Collaborative’s Managing Director of Policy and Research and Chief Economist Dr. Rakeen Mabud released a statement in response to President Biden’s request to Congress to authorize an increase in federal spending in 2022 on domestic priorities: “Today President Biden asked Congress to invest in the future and recovery of millions around the country. By investing in critical issues such as education, public housing, COVID-19 relief, and addressing...
Economists warn Democrats 'going too small' on infrastructure risks economic and climate catastrophe
Pointing to the nation's tepid recovery from the 2009 financial collapse as a cautionary tale, economists are pressing Democratic lawmakers to dramatically expand President Joe Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal in order to equitably rebound from the coronavirus crisis, achieve full employment, and combat the existential climate emergency. In a 38-page report (pdf) released Thursday, Dr. Adam Hersh of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Dr. Mark Paul of the New...
NEW REPORT: Congress must go big on upcoming investments; Economists warn of costly long-term consequences for America’s future if Congress fails to act
NEW: Economists Adam Hersh and Mark Paul show that inadequate fiscal policy cost the economy at least $8 trillion over past decade – more than $32,000 in lost income per adult Paper calls American Jobs Plan “a step in the right direction,” cites economists’ calls for up to five times the spending in proposed bill – up to $10 trillion – to get economy on track Washington, DC – Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new report from Dr. Adam Hersh, Director of Washington...
Top White House economist defends 'care economy' as infrastructure
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top White House economist Cecilia Rouse on Tuesday defended President Joe Biden’s plan to spend $400 billion on the “care economy” as a legitimate infrastructure investment and key part of his drive to address persistent economic inequities. Republicans have blasted Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package as riddled with liberal spending priorities, and want to strip out funding for home- and community-based jobs taking care of kids and seniors. Rouse told...
U.S. must invest heavily to stay no. 1 economy - White House economist
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States must invest heavily in its workforce, infrastructure, research and development to remain competitive and stay the world’s largest economy, Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said on Tuesday. U.S. investments in R&D had fallen by a third as a percentage of economic output since 1960, while spending on infrastructure had been halved over the last 50 years, Rouse told an online event hosted by the Washington Center...
More than 200 economists to Congress: Seize “historic opportunity to make long-overdue public investments” to boost economic growth
WASHINGTON – Today, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth released a statement urging Congress to prioritize “robust and sustained investment in physical and care infrastructure along with science and technology to solve the problems of the 21st century.” The statement—led by Hilary Hoynes, professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley; Trevon Logan, professor of economics at The Ohio State University; Atif Mian, professor of economics...
Support increased public investment in home- and community-based long-term care
We support President Biden’s overall plan to improve the care infrastructure of the United States, including his specific proposal to invest $450 billion in expansion and improvement of home and community-based services for the long-term care of those experiencing disability or the frailty of advanced age. A large body of evidence-based research indicates that this investment will help: *Increase access to home and community-based services.1 Current Medicaid funding for such services...
Biden plan spurs fight over what ‘infrastructure’ really means
Republicans say the White House is tucking liberal social programs into legislation that should be focused on roads and bridges. Administration officials say their approach invests in the future. WASHINGTON — The early political and economic debate over President Biden’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan is being dominated by a philosophical question: What does infrastructure really mean? Does it encompass the traditional idea of fixing roads, building bridges and financing other...
We’re witnessing government in action — and it’s delivering
Over the last half century, U.S. economic theory and policymaking have been rooted in the false promise of “free markets,” and politicians on both sides of the aisle have worked to minimize the government’s role as an economic driver and force for the collective good. Bolstered by the political power of the private sector, elected leaders have spread the misguided belief that markets alone could deliver economic freedom to people and communities. And then through deregulation...
Biden's infrastructure plan does not come close to tackling the vast extent of America's new housing crisis.
Read on Insider...
Biden jobs plan seeks $400 billion to expand caretaking services as U.S. faces surge in aging population
President Biden’s jobs plan proposes a massive investment in home care for the elderly and people with disabilities, as America’s caretaking system faces strain from the nation’s looming demographic challenges. The White House’s American Jobs Plan calls for spending about $400 billion over eight years on “home- or community-based care” for the elderly and people with disabilities. That amounts to roughly a fifth of the overall price tag of Biden’s plan, the first of two related...
Corporate tax increases are good policy, good for the economy
Washington, DC – Today, Groundwork Collaborative, Center for American Progress, Economic Policy Institute, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and the Roosevelt Institute released the following statement on the revenue proposals in the newly announced American Jobs Plan: “We welcome today’s announcement that the American Jobs Plan (AJP) will increase the corporate tax rate, reduce tax incentives for offshoring, crack down on the games that multinational corporations play to...
The latest economic research demonstrates why concerns about federal budget deficits and U.S. debt levels are overblown
Overview A growing number of economists are reconsidering long-held views about the appropriate level of public borrowing and the consequences of federal budget deficits and debt on U.S. economic growth and well-being. Their cutting-edge research suggests that previous concerns about deficits and debt, such as increases in inflation and interest rates that affect U.S. Treasury bonds, are overblown. Instead, the available evidence indicates that the United States boasts substantial fiscal...
Bold public investment is popular and key to ending this crisis
In the year since the COVID-19 pandemic first gripped the United States, over 525,000 people have perished and millions more – disproportionately people of color, disabled people, women, and those at the intersection of these identities—are still struggling to get by. The historic scale of the economic and public health crises we’ve faced was not inevitable. It was the result of decades of austerity policies and systematic disinvestment in the public sector at local, state, and federal...
Stimulus aid will sustain 1 million child care jobs. Biden’s jobs plan must do more.
The American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Biden earlier this month will help ensure the economic security of millions of families. For many parents, the most meaningful part of the package is the investment in child care. This is especially true for the countless mothers who are burnt out with managing jobs and caregiving, facilitating virtual learning, providing essential work at non-essential wages, or struggling with job loss. Not only will this provision stabilize the sector and...
As Biden prepares to unveil infrastructure plan, progressives push $10 trillion investment
With President Joe Biden set to start unveiling his two-part infrastructure plan later this week, congressional progressives on Monday officially announced their proposal to invest $10 trillion over the next decade in renewable energy, green buildings, and environmental justice initiatives while creating over 15 million well-paying union jobs. Building on the introduction last September of a resolution "recognizing the duty of the federal government to implement an agenda to Transform...
White House dramatically increased tax proposal as it sought to address tensions over next big spending plan
When President Biden’s team began putting together his infrastructure and jobs package this February, the White House National Economic Council circulated an internal proposal calling for about $3 trillion in new spending and $1 trillion in new tax hikes, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. But soon enough, some members of the economic team second-guessed themselves, concerned that the plan could jeopardize the nation’s long-term financial stability. The...
Democrats confident they can pass $3tn infrastructure bill
Biden willing to push through spending package partly funded by tax without Republican support Read on Financial Times...
POLITICO Playbook PM: The public option and the push for earmarks: Nuggets from our latest poll
TRANSITION — Rakeen Mabud is now managing director of policy and research and chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative. She previously was senior director of research and strategy at the Time’s Up Foundation, where she spearheaded the Time’s Up, Measure Up initiative. Read on Politico...
Economist Rakeen Mabud joins Groundwork Collaborative as Managing Director of Policy & Research, Chief Economist
Washington, DC — The Groundwork Collaborative (Groundwork) announced today that Dr. Rakeen Mabud will be joining its team as Managing Director of Policy & Research and Chief Economist. Dr. Mabud previously served as the Senior Director of Research and Strategy at TIME’S UP Foundation, where she spearheaded the organization’s signature Time’s Up, Measure Up initiative. “Rakeen’s strategic and policy expertise across economic, racial, and gender lines makes her exactly the...
'Even Manchin Called for $4 Trillion': Progressives Say Biden's Infrastructure Plan Falls Short
Having cleared its first major legislative hurdle with the coronavirus pandemic relief package that President Joe Biden signed into law earlier this month, his administration is now hard at work on a long-awaited infrastructure plan—but progressive advocacy groups responded critically on Monday to reporting about the legislation’s possible $3 trillion price tag, warning it is not enough. “The Biden team’s infrastructure proposal signals what the climate justice movement has been...
The U.S. Economy won't recover until Black workers do
Now that President Biden has signed the American Rescue Plan into law, millions of struggling families will get some of the relief they have so desperately needed for the last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents will have more money in their pockets to make ends meet for their families. Millions of children will begin to be lifted out of poverty. And state and local governments will be able to resist buckling under the pressure of stretched budgets and resources. The American Rescue...
Joe Biden’s economic recovery has a narrative. Now, it needs a legacy.
Joe Biden took a victory lap when he went on the TV airwaves for his first presidential address last Thursday. “America is coming back,” he announced, a comeback premised on the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package he’d signed into law earlier that day. If history proves Biden right, he will have already offered future generations something fond to recall as they gaze upon his oil painting: It was under our 46th president that the United States defeated a pandemic and yanked the economy...
Government spending is a priority for young voters, not the national debt
As the U.S. faces down a continuing pandemic, a decimated economy, and a mounting climate crisis, many debates on Capitol Hill can be reduced to the following question: Should the federal government spend now to build a better world for future generations, or avoid adding to the national debt in the short and long term? However tortured the congressional debate may seem, it is likely voters are clear on their answer: Spend now to save the future. Data for Progress and Groundwork...
Is Tennessee's problem state debt, or the wealthy governing the state?
On March 11, former Govs. Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam, and Gov. Bill Lee spoke at the right-wing Millennial Debt Foundation about the national debt, we should ask why they are more focused on the deficit than addressing economic recovery or the needs of Tennesseans. The collective wealth of America’s 651 billionaires jumped by more than $1.3 trillion to a total of $4 trillion at the end of December. Meanwhile, that same month more than 185,000 Tennesseans were unemployed. In a time...
The problem is work
Erica, an Indiana mom, was working part time last spring as a computer scientist. At the same time, she was taking care of her first-grader, preschooler, and toddler at home, with schools and day care centers in the area shuttered due to the pandemic. During one of her work shifts, she was nursing her toddler while trying to read at her desk, “and he swung his leg, and it somehow landed in my tea, and it kicked the teacup over,” she told sociologist Jessica Calarco and her team as part of...
Bridging Black and women’s history months: why “Black Women Best” can deliver liberation for all
It’s the end of Black History Month and the start of Women’s History Month, but you know what never ends? The crucial need for our society to center women of color—in everything, especially the economy. This is what “Black Women Best” is all about. Coined by Janelle Jones, the Black Women Best framework contends that when Black women—arguably the most structurally marginalized group in America—are centered in U.S. policymaking and politics, then we can produce better economic...
As Senate rushes $1.9 trillion bill through Congress, Biden faces doubts over whether it’s still the right package
The pandemic was exacting a brutal toll when, six days before his inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden first released his $1.9 trillion relief proposal. The economic recovery was backsliding, coronavirus cases were surging, and vaccines were just starting to get out. Nearly two months later, as the Senate plans to begin voting Thursday on a nearly identical package, the economic and public health outlook appear to have changed. The economy is doing better, coronavirus cases...
US trade policy has failed Black and Latino workers
Last week, President Joe Biden's nominee for US trade representative Katherine Tai -- a well-seasoned trade expert with decades of trade experience -- faced the Senate Finance Committee for confirmation. The job will not be an easy one. As the nation's chief trade representative, Tai will inherit a turbulent legacy of trade policy decisions during a particularly difficult time in which a pandemic continues to ravage countries, communities and working people across the globe, especially...
1 in 7 US children live in poverty. Misplaced fears over single mothers could be why.
One in seven American children live in poverty, according to the Center for American Progress. Despite the nation’s wealth, the United States has one of the worst child poverty rates among similarly developed countries. A new poll from Vox and Data for Progress indicates that despite the popularity of child welfare programs, one of the reasons we’ve failed to help millions of children could be a concern that’s dogged public welfare programs for decades: widespread concern that...
Biden's 36-year-old economist has her eye on an equal recovery
In a one-bedroom apartment above a Washington neighborhood of bars, clubs and brunch spots, Janelle Jones is busy trying to fix the U.S. labor market -- one economic report and one Mario Kart race at a time. The Biden administration appointed the 36-year-old as the Department of Labor’s chief economist, a little-known position that will influence the futures of millions of people. In between wading through endless spreadsheets, enduring hours of video meetings and analyzing reams of...
Concerns cloud Democrats’ scramble to salvage raising the minimum wage with a workaround
After the Senate parliamentarian dashed Democrats’ hopes of crowbarring a $15 federal minimum wage into the COVID-19 relief package Thursday night, members and their staffs have been scrambling to figure out a way around the ruling. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Bernie Sanders (D-VT), who chair the Senate Finance and Budget Committees respectively, have proposed a backdoor approach that the parliamentarian might approve of, one that would involve changing tax policy. Wyden put out a...
How Biden learned to go big
President Joe Biden appears ready to do what it takes to get the American economy back to full capacity — and then some. Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package to help steer the economy through the pandemic, and he’s planning to propose a second spending package — one with an even heftier price tag — that invests heavily in infrastructure, climate, and caregiving. His administration is focusing on those most in need, and is even willing to run the economy a...
Could Biden make U.S.- China trade better for workers?
In November, the Siberian anticyclone blows cold, dry air into Beijing. Lakes freeze over, and social life moves indoors. There was an icy fog on the November evening in 2017 when fire engulfed an informal structure on the sprawling megacity’s periphery. Nineteen migrant workers died in the blaze. City plans called for a reduction in Beijing’s “low-end population,” and its administrators used addressing fire safety as a pretext to comply. Over the following two weeks...
'It is not a budget item,' Democrat Kyrsten Sinema falsely says as she joins Joe Manchin in opposing $15 wage
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Friday joined fellow conservative Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in opposing the inclusion of an overwhelmingly popular $15 federal minimum wage bill in the coronavirus relief package, falsely claiming that the proposed pay raise for 32 million workers is "not a budget item" and thus should not be part of the reconciliation measure. "What's important is whether or not it's directly related to short-term Covid relief. And if it's not, then I am not going to support it...
The risks of going too big on stimulus are real — but going too small could be riskier
America has badly fumbled the response to the pandemic so far, and it’s hard to imagine the country is on the brink of severely overshooting it. Still, some economists are starting to raise concerns that it’s possible to overshoot the response. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan is getting new scrutiny. Larry Summers, who served as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and as National Economic Council director under Barack Obama, wrote an op-ed in the Washington...
Despite the historic crisis, Sinclair report focuses on whether the pandemic relief bill is too big
A Sinclair report which focused almost exclusively on the amount of money appropriated and spent so far to address the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States misleadingly suggested that the $1.9 trillion relief package currently under considerations would come at too high a cost. Many economists, however, say that this level of spending is necessary to help those struggling during this crisis -- and indeed some believe it's not nearly enough to ease the huge economic hardship the...
POLITICO Playbook PM: Greene admits 9/11 ‘happened,’ Dems seek Trump under oath
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK I — PRESSURE FROM THE LEFT … A new progressive coalition called ProsperUS, launched by the Groundwork Collaborative, is sending a letter to Democratic Hill leaders urging them to hold firm on a $1.9 trillion relief package — and view it as only “an initial down payment.” The letter … List of signers Read on Politico...
Opinion: As a new economic consensus emerges, lefty groups seek to put muscle behind it
It’s hard to escape the sense that a new consensus is emerging among Democrats of all ideological stripes in Washington, moderates included, one that is finally getting out from under the long shadows of the post-Ronald Reagan neoliberal era. Prompted by the massive crises of the moment and underscored by President Biden’s unexpectedly progressive approach, this consensus has moved beyond reflexive skittishness about deficit spending and prioritizes bold government action...
'Inhumane': As CBO warns employment won't recover until 2024, GOP offers mere 3-month extension of jobless aid
As the Congressional Budget Office projected Monday morning that U.S. employment likely won't recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, a group of Senate Republicans unveiled a $618 billion coronavirus relief proposal that would only extend emergency jobless aid for three months—an offer that Senate Democrats immediately rejected as cruel and unacceptable. "The package outlined by 10 Senate Republicans is far too small to provide the relief the American people need," Sen. Ron Wyden...
The GOP stimulus counteroffer, explained
Two weeks after President Joe Biden released his opening bid on an economic stimulus plan, Senate Republicans have put theirs out. And there is quite a bit of distance between them. In an outline unveiled Monday, 10 Republican lawmakers laid out their $618 billion proposal, with less than a third of the funds in the $1.9 trillion rescue plan Biden has introduced. The offer shows a fundamental difference in how Republican lawmakers want to approach the public health and economic crises...
U.S. unemployment rate to remain above pre-pandemic level through decade, CBO says
The nation’s unemployment rate will not return to its pre-pandemic levels through the rest of this decade, meaning millions could be out of work even after vaccines are widely distributed, according to a projection released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan budget office also projected a faster-than-expected rebound in economic growth as the nation’s economy recovers more quickly than analysts had initially expected. The...
First 100: Democrats reconcile themselves to reconciliation
It’s January 29, 2021 and welcome to First 100. You can sign up to have First 100 delivered to your email by clicking here. The Chief The fate of Joe Biden’s first and most important legislative priority looks like it will become an all-Democratic affair. After some discussions yesterday, Democrats are ready to take the first steps to use the budget reconciliation process to pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. That begins with passing a budget resolution through the House and...
Biden wants the biggest stimulus in modern history. Is it too big?
President Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion pandemic rescue package includes money for many goals: expediting the rollout of coronavirus vaccines; reopening schools; expanding unemployment benefits; sending more cash payments to most Americans. But when you skip the line-by-line details and look at the overall numbers, something striking becomes evident. The administration’s proposal, when combined with the $900 billion in pandemic aid agreed to in December, would amount to a bigger...
How Biden’s stimulus bill could actually build back better
As President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress gear up to pass an economic relief package, their most pressing task is addressing the recession. But some economists and activists are hoping Biden and other lawmakers will also take a longer view. The Covid-19 recession has revealed many structural problems in the economy. Vast socioeconomic and racial inequality. Insufficient support for parents, who have been asked to do much more as schools and child care close down. Low-wage workers...
As White House floats skimpier relief bill in bid for GOP support, progressives warn going small would Be 'catastrophic'
With the Biden White House reportedly weighing the possibility of splitting its proposed coronavirus relief package into two parts in an effort to attract some Republican support, leaders of the Congressional Progressives Caucus are warning that anything less than the president's $1.9 trillion opening offer would represent an unacceptable betrayal of economically desperate Americans. In a letter (pdf) to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer...
Progressives warn against scaling back relief bill to gain GOP support
With the Biden White House reportedly weighing the possibility of splitting its proposed coronavirus relief package into two parts in an effort to attract some Republican support, leaders of the Congressional Progressives Caucus are warning that anything less than the president’s $1.9 trillion opening offer would represent an unacceptable betrayal of economically desperate Americans. In a letter (pdf) to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer...
POLITICO Playbook PM: Biden’s big vaccine challenge
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — James Hewitt is now comms director for Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.). He most recently was associate administrator for public affairs at the EPA and is a State Department alum. TRANSITIONS — Mike Burns is now deputy assistant HUD secretary for public affairs. He previously was deputy comms director for the House Appropriations Dems. … Todd Kim is now deputy general counsel at DOE. He previously was a partner at Reed Smith. … Rachel Millard is now a VP on...
Biden calls for bold rescue plan to tackle economy
Just days before his inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden announced the “American Rescue Plan,” a $1.9 trillion recovery plan to combat COVID-19 and get the economy and the nation on track. In remarks Thursday night, Biden called for expanding direct financial assistance and relief including another round of direct cash payments to individuals, $400 in supplemental unemployment insurance, economic support for states and local communities. Urging immediate action Biden challenged the...
Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus plan, explained
President-elect Joe Biden has unveiled his opening bid on Covid-19 relief and economic recovery: a $1.9 trillion stimulus deal meant to help the United States address the health and economic crises induced by the pandemic. The proposal, called the American Rescue Plan, is divvied up into three buckets: $400 billion for dealing with the coronavirus, including vaccines and testing; $1 trillion in direct relief to families; and $400 billion in aid to communities and businesses. It includes...
Biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan: $400 unemployment boost, $1,400 checks, and billions in additional aid
With less than a week until he takes office amid a raging public health and related economic crisis, President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday unveiled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief and recovery plan that progressive economists and activists welcomed as "an important start." The need across the nation is extreme, with Covid-19 cases rising and the U.S. death toll nearing 390,000. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) noted Thursday that "another 1.2 million people applied for Unemployment...
Groundwork Collaborative calls Biden Plan “important start,” calls for additional investments to continue getting economy back on track
Washington, DC - Groundwork Collaborative released the following statement in response to President-elect Biden releasing his COVID-19 rescue proposal: “The economic case is clear: only massive government investment in workers, families, and communities can pull us out of this crisis. While this proposal on its own won’t be enough to tackle this crisis, make people whole, and get our economy back on track, it would be an important start. The plan includes key provisions for...
For an equitable economy in 2021, we must center Black women. Here are four ways how.
Post-election, there has been an outpouring of appreciation for Black women voters, whose organizing and turnout at the polls led to victory for President-elect Joe Biden. It is a fact: Without Black voters and high turnout among Black women, President-Elect Biden would not have won. Now, his administration not only has an opportunity, but a responsibility to be accountable, listen deeply to Black women, and implement policies that show up for us the way we showed up for Biden. “Trust...
U.S. needs estimated $4.5 trillion in stimulus to recover, analysis argues
The economy may need up to five times more money than what lawmakers are considering to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis. The Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic think tank, found that a stimulus package worth $3 trillion to $4.5 trillion would be required for American businesses and workers to work at their full potential and the real unemployment rate to fall to 3.5%. “We need stimulus, and we need it fast,” Mark Paul, a political economist...
Call me ‘pro-Black’ But don’t call me ‘anti-racist’—on Philippians 2:4 and rooting for everybody Black
Covid-19 and the measures taken to contain it over the last several months have contributed to a surge of interest in racial justice and anti-racism, exemplified by nationwide protests, random acts of reparations, book buying, and innumerable social media posts. That Angela Davis quote—“In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist”—started popping up in my Instagram feed regularly. Besides books by Angela Davis, there have been and are still being...
The exponential failure of doing nothing
For the past few weeks, the COVID Tracking Project’s graphs have haunted my Twitter feed with growing regularity. If you, too, are online, then you’ve probably seen them. The data collected from across the U.S. has shown a disturbing uptick of covid-19 cases in spring, a bigger hump in summer, and an uninterrupted sheer mountain of cases still on the rise as we enter winter. Hospitalizations have followed a similar trajectory and now, deaths are set to do the same. We’ve reached the...
'Deeply disturbing' surge in layoffs spotlights cruelty of Trump-GOP refusal to boost unemployment benefits
Hours after the U.S. reported a staggering 3,000 coronavirus deaths in just 24 hours, the Department of Labor announced Thursday that an additional 1.3 million Americans filed jobless claims last week, further bolstering the case for a bold relief package and spotlighting the cruelty of the Republican leadership's continued opposition to boosting unemployment benefits. According to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 20 million Americans are currently receiving...
What it would really take to save the economy
The clock is ticking on much-needed stimulus for the economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only is it too late to stop some of the damage, but chances are, any stimulus that does come is going to be much, much too little to be effective. The latest bipartisan offer on the table in Congress is a $908 billion stimulus bill. It’s a substantial number that’s about $500 billion more than Republicans recently proposed. But according to a new paper from economists Adam Hersh and Mark...
Perspective | I’m joining Biden’s economics team. Here’s some of what I’ll be thinking about.
I’m going into the Biden administration as a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, so this is my sign-off column. I’ve greatly appreciated the chance to scribble out my thoughts on the economy and economic policy here. By way of saying adieu, I thought it might be fun to look back on a few of the pieces whose ideas and points seem most germane to the nation’s economic challenges, particularly in some of the areas I’ve emphasized over the years, such...
The government’s failure to provide economic relief is killing people
When Covid-19 began spreading across the United States this spring, the federal government put in place a series of protections to help workers and families weather the economic impact. Then, one by one, the government took them all away. Expanded unemployment insurance, which helped keep millions of laid-off workers out of poverty, expired at the end of July. Federal stimulus checks were issued to millions of taxpayers once, beginning in April, but never again. The Paycheck Protection...
It’s not just Trump: COVID-19 Is the test that conservatism was built to fail
Nearly nine months into this COVID crisis, the virus appears to be raging completely out of control in the United States. Last week, we set new, dismal records for both hospitalizations and new cases, and daily deaths from COVID have now reached levels we haven’t suffered since the spring. Worse, there does not appear to be any plan in place to arrest the spread and bend the curve back downward, at least not from this outgoing administration. At the same time, the economic recovery from the...
Are Black women being “centered” in this economy yet?
In her victory speech on Nov. 7, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris referred to Black women as the “backbone of democracy,” but could they be the backbone of the economy too? Janelle Jones, managing director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal earlier this year about why focusing on helping workers who are typically left behind — specifically, Black women — could benefit everyone. With the presidential election...
Donald Trump lied about passing pro-worker industrial policy
One of the most striking features of the 2016 presidential race was Trump’s ability to outflank Hillary Clinton on economics. Say what you will about him, but Trump made the return of manufacturing jobs a central component of his political identity. His rallies were filled with lines like this: “If I’m elected, you won’t lose one plant, you’ll have plants coming into this country. You’re gonna have jobs again. You won’t lose one plant again, I promise you.”Like so much of...
Fed's focus on racial inequalities could sharpen under Dem sweep
The Federal Reserve is grappling with how it could play a larger role in tackling longstanding racial disparities in the U.S. economy, even as the COVID-19 pandemic reverses recent progress. The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on people of color, who have lost their jobs and are dying from the virus at a faster rate. It has also underscored existing wealth gaps in the U.S. economy that put them on shakier financial footing heading into the severe downturn brought on by the...
“Where did all these jobs go?"
At a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, in August 2016, candidate Donald Trump promised a shining future in which “millions of workers on the sidelines will return to the workforce.” He went through a list of accurate statistics showing how Michigan and the auto industry had been hurt by trade policy – pointing out, for example, that one in four Michigan manufacturing jobs has been lost since passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump claimed that he would bring “a...
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated existing weaknesses in telemental health
Rates of emotional distress are surging amid a deepening economic recession, a reckoning with state violence against the Black community, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The closures and restrictions necessary to mitigate the coronavirus’ spread have also massively disrupted in-person, outpatient mental health care at a time when an unprecedented number of people need support. To preserve people’s access to care during the public health emergency, telehealth availability has been rapidly...
The failed economics of care work
What is something “worth” in the marketplace? Who gets to decide that? If you ask someone steeped in classical economic theory, they will tell you that something is worth exactly what someone else is willing to pay for it. They will say that the “market” decides, through the laws of supply and demand. And they will say that all of these individual market transactions come together to make up “the economy.” It should be clear to most of us by now, but classical economic theory...
The Black woman's guide to the COVID-19 Economy
I wish I had paid more attention in my economics classes in college. But at 20 I didn’t understand how markets, pricing strategy, and monetary policy had anything to do with me. Then, in my 30s, my marriage came grinding to a halt, and I found myself confronted by the prospect of losing my home. I still remember my hand shaking as I called Countrywide to see if I could qualify for my mortgage on my own. I didn’t make enough money to stay in the house. I was surprised when the bank...
U.S. budget deficit breached $3.1 trillion in 2020 as pandemic slammed economy
The U.S. budget deficit eclipsed $3.1 trillion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to government data released Friday, by far the biggest one-year gap in U.S. history. The data are a stark reflection of the staggering blow that the coronavirus pandemic has dealt to the U.S. economy. The deficit — the gap between government spending and tax revenue — shows the dramatic surge in spending the U.S. government approved to contain the pandemic’s...
Majority of Americans believe economy is rigged
As a Black woman and the child of immigrants, Zainab Giwa has felt for a long time like the economic system in the U.S. is rigged. “It’s not built for people like me,” said Giwa, 29, who lives in Providence, Rhode Island. “I think my name is a barrier. I think the fact that I don’t have generational wealth to rely on so that I can take some lower paying jobs with some level of cushion… knowing that I can fall back on something is a reason why I say that.” More than 80% of...
NEW MEMO: Path to repealing Trump’s tax cuts for the rich
Memo lays out how worst of Trump tax cuts can be dismantled quickly while laying foundation for progressive tax reform New memo is a step-by-step guide to quickly repealing the Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations Washington, DC – Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new memo laying out a roadmap for how President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) could be dismantled quickly and in a way that ends the massive tax breaks for the...
'Maybe we should be': Rebuke and ridicule after Mike Lee says 'we are not a democracy'
Covid-19 infected Sen. Mike Lee has received sharp pushback this week following tweets saying the U.S. is "not a democracy." "Maybe we should be," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipped in response to the Utah Republican. The latest controversial remarks from Lee, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, came in a series of tweets Wednesday into Thursday during and after the first vice presidential debate. "Democracy isn't the objective; liberty, peace, and...
America needs a stimulus package now. Here are 3 things it should include
With negotiations toward a new economic aid package seemingly at an impasse and President Donald Trump earlier this week threatening to pull the plug on talks until after the election, the already fragile and uneven recovery is being dealt a devastating blow. The president has argued that the economy is "doing very well" and leading the world in recovery. But huge swaths of America are still gripped by a deep recession, and there are some troubling signs that things are going to get...
GUEST VIEW | GM clawbacks make sense, but why the new tax credits?
The union jobs at General Motors Corp.’s massive Lordstown assembly plant provided a good life to thousands of hardworking Ohioans. The plant anchored the Mahoning Valley. Ranked as the top GM North American plant for quality in 2018, it supported jobs at suppliers scattered across the area. The revenue it generated funded public schools, health care and emergency services. When GM shuttered the plant last year, it opened a gaping wound in the northeast Ohio economy, hurting thousands of...
Commentary: America needs jobs, not campaign rhetoric
At a January rally in Toledo, Ohio, Donald Trump bragged that he had “100% fixed our disastrous trade deals and brought jobs and factories back to the great state of Ohio.” Next door in Michigan, the president claimed he’s “brought back our manufacturing jobs.” But in the first presidential debate, Trump was so busy bulldozing his opponent and moderator he didn’t even raise the issue until Joe Biden provoked him. “Ohio had the best year it’s ever had...
Column: Despite what he says, Trump has been a job killer
At a January rally in Toledo, Donald Trump bragged that he had "100% fixed our disastrous trade deals and brought jobs and factories back to the great state of Ohio." Next door in Michigan, the president claimed he's "brought back our manufacturing jobs." But in the first presidential debate, Trump was so busy bulldozing his opponent and moderator he didn't even raise the issue until Joe Biden provoked him. "Ohio had the best year it's ever had last year," the president declared. "Michigan...
Why Biden would start tax increases at $400,000 a year
Joe Biden’s magic number for tax policy is $400,000. Households earning less than that in adjusted gross income won’t pay a nickel more in direct taxes, the Democratic presidential nominee promises. Higher-earning households will pay more—in some cases, much more. The dividing line is no accident: It was intentionally set to far exceed any definition of the middle class. And it spares much of the coastal professional class that is an important part of the Democratic...
Why Trump will lose Ohio
It is always dangerous to publicly predict the outcome of a presidential election, especially in a purple state like Ohio. But I’ve done it twice, in 2011 and 2016, months in advance, when both of my predicted winners, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, respectively, were behind. This year, I am predicting that Trump will lose in Ohio. That might seem like a somewhat safe bet, since the most recent Real Clear Politics polls for Ohio show Democratic nominee Joe Biden with a very slight lead...
The U.S. trade policy and Ohio
U.S. trade policy. How’s it been working for Ohio? Alan Guebert, who writes for the weekly Ohio-based rural newspaper Farm and Dairy, wrote the following in his most recent column: “Farmers and ranchers are learning another costly lesson that most already knew — trade wars aren’t just unwinnable, they’re damnable. The proof is any time any one of them looks at any current futures market chart or any monthly bank statement.” Guebert went on to take note of the USDA’s 202...
President is a 'walking scam,' says AOC as records show Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017
Financial records that President Donald Trump has persistently fought to keep hidden from the American public show that the billionaire real estate mogul didn't pay a dollar in federal income taxes in 10 of the 15 years prior to his White House victory and paid just $750 in both 2016 and 2017, revelations that further expose the extent to which the U.S. tax code imposes greater burdens on the working class than the ultra-wealthy. "There's so much in these tax returns that are not just...
Trump's corporate-friendly trade, tax, and labor policies betrayed manufacturing workers in Midwest: Study
Manufacturing workers in four crucial Midwest states that President Donald Trump won in the 2016 presidential election have been hurt the most by the Trump administration's trade and industrial policies. That's according to a new analysis—titled "Promises Unfulfilled: Manufacturing in the Midwest," released Monday by The Century Foundation (TCF) and Policy Matters Ohio, with support from The Groundwork Collaborative—which adds more evidence that, contrary to the White House's...
STUDY: Trump’s trade, tax, industrial policies have let down midwest manufacturing workers, communities
New analysis finds that manufacturing workers in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin fared the worst under Trump’s policies Cleveland, OH — Manufacturing workers in four key Midwest states that voted for President Trump have been the most hurt by Trump’s trade and industrial policies, according to a new analysis released today by experts Andrew Stettner at The Century Foundation (TCF) and Mike Shields at Policy Matters Ohio, with support from The Groundwork...
Opinion: Trump’s trade policy failed the workers he promised to help
Donald Trump came to power promising to fix a trade system that has hurt U.S. workers and businesses for generations. He railed against trade deals, raised alarm about the trade deficit, and promised to bring back jobs. “You won’t lose one plant, I promise you that,” he told Michigan voters in 2016. Four years later, Michigan has actually lost three major auto plants. Even before the pandemic, the state’s job growth had plunged to its lowest level in a decade, my co-authors...
How to save the economy for everyone
The United States is in the midst of its second major economic decline in the span of just over a decade, and this one is, in many ways, bigger and scarier. “This crisis is far worse than the one that we faced in 2008,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was in the trenches of the last downturn, told me. “It started with a pandemic, and the economic fallout can’t be arrested until the pandemic is under control.” Millions of people are currently unemployed, with hundreds of thousands of...
US workers need a new trade policy, not a Trump trade tirade
Back in 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump was right to rail that the trade policies of his predecessors were in part responsible for the ills of workers and the environment in America’s industrial heartland. After winning the election, President Trump embarked on a trade tirade, shredding and replacing past trade deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while mounting trade wars across the globe. However, contrary to...
Unpacking inequities in unemployment insurance
Abstract Over the course of eight weeks, the New Practice Lab interviewed Black and Latinx workers that lost their job or income due to COVID-19 about their experiences navigating unemployment insurance (UI). We also spoke with experts to better understand the policies and political landscape that have shaped the UI system. This report unpacks the compounding inequities that exist in the unemployment insurance system, making it less accessible for workers of color. Our hope for this...
Trump trade wars have led to lost US jobs and factories. We need a worker-centered recovery.
As he courts Midwestern voters, President Donald Trump is returning to hard-hit manufacturing regions where he made big, bold promises in his last campaign. “If I’m elected.... you won’t lose one plant, I promise you that,” he told Michigan voters at a rally in October 2016. In fact, his big stick approach to global trade negotiations would bring jobs back home. Or so he claimed. Four years later, it’s clear that Trump’s trade policies have failed U.S. workers. Instead of more...
U.S. budget deficit to hit record $3.3 trillion this year, CBO says
The U.S. government will run its biggest budget shortfall ever this year, at $3.311 trillion, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The government’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30 and the record fiscal deficit had long been seen as a fait accompli in light of the massive levels of government support for the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This pandemic is tragic on so many fronts and today’s massive borrowing is a cost of mitigating this pain. The...
Poll shows number of unemployed people struggling to cover basic needs has nearly doubled since GOP killed $600 federal boost
After Senate Republicans allowed a $600-per-week boost to federal unemployment benefits to expire at the end of July, the share of jobless Americans struggling to afford basic necessities in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis nearly doubled, according to polling released Tuesday by Morning Consult. The survey found that "the share of unemployed workers unable to cover their basic expenses with their unemployment benefits rose to 50% in August, or an...
One Month Into Emergency Unemployment Cutoff: Economic pain builds for workers and families, economy teetering on brink
Economists call impact of government support cutoff “devastating,” and Trump’s weak executive orders “too little, too late” Washington, DC – Today, Groundwork Collaborative released the following statement and background calling on Congress to move quickly to reinstate emergency unemployment benefits following a full month of gridlock and delay that has hurt workers, families, and the overall economy. “Not only is it unconscionable that the Trump administration cut the...
To narrow racial and economic disparities, Atlanta Fed chief Raphael Bostic is rethinking what the Fed’s mandate means
When Raphael W. Bostic, the first Black president to lead one of the Federal Reserve’s regional banks, published a searing essay during this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests calling for an end to systemic racism, he spurred an urgent discussion around the century-old institution about how to build an economy that includes all Americans. For Bostic — widely seen as one of the most distinguished leaders in economics, and who has also been subjected to indignities...
Ivanka Trump's new program wants to fight unemployment by closing the 'skills gap.' But that's a fundamental misunderstanding of how the economy works.
White House advisor Ivanka Trump recently unveiled a new job training initiative that encouraged struggling out-of-work Americans to simply "Find Something New" — that is, train for a new career if they find themselves out of work. The website for the initiative states that "jobs are changing — and the pandemic has accelerated the pace." While it is true that the pandemic and the subsequent policy response have forced millions out of the labor force, Trump's diagnosis of the problem...
The economy, reset
The following is an edited transcript of “The Economy, Reset”, a Marketplace special series. Kai Ryssdal: There’s a part of an interview I did a couple of months ago with Raphael Bostic, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, that I keep thinking about: Raphael Bostic: For many people, the systemic racism is so ingrained in everything that we do on a basic level that they don’t even see it. They don’t think about it as a structured inhibitor of African...
A new study undercuts a core GOP argument in the stimulus negotiations
Congressional Republicans and White House officials have argued against extending the weekly $600 unemployment boost, which expired at the end of last month, by claiming that it paid people more than they were making at their jobs. A study released Wednesday suggests that for most Americans, that isn’t true. In June, Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, called the $600 checks a “disincentive” to work—a word later repeated by several GOP senators and by the...
NEW PAPER: Underemployment far more prevalent in U.S. than official count; Findings have major implications for unemployment benefits, economic policymaking
Washington, DC – Today, the Center for Law and Social Policy(CLASP) and Groundwork Collaborative released a paper that shows there are more underemployed part-time workers than we realize and underemployment is higher among certain workers and jobs, which has several harmful effects that policymakers should understand—now more than ever. Written by Dr. Lonnie Golden, Professor of Economics and Labor-Employment Relations at Penn State University and Jaeseung Kim, Assistant Professor of...
Fed should address racial gaps in jobs, income, Dems propose
A group of congressional Democrats introduced legislation Wednesday that would require the Federal Reserve to pursue the elimination of racial disparities in jobs, wealth and income as one of its policy goals. The legislation would also require the Fed’s chair, currently Jerome Powell, to report every six months on the status of wealth and income gaps and the Fed’s efforts to counter them as part of its regular reports to Congress. The Fed now has a dual mandate that...
Democrats introduce bill to give the Federal Reserve a new mission: Ending racial inequality
Congressional Democrats introduced new legislation on Wednesday that would make reducing racial inequality in the U.S. economy an official part of the Federal Reserve’s mission. The Federal Reserve Racial and Economic Equity Act requires the central bank to take action “to minimize and eliminate racial disparities in employment, wages, wealth, and access to affordable credit.” It would be the first major change to the Fed’s mandate since 1977 and would...
Unemployment recipients might not be ‘overpaid’ after all
One of the top talking points in the Capitol Hill debate over unemployment benefits might be wrong. Most unemployment claimants are probably earning less on unemployment than they did at their previous jobs, according to a new data analysis by the liberal advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative and the National Employment Law Project. A previous study by University of Chicago economists found that more than two-thirds of unemployment claimants received more in benefits...
5 ways unions help people during mass unemployment
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the catalyst for record-breaking mass unemployment in the U.S. in the post-World War II era. According to data from the Pew Research Center, April 2020’s unemployment rate was above 14 percent — a sharp rise from 3.8 percent in February 2020. Pew senior researcher Rakesh Kochhar notes that, when accounting for a decline in labor force participation, it is possible that the unemployment rate was as high as 25 percent in May 2020. For many of those...
Dr. Sandy Darity says conventional policy won’t help Black unemployment, Fed needs to finance reparations
The Black community has suffered from economic inequality for centuries and has yet to come up with a solution. The Federal Reserve, the central banking system of the U.S., has all the tools necessary to close the racial wealth gap and should finance reparations, according to Dr. William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., a Duke University economist and reparations activist. Those economic disparities are “a constant and Blacks are not perpetually in protest over those conditions. But violent...
The argument for cutting the $600 unemployment benefits doesn't add up
Earlier this week, Senate Republicans unveiled their stimulus proposal to help Americans who continue to suffer from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Included in the $1 trillion package is a proposal to cut the $600 weekly boost to unemployment insurance benefits, which is about to expire, to $200 per week for the next two months. Then, beginning in October, the unemployed would receive a payment that would replace 70% of their lost wages when combined with their state...
Some 2.3 million more seek jobless benefits; 52 million since March
WASHINGTON—A combined 2,345,946 people filed for state or federal jobless benefits in the week ending July 18, the Labor Department reported on July 23. That pushes the total official number of jobless, due to closures forced by the coronavirus pandemic, to 31,802,715 with 52 million having applied for benefits since mid-March. MSNBC reported the 52 million figure this morning as the real total number of people who have sought jobless benefits since the pandemic was officially declared on...
'Unconscionable': As unemployment claims tick upward, GOP seeks to gut $600 weekly benefit
As U.S. lawmakers debate the details of extending or cutting federal unemployment benefits that have helped Americans weather the Covid-19 pandemic, jobless numbers rose for the first time in three months last week as millions remain out of work. "Congress needs to act immediately," Economic Policy Institute (EPI) director of policy Heidi Shierholz wrote Thursday of the need for an extension of the $600 unemployment benefit. "If they let the extra payments expire and then reinstate them...
BREAKING: 2.3 million workers file for unemployment as COVID-19 surges; Trump and Congress must extend emergency unemployment benefits
Cutting emergency benefits to $100 per week, as some Republicans are proposing, would cause massive economic disruption and cost 4.25 million jobs Democrats and progressives are united: Extend expanded unemployment or risk “economic calamity” Washington, DC – Today, following the release by the U.S Department of Labor of weekly unemployment claims showing that another 2.3 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits last week, with a total of 34 million workers currently...
NEW REPORT: U.S trade policies led to COVID-19 mask and ventilator shortages; Fixing policies will help workers and economy, prevent future shortages
Washington, DC – Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new paper authored by Beth Baltzan, a fellow at Open Markets Institute, entitled “COVID-19 and The End of Laissez-Faire Globalization.” The new paper highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis has exposed and exacerbated the flaws in the current global trading system, specifically as shortages of live-saving supplies like masks and ventilators have emerged across the world and countries have resorted to export bans...
Progressives ramp up pressure on $600 unemployment benefits
Leaders from a slew of progressive organizations are pushing Congress to extend the additional $600 in unemployment benefits set to expire this week. In a letter to be sent Wednesday afternoon, the leaders of progressive advocacy groups such as the Center for American Progress, MoveOn, the Economic Policy Institute and the Roosevelt Institute, as well as the Service Employees International Union, said cutting the benefits would lead to "economic calamity." “Unemployment Insurance is...
Progressives to Congress: Cutting incomes of 30 million Americans during pandemic risks “economic calamity”
Emergency benefits are critical lifeline for families and are keeping economy afloat; Cutting benefits would be “attack on black and brown workers” Progressives: Extend the full $600 with no cuts, tie to unemployment rate so support continues until crisis ends “Cutting unemployment will cause irreparable harm, shrink the economy, and cost us millions more jobs over the next year” Washington, DC – Today, leaders of progressive research, policy, grassroots, and advocacy...
America is sleepwalking toward economic catastrophe
The country is ambling toward a cliff, putting millions of Americans’ lives and livelihoods in danger and all but ensuring prolonged economic distress nationwide. It didn’t have to be this way. Yet here we are, unable to shake out of it. The Covid-19 pandemic tossed much of the US economy into disarray earlier this year. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, and businesses across the country closed their doors as part of a planned shutdown. In March, Congress passed the CARES Act...
Unemployment compensation runs out this month. Will Congress #SaveThe600?
Although the economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen, the $600 weekly federal unemployment insurance payout to impacted workers is set to end on July 25 in most states. In order to save this funding program, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) is organizing a campaign to #SaveThe600. In late March, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This $2.2 trillion stimulus package supplements states’...
White House pushes 'pure giveaway' to rich investors while urging cut to pandemic unemployment aid
The Trump White House is publicly advocating a massive tax cut for wealthy U.S. investors while simultaneously urging Congress to pare back the expanded unemployment benefits currently serving as a financial lifeline for more than 30 million—and counting—jobless Americans. "Regarding the 'capital gains holiday,' remember this key stat: 82% of all capital gains tax is paid by the richest 1%. A capital gains tax holiday is a pure giveaway to the rich." —Michael Linden, Groundwork...
America needs some repairs. Here's where to start.
This weekend we celebrate the creation of the United States, though that project remains substantially incomplete. This year of crises has underscored the distance between the lofty rhetoric of our founding documents and the persistent inequalities of American life. This nation began as a set of promises that it has yet to keep. Millions of Americans, especially Black and Hispanic Americans, lack the economic security that makes other freedoms meaningful — and they are denied the...
The pipeline problem for Black women in economics
Fewer than .5% of Ph.D.s in economics were awarded to Black women in 2018. The Sadie Collective is trying to improve the situation by addressing the pipeline problems for Black women in economics and related fields. Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal spoke with the CEO and co-founder of the Sadie Collective, Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. Kai Ryssdal: Tell me first of all, would you, a little bit about Dr. Sadie Alexander. Anna Gifty...
Forget the stock market. In the real economy, there's coronavirus and mass unemployment
April and May were incredible months for the stock market, which has increased 30% since its March lows. April and May were also horrific months for workers, with 37.2 million filing for unemployment, the most on record for a two month period. That both of these statements are true offers real insight into what our economy is, who it works for, and what policies should be adopted to help it thrive. If you ask President Donald Trump about this, he’ll give you a pretty clear answer. In...
Calls grow for the Federal Reserve to target lowering the Black unemployment rate
As the United States faces a deep recession and protests over systemic injustices toward African Americans, calls are growing for the Federal Reserve to pay closer attention to the black unemployment rate when it makes its policy decisions. Jared Bernstein, an economic adviser to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, says the Fed should make it a goal to get the black unemployment rate down. The national rate has rarely dipped below 10 percent since the...
Black Women Best: Economics has a diversity problem, and here's how it affects everyone
A couple of years ago, I attended a luncheon at a large economics conference hosted by the American Economic Association. After taking my seat, they announced that the program would begin soon, and the high table filed in. As they walked in, one after the other, something seemed off, and then it hit me — not a single one of the panelists was Black. Naturally, I scanned the room to see if I could find any Black people at all. There were maybe three. Imagine sitting in a room with hundreds...
As Trump pushes tax cuts for coronavirus stimulus, lawmakers push back
resident Trump’s renewed push for a payroll tax cut as part of the next round of coronavirus stimulus is being met with bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill, with even some Republican leaders questioning how effective the policy would be. As lawmakers debate the shape of the legislation, Trump’s push for a payroll tax cut likely presages a broader fight over the most appropriate next steps to mitigate the damage from the coronavirus recession and encourage a speedier recovery. Setting...
Normal is what got us here
The COVID-19 crisis has exposed how racial inequities are baked into our economic and health systems, in large part due to anti-blackness. One thing is for sure, we didn’t end up here by accident. Nationwide, as a result of the rules we’ve created and the narratives we hold dear, Black and Latinx Americans are testing positive and dying of coronavirus at disproportionately higher rates. These communities are overrepresented in jobs that put them at risk of both becoming...
For Black people, the country returning 'back to normal' is not good enough
Over the past couple of months, we’ve watched as a pandemic has taken over the country while the Trump administration continues to ignore the advice of public health experts. Every day we learn more about the virus, the toll it’s taking on communities and the associated economic fallout. While all people are at risk, we now know that people of color, particularly Black people, are bearing the brunt of the effects of COVID-19. Black workers are overrepresented as essential workers, have a...
NEW COVID-19 POLICY POLLING: Voters demand further government action; Overwhelming support for immediate aid to families, frontline workers
70 percent want Congress to “do whatever it takes to provide Americans the economic support they need during this very difficult time”; 71 percent want “major, sweeping action to address the economic impact of the pandemic.” Poll finds Democrats credited with proposals that help workers, families; Republicans seen prioritizing corporate bailouts, business support. Washington, DC – Today, the Groundwork Collaborative and the Roosevelt Institute released new polling of registered...
Progressive Group Leaders to Congress: Major federal intervention needed to meet scale of crisis; Congress must put people ahead of corporations to save economy
Washington, DC – Today, leaders of progressive research, policy, and advocacy groups released the following statement calling on Congress to move quickly to pass a robust legislative package that meets the scale of this crisis. The leaders laid out four specific principles that must guide congressional action to ensure that upcoming legislation puts workers, Black and brown communities, and the most vulnerable families ahead of Wall Street and massive corporations. A full list of signers is...
INEQUALITY/ECONOMY: New report reveals 3 million more in poverty, higher price increases for low income families
Report underscores ‘inflation inequality’: how low income families have been facing significantly higher cost of living increases than the wealthiest Americans ***READ THE REPORT HERE*** ***Press conference call to discuss report today at 10:30am ET – RSVP here*** Washington, DC – Today, Christopher Wimer and Sophie Collyer from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University along with Xavier Jaravel of the London School of Economics, in partnership with the...
New IRS inflation adjustments unfair for low income Americans, should be recalculated
Adjustments released today fail to account for higher inflation rates faced by low income families Washington, DC – Today, Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Michael Linden released the following statement on the new IRS tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2020. "Rising inequality has caused inflation to increase more for low income families than for the rich, but because of the recently enacted tax law, the IRS has to use inflation adjustments that understate price...
GoozNews: Health insurance prices are soaring
A new survey by the Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank, shows that corporate CEOs and their finance officers admit on earnings calls that they are using war- and COVID-driven supply chain disruptions to hike prices over and beyond the actual increased costs they are experiencing. “Companies that historically might have kept prices low to pick up profit by gaining additional market share are instead using the cover of inflation to raise prices and increase profits,”...
Financial Times: US companies boost capital spending to tackle supply bottlenecks.
A wave of recent disruptions, from coronavirus lockdowns to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and tensions between the US and China, have led many high-profile investors and executives to predict a reversal of the decades-long trend toward sprawling global supply chains and “just in time” inventory management. Recent quarterly reports from the largest US companies provide some of the first concrete signs that companies are following through on their plans, putting pressure on their...
'Black women best': Why putting Black women first may save us from economic disaster
In 2008, our economy experienced an economic crisis in which Black women lost 258,000 jobs—more than twice as many as the jobs gained by Black men. Our current economic crisis is unfortunately offering up disparity déjà vu. The ravages of the coronavirus have resulted in employment among Black women dropping 11 percentage points—more than any other group. Despite historically low unemployment rates in March, within a month of the pandemic, Black women’s unemployment rate has...
Rocky recovery to keep U.S. unemployment high, Fed’s Bostic says
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said he expects U.S. unemployment will be around 10% in the fourth quarter, with an uneven recovery from the Covid-19-induced recession. “We are going to see sort of some bumps on our journey through recovery,” Bostic said in a telephone interview, noting that the downturn especially is hurting minorities and low-income workers. “I think the second half of the year is going to be pretty strong, certainly much stronger than the...
Mounting unemployment crisis fuels racial wealth gap
The economic meltdown that has devastated the country amid the coronavirus pandemic has proven uniquely damaging for black Americans, threatening to exacerbate an already staggering racial wealth gap and fueling nationwide protests focused on racial justice. Black workers are more likely to be out of a job, to have lost income or to have left the labor market altogether, economic data and surveys show — and less than half of black adults are now employed. More than 1 in 6 black...
Maybe... pay people more,' Says AOC as data shows half of U.S. workers could make more from unemployment than low-wage jobs
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday that data showing around half of all U.S. workers stand to bring home more money per week from beefed up unemployment insurance than they would from their regular full-time jobs is an argument in favor of raising wages, not the right-wing solution of rolling back benefits. "We should be asking ourselves why underpaid workers are being expected to labor for too little money in the first place." —Michele Evermore, National Employment Law...
Four keys to a successful coronavirus rescue
Crises like pandemics, economic collapses and world wars have, at times throughout history, ended up reordering societies — shrinking the gap between the rich and the poor, or empowering the working class. The Black Death helped end feudalism. The Great Depression helped lead to the New Deal. Never has extreme economic inequality shrunk in a meaningful way, says the Stanford historian Walter Scheidel, without a major crisis. The coronavirus pandemic, as of now, is not on the order of the...