Former Commerce Secretary Robert Reich on yesterday’s livestream from Democrats Abroad UK. Some notes:
– Reich says we’re at a once in a hundred years crisis, a “triple barreled emergency” of “pandemic, econom[ic collapse], and racism and its consequences.”
– Calls Trump’s response to the Black protests “a nightmare of leadership, something you would expect from a dictatorship that had no concern and no feel for human rights.”
– Expects as much as 25% unemployment to be announced next week. (It declined to 13.3%.)
– Does not see an economic recovery from Covid of the V, U, or reverse checkmark type, i.e., a rapid recovery, however delayed.
– Does not endorse always running on deficit spending (TIL: this is called MMT, modern monetary theory) but does say that this is not a time to worry about it – the US should be spending more on infrastructure and education.
– Slams bank bailouts that enabled share buybacks – calls again (cf. 2008) for helping individuals to “stay in their homes,” “get food on the table, and survive well.”
– Proposes a moratorium on student debt followed by reorganizing to eliminate it.