The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been enormous; unprecedented in US history, at least since the 1930s. The Administration, Congress, and the Federal Reserve bank have taken major steps over the last months to soften the impact on employers, workers, corporations and other parts of the economy including huge, multi-trillion dollar infusions of cash through loans and bond purchases into the banking system and directly to businesses.
The Economic Impact of COVID-19
The economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been enormous; unprecedented in US history, at least since the 1930s. The Administration, Congress, and the Federal Reserve bank have taken major steps over the last months to soften the impact on employers, workers, corporations and other parts of the economy including huge, multi-trillion dollar infusions of cash through loans and bond purchases into the banking system and directly to businesses. The Administration and Congress have passed the CARES Act, which is designed to reinforce the efforts of the federal government in the corporate sector, send checks directly to citizens who meet certain eligibility criteria, shore up state unemployment compensation programs, provide financial support to beleaguered hospitals and provide forgivable loans to small business employers who agree to protect the wages of their workers.
At this point, it does not look as if these early initiatives will be sufficient to address the full magnitude of the economic fallout from the pandemic which is predicted to continue in many parts of the country throughout the summer and possibly longer, maybe even into 2021. Already, however, the economic impact of this crisis is being felt in very different ways dependent on the nature of a worker’s job, and that more economic assistance will be needed in the weeks ahead. Essential working-class employees, like grocery store, public transit, and health care workers are being affected in very different ways by the pandemic than professional managerial class workers who can work at home, for example. This section of our Covid-19 site will feature links to information that we think offers the best insight into the economic impact of the pandemic and its differential effects on various parts of the population and the results of those policies and budget interventions at the federal and state levels to contain the potential economic damage.
Reports
- Monthly poverty rates in the United States during COVID-19 (Columbia University)
- The Impact of Coronavirus on Households Across America (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
Important Links
- The Three Biggest Lessons of the Coronavirus Economy (The New Yorker)
- Biden signs executive orders aimed at combating hunger, protecting workers (Politico)
- Jobless claims remained at historic highs last week, as Biden inherits the worst job market of any modern president (The Washington Post)
- ‘A call for unity’: Biden lays out vast federal expansion of pandemic response (Politico)
- Struggling Americans blast stimulus bill as too little, too late (CNN)
- The State of Poverty and Health Insurance in America (People’s Policy Project)
- Government-Funded Scientists Laid the Groundwork for Billion-Dollar Vaccines (KHN)
- Real COVID-19 relief? Use all tools to invest in the ‘care economy’ (The Hill)
- How Biden Can Create Good Jobs (Project Syndicate)
- ‘Get off our damn asses’: Stimulus debacle exposes broken Washington (Politico)
- Recession With a Difference: Women Face Special Burden (The New York Times)
- For older workers, pandemic unemployment could be career-ending (PBS)
- US economy hurtles toward ‘COVID cliff’ with programs set to expire (The Hill)
- A dark economic winter (The Hill)
- As COVID-19 cases surge, the country’s economic recovery is losing steam (Brookings)
- 1.5 Million New Yorkers Can’t Afford Food. Pantries Are Their Lifeline. (The New York Times)
- Most Home Health Aides ‘Can’t Afford Not to Work’ — Even When Lacking PPE (KHN)
- Job-based premiums continue to rise faster than wages, inflation (Modern Healthcare)
- Capitalism Is Broken. The Fix Begins With a Free Covid-19 Vaccine. (The New York Times)
- Healthcare Billionaires Got Nearly $150B Richer Due to COVID Pandemic (Newsweek)
- Opinion: Half of Americans over 55 may retire poor (Market Watch)
- ‘Doomed to fail’: Why a $4 trillion bailout couldn’t revive the American economy (The Washington Post)
- 6 Months After Coronavirus Shutdowns, the Shape(s) of the Economic Crisis (The New York Times)
- Mothers Are 3 Times More Likely Than Fathers to Have Lost Jobs in Pandemic (PEW)
- Evictions Damage Public Health. The CDC Aims to Curb Them ― For Now. (KHN)
- The covid-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history (The New York Times)
- Juggling Financial Stress And Caregiving, Parents Are ‘Very Not OK’ In The Pandemic (wbur)
- Washington’s inability to agree on COVID relief puts future of colleges, universities at risk (The Hill)
- Food Insecurity In The U.S. By The Numbers (npr)
- Trump promises permanent cut to payroll tax funding Social Security and Medicare if he’s reelected (The Washington Post)
- Pandemic leaves domestic workers facing tough choices, often without a safety net (CBS News)
- Poorly Protected Postal Workers Are Catching COVID-19 by the Thousands. It’s One More Threat to Voting by Mail. (ProPublica)
- The Incredible Rise Of The Top One Percent Will Soar Post COVID-19 (Forbes)
- Financial Pain From the Pandemic ‘Much, Much Worse’ Than Expected (Portside)
- NPR Poll: Financial Pain From Coronavirus Pandemic ‘Much, Much Worse’ Than Expected (npr)
- Rising Risk & Escalating Costs Threaten Americans’ Financial Security in Retirement (National Institute on Retirement Security)
- Job Growth Slackens, Signaling Vulnerability of Recovery (The New York Times)
- The Service Economy Meltdown (The New York Times)
- Coronavirus pandemic likely to leave legacy of fear and uncertainty that holds back economy for decades (USA Today)
- CDC Issues Sweeping Temporary Halt On Evictions Nationwide Amid Pandemic (npr)
- The Rent Eats First, Even During a Pandemic (The New York Times)
- SSI awards for the disabled lowest in 20 years — needs congressional attention (The Hill)
- America’s Coming Double Dip (Project Syndicate)
- As permanent economic damage piles up, the Covid Crisis is looking more like the Great Recession (The Washington Post)
- ‘Not just a low-wage recession’: White-collar workers feel coronavirus squeeze (Politico)
- Debt, eviction and hunger: Millions fall back into crisis as stimulus and safety nets vanish (The Washington Post)
- The Coronavirus Generation (The New York Times)
- The Trump administration’s ‘public charge’ rule and Covid-19: bad policy at the worst time (STAT)
- ‘Living in my car’? Fall semester online means college students are scrambling for housing, Wi-Fi (USA Today)
- 5 things the latest data says about COVID-19 and the economy (USA Facts)
- Making billions v making ends meet: how the pandemic has split the US economy in two (The Guardian)
- Extreme poverty rises and a generation sees future slip away (AP News)
- Top Fed official says quick reopenings damaged recovery from coronavirus (The Hill)
- Trump The Disrupter Takes Dead Aim At Social Security (Tax Policy Center)
- In the COVID-19 economy, we are running out of time to prioritize child care (The Hill)
- Trump’s eviction ban would leave most tenants in peril (Politico)
- The Coming Eviction Crisis: ‘It’s Hard to Pay the Bills on Nothing’ (The New York Times)
- A growing side effect of the pandemic: Permanent job loss (Politico)
- The Covid-19 Recession Is Forcing A Wave Of Early Retirements — Time To Boost Social Security (Forbes)
- Health care execs have made millions during COVID, more scrutiny needed: Critics (ABC News)
- The myth of unemployment benefits depressing work (The Washington Post)
- Wave of evictions expected as moratoriums end in many states (AP News)
- Ten bucks left, no place to go: How the pandemic and a broken unemployment system are upending people’s lives (The Washington Post)
- Now We’ll Know What the Recession Feels Like (The Atlantic)
- Corporate America was here for you on coronavirus until about June (Vox)
- Pandemic Puts More Retirements at Risk (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)
- ‘It’s insane’: Millions of kids could lose access to free meals if this program expires (Politico)
- It’s clearer than ever that covid-19 will increase, not decrease, inequality (The Washington Post)
- America’s hidden economic crisis: Widespread wage cuts (Politico)
- Watch: COVID Patients and Families Battle to Get Benefits (KHN)
- Amid a Deadly Virus and Crippled Economy, One Form of Aid Has Proved Reliable: Food Stamps (The New York Times)
- The Jobs We Need (The New York Times)
- The Terrifying Next Phase of the Coronavirus Recession (The Atlantic)
- Colorado, Like Other States, Trims Health Programs Amid Health Crisis (KHN)
- Millions of Americans going hungry as pandemic erodes incomes and destroys communities (NBC News)
- Priorities for the Covid-19 economy (Social Europe)
- ‘Extreme inequality was the preexisting condition’: How COVID-19 widened America’s wealth gap (ABC News)
- How to Avoid a ‘Rich Man’s Recovery’ (The New York Times)
- Continued Layoffs Signal an ‘Economic Scarring’ (The New York Times)
- Our lockdowns are not deadlier than the disease (The Hill)
- Black community braces for next threat: Mass evictions (Politico)
- The Health 202: Medicaid providers had to wait weeks for coronavirus relief dollars (The Washington Post)
- Hedge fund manager stands to profit on ‘flip’ of taxpayer-funded coronavirus drug (The Washington Post)
- The CARES Act Sent You a $1,200 Check but Gave Millionaires and Billionaires Far More (ProPublica)
- New infections are still the biggest risk to the economy (CNN)
- Minority Workers Who Lagged in a Boom Are Hit Hard in a Bust (The New York Times)
- The Small-Business Die-Off Is Here (The Atlantic)
- Covid-19 is changing the game for health care companies and investors (STAT)
- The U.S. economic slide is likely bottoming out, but a recovery could take years (The Washington Post)
- Millions Of Americans Skip Payments As Tidal Wave Of Defaults And Evictions Looms (NPR)
- How Germany Saved Its Workforce From Unemployment While Spending Less Per Person Than the U.S. (ProPublica)
- Parents and child care providers are falling apart. It could get much worse (CNN)
- They made ends meet before coronavirus. Now they’re the ‘new poor.’ (Tampa Bay Times)
- Can America’s Middle Class Be Saved from a New Depression? (The New York Times)
- Why We Can’t Foresee the Pandemic’s Long-Term Effects (The New York Times)
- Millions Relying on Pandemic Aid Can See Its End, and They’re Scared (The New York Times)
- COVID-19, Unemployment Compensation, and State Medicaid Expansion Decisions (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
- Scenes From an Economic Collapse (The New York Times)
- Trump takes aim at WHO as US economic outlook worsens (AP News)
- House passes bill to grant flexibility for small business aid program (The Hill)
- An ‘Avalanche of Evictions’ Could Be Bearing Down on America’s Renters (The New York Times)
- 41 million have lost jobs since virus hit, but layoffs slow (AP News)
- Should the Child Care Industry Get a Bailout? (The New York Times)
- Economists Want to Put Stimulus on Autopilot. Congress Has Other Ideas. (The New York Times)
- Single Mothers Hit Hard by Job Losses (PEW)
- ‘Something isn’t right’: U.S. probes soaring beef prices (Politico)
- The general election scenario that Democrats are dreading (Politico)
- Crowded housing and essential jobs: Why so many Latinos are getting coronavirus (The Washington Post)
- What Happened to the Great American Logistics Machine? (The New York Times)
- Reopening reality check: Georgia’s jobs aren’t flooding back (Politico)
- Protecting our economy and our health in a pandemic (Brookings)
- Cities on the Verge of a COVID-Driven Housing Crisis (24/7 Wall St)
- A Wave of Small Business Closures Is on the Way. Can Washington Stop It? (The New York Times)
- North Dakota businesses dominated the PPP. Their secret weapon? A century-old bank founded by radical progressives. (The Washington Post)
- Clash over government role in worker safety intensifies as businesses reopen (Politico)
- Trump points to good news as restaurant owners tell of fears (AP News)
- Let’s Make Sure The COVID-19 Response Doesn’t Threaten Social Security (Forbes)
- Economists Want to Put Stimulus on Autopilot. Congress Has Other Ideas. (The New York Times)
- Second layoffs, backlogs wave keeps U.S. jobless claims elevated (Reuters)
- Pandemic wrecks many state budgets, could trigger deep cuts (AP News)
- The economic devastation wrought by the pandemic could ultimately kill more people than the virus itself (LA Times)
- 5 common arguments for reopening the economy — and why experts say they are flawed (CNN)
- New Research Examines Impact of Market Decline on Public Pension Plans (PR Newsire)
- States cut Medicaid as millions of jobless workers look to safety net (Politico)
- Political fantasy battles economic reality after tens of millions of jobs lost (Politico)
- McDonald’s Workers in Denmark Pity Us (The New York Times)
- The Pandemic Jobless Youthquake (The New York Review of Books)
- Harris, Sanders, and Markey Bill Would Provide $2K/Month for Rest of Covid-19 Crisis (Portside)
- Schumer, Pelosi set to unveil ‘Rooseveltian’ relief package (The Hill)
- Economic damage from the pandemic spreads to all corners of the country (PBS)
- Political fantasy battles economic reality after tens of millions of jobs lost (Politico)
- Why Michael Flynn Is Walking Free (The Atlantic)
- 33 million have sought US unemployment aid since virus hit (AP News)
- ‘Devastating’ number of Mainers could lose health insurance as pandemic continues (BDN Business)
- Paid sick days and paid leave are health and economic recovery requirements (The Hill)
- Meat crisis undoes lesson of classic 1906 novel | Will Bunch Newsletter (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
- Trump’s hopes for ‘tremendous rebound’ crash into grim reality (Politico)
- The Small-Business Die-Off Is Here (The Atlantic)
- Trump team plots tax cuts and regulatory suspensions to boost a coronavirus recovery (Politico)
- COVID-19 is hitting older workers like a sledgehammer — here’s what Congress can do (The Hill)
- Rent Is Due Today, But Millions Of Americans Won’t Be Paying (NPR)
- Why the Global Debt of Poor Nations Must Be Canceled (The New York Times)
- Senior citizens may be souring on Trump as coronavirus crisis continues (Boston Globe)
- 30 million have sought US unemployment aid since virus hit (AP News)
- Mass layoffs begin in cities and states amid coronavirus fallout, threatening education, sanitation, health and safety (The Washington Post)
- The class war against front-line workers (The Washington Post)
- ‘Tip Of The Iceberg’: Economy Shrinks At 4.8% Pace, But Worst Is Yet To Come (NPR)
- Economists agree: No quick rebound from recession is likely (AP News)
- Despite widespread economic hardship, most Americans not ready to reopen, poll says (PBS)
- This is what coronavirus capitalism looks like (CNN)
- Job or Health? Restarting the Economy Threatens to Worsen Economic Inequality (The New York Times)
- Health Insurers Prosper As COVID-19 Deflates Demand For Elective Treatments (KHN)
- Who Has Enough Cash to Get Through the Coronavirus Crisis? (The New York Times)
- Kiss Your State Pension Goodbye (Forbes)
- Coronavirus exposes scars of Great Recession (The Hill)
- I Never Planned to Be a Front-Line Worker at Dollar General (The New York Times)
- Martin Luther King Jr. Predicted This Moment (The New York Times)
- Failing to Help Those Who Need It Most (The New York Times)
- U.S. House passes $500 billion coronavirus bill in latest relief package (Reuters)
- Americans too scared to go to work risk losing unemployment aid, experts say (Reuters)
- Banks Gave Richest Clients ‘Concierge Treatment’ for Pandemic Aid (The New York Times)
- Fauci: Best way to reopen economy is to avoid a rebound of virus (The Hill)
- There’s a growing possibility of a W-shaped economic recovery — and it’s scary (The Washington Post)
- Banks Funneled Stimulus Funds to Largest Companies to Fatten Fees, Lawsuits Say (Portside)
- Food, Rent, Health Insurance? Tough Choices in Pandemic Economy (The New York Times)
- Many Health Providers on Brink of Insolvency (PEW)
- Senate passes $484 billion coronavirus deal after weeks of deadlock (Politico)
- Banks warn that new small-business funding could evaporate in 2 days (Politico)
- Providing safe child care during COVID-19 — a life and death issue (The Hill)
- What America Can Do to Fight Mass Unemployment (The New York Times)
- Economy faces grueling road to recovery from coronavirus (The Hill)
- Here’s How Much Trump’s Mishandling of COVID-19 Will Cost the Economy (Washington Monthly)
- Millions of Essential Workers Are Being Left Out of COVID-19 Workplace Safety Protections, Thanks to OSHA (ProPublica)
- Layoffs and pay cuts are now striking more white collar jobs (AP News)
- Straggling in a Good Economy, and Now Struggling in a Crisis (The New York Times)
- Starve the Beast, Feed the Depression (The New York Times)
- It’s the End of the World Economy as We Know It (The New York Times)
- Unemployment Money Not Reaching Millions Of People Who Applied (NPR)
- Stop Dawdling. People Need Money. (The New York Times)
- Millennials Don’t Stand a Chance (The Atlantic)
- As Usual, Americans Must Go It Alone (The Atlantic)
- How new global fault lines will usher in the most profound worldwide changes since World War II (Alternet)
- Useless Retirement Advice And Bad Government Policy In The Time Of COVID-19 (Forbes)
- How the Coronavirus Could Create a New Working Class (The Atlantic)
- The economic data is even worse than Wall Street feared: ‘The economy is clearly in ruins here’ (CNBC)
- Thanks to COVID-19, Social Security’s day of reckoning may be even closer than we thought (Market Watch)
- I Harvest Your Food. Why Isn’t My Health ‘Essential’? (The New York Times)
- Lack of Savings Worsens the Pain of Coronavirus Downturn (The Wall Street Journal)
- ‘Should have happened yesterday’: Republicans press Trump to restart economy (Politico)
- Anatomy of the coronavirus collapse (Brookings)
- The Health 202: Coronavirus testing is stalling. That’s not a good sign for re-opening the U.S. economy (The Washington Post)
- ‘This Is Going to Kill Small-Town America’ (The New York Times)
- ‘We’re Going Down, Down, Down, Down, Down’ (The New York Times)
- ‘Never Seen Anything Like It’: Cars Line Up for Miles at Food Banks (The New York Times)
- The America We Need (The New York Times)
- Even With New Federal Coronavirus Bill, Most Workers Get No Additional Sick Leave (KQED)
- Capitalism’s triple crisis (Social Europe)
- U.S. companies criticized for cutting jobs rather than investor payouts (Reuters)
- Gig-Working Through the Apocalypse (The New Republic)
- Italy Is Sending Another Warning (The New York Times)
- Young Adults, Burdened With Debt, Are Now Facing an Economic Crisis (The New York Times)
- How the Coronavirus Bailout Repeats 2008’s Mistakes: Huge Corporate Payoffs With Little Accountability (ProPublica)
Coronavirus Navigation
- Corovonavirus, COVID19, and You
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- COVID-19’s Impact on Long-Term Care
- Medical Care and COVID-19
- The Inequality of COVID-19
- Ethics and Morality During COVID-19
- The Economic Impact of COVID-19
- The Epidemiology and Demography of COVID-19
- Mental Health and COVID-19
- Florida Policy on COVID-19
- The Cultural Impact of COVID-19
- Public Health Policy and COVID-19
- Global Dimensions of COVID-19
- COVID-19 Impact on Vulnerable Populations
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