🕐 At 11 am PST we'll discuss rising #inflation, with tips on dealing with the highest consumer prices in a generation. Joining us are @lisquart of @econhardship, Penny Wang of @ConsumerReports and @joshbivens_DC of @Economicpolicy.
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Follow via FB Live: fb.me/e/2hasWLEmc
Welcome to today's briefing, #Inflation, is it Eroding the #MiddleClass? You can follow the convo here @EthnicMediaSvc or via FB live at fb.me/e/2hasWLEmc
And you can learn more about the work of our speakers below:
Economic Hardship Reporting Project: economichardship.org
Consumer Reports: consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm
Economic Policy Institute: epi.org
Economic Hardship Reporting Project: economichardship.org
Consumer Reports: consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm
Economic Policy Institute: epi.org
Our first speaker is @lisquart, author of Squeezed: amazon.com/Squeezed-Famil… and the forthcoming Bootstrapped: amazon.com/Bootstrapped-L…
@lisquart mentions the "middle precariat" -- her term for the precarious position of so many in the middle class.
Some recent work by @lisquart on the middle precariat: nytimes.com/2018/06/27/boo…
Even in 2019 more than half of Americans were really unhappy with their jobs, while 40% of workers say job quality has worsened since the #pandemic, notes @lisquart.
In media, there has been a lot of hardship and #inflation, but 20k media jobs have been lost since the start of #COVID, on top of the 45k jobs lost in recent years. We are trying to provide some sustenance to journalists.
At the root of a lot of the attitudes of the middle class is this bootstrapping myth, a toxin in American culture... it has taken a mental toll particularly on the #middleclass. The anxiety and secrecy around finances.
Part of #middleclass identity is privacy. This goes back centuries... that shame and self blame around financial struggles is something @lisquart is trying to lift. #Inflation is part of that mental toll, she says.
We need to talk about some of the psychological dimensions of #inflation.
Can children do better than their parents today, asks @PilarMarrero. "Not so much." There is still mobility but it is nowhere near the scale it used to be. But Americans still perceive more mobility than there in fact is, explains @lisquart.
Our next speaker is Penny Wang, Deputy Editor of @consumerreports.
Fewer than half of American adults—just 47 percent—say that they have enough emergency funds to cover three months of expenses, according to a survey conducted in 2020 by the Pew Research Center.
It is important to use this current spike in #inflation as a touchstone in peoples individual financial planning.
One of the biggest areas where we saw price spikes are with gas. 90% of Americans are seeing high prices in all areas but gas is what they pay attention to. There is no silver bullet for solving this, says Penny Wang.
You have to be the one to put on the price controls. You can't rely on companies, many of which are seeing rising revenues.
The American Connectivity Program helps low-income families get help with internet connectivity fcc.gov/acp
There is growing anxiety that as the #pandemic passes #inflation will rise even more. What are the predictions on this, asks @AraceliMartinez. Housing, rent... these are going to be slower to move, unlike other prices which move more quickly.
Our next speaker is @joshbivens_DC. "There is no knob you can turn that only reduces #inflation" without impacting other parts of the economy, he says.
Any knob we turn could have costs equal to those of #inflation.
If you look at the 50 OECD countries, we all did different things fiscally. The US did a lot of fiscal relief, other countries did not, and yet #inflation rose globally.
The common denominator: the schock of #COVID. It led to a huge shift in what people spend their money on. It shifted from services to goods, people moved out of the cities.
And COVID wrecked the supply chain just as all this was happening. "On both demand and supply side, this is a story about what COVID did. It has been a society changing event."
What to do about #Inflation: there are 2 bad ideas, 10 kill the #buildbackbetter. "There was nothing in this that was inflationary." Killing it was a bad idea.
And unlike the stimulus package, #buildbackbetter had a bunch of things that would have helped costs that hurt family budgets. Over time... it could have been a real help.
No one wants #inflation at 7%... but I did like the 6.5 mil jobs created. Following the 2008 recession, it took a decade to get back to the employment rate. We are already under 4% unemployment. "That is amazing."
The bad news is there is no laser focused policy that will stop inflation. But by mid-2022 it will start to decelerate. Supply chains will start to loosen... and on demand, there will be less pressure on durable goods.
As much as we don't like 7% inflation, we need to think about times when the cure is worse than the disease, says @joshbivens_DC
And this: epi.org/blog/inflation…
As an economist, I am always surprised by how inflation worries people more than what I think should worry them. I was more worried about the 15% unemployment we saw in 2020, for example.
"In 2019 we had an economy with a ton of problems, but given how things could have gone, we are on a better track than I could have imagined," says @joshbivens_DC
"2022 has the potential to be a pretty good year for American workers. That said, they still don't have access to affordable #childcare, no right to #unions, etc. My optimism is macro, not long-run trajectory," says @joshbivens_DC.
A huge thank you to all our speakers for today's informative conversation. Check out ethnicmediaservices.org for a write up on this and previous briefings.
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