Challenges for Low-Wage Workers, Presidential Competence, and More

March 21, 2020

Editor's note: Effective Friday, March 13, the Brookings Institution is taking new steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus/COVID-19. While we will continue to publish work, our campus in Washington, D.C. will be closed to staff and guests through at least April 3 and all public events are canceled or postponed. For more information, read our full guidance here.

U.S. President Donald Trump declares the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency.

In a national emergency, presidential competence is crucial

"We should expect our president to preside over a White House where people have extensive knowledge of all parts of the government and can provide to him, at a moment’s notice, the full range of options available to a president confronting a national emergency. Unfortunately this is not the president we have," writes Elaine Kamarck.

COVID-19 puts America's low-wage workforce in an even worse position

America's low-wage workers faced difficult economic circumstances before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, they are at greater risk than ever. Building on new research, Martha Ross and Nicole Bateman call for policymakers to put these 53 million people at the front and center of recovery measures.

As Senator McConnell pushes to pass a new stimulus bill by Monday, Joshua Gotbaum examines what Congress can do to responsibly and quickly provide assistance to businesses and workers impacted by the economic effects of the coronavirus. Want more of our coronavirus analysis in your inbox? Sign up for special updates.

Listen: Fiona Hill on the role of expertise and public servants in a time of crisis

What’s always been "extraordinarily important" about America is the idea of communal response—people pulling together to build something new and forge ahead in difficult circumstances, says Fiona Hill in her podcast interview with Brookings President John R. Allen. David Wessel also joins the episode to explain the economic response to the coronavirus.

Listen to the podcast

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity

This week, we published the latest edition of the Brookings Papers on Economc Activity (BPEA). The Spring 2020 papers cover topics including automation, the declining power of workers, and more. Explore a few highlights below.

Does the U.S. tax code favor automation? In their paper, Daron Acemoglu, Andrea Manera, and Pascual Restrepo find that the U.S. tax code systematically favors investments in robots and software over investments in people—a trend that results in too much automation that destroys jobs, while only marginally improving efficiency.

Determining risks to growth. How well do financial indicators predict where the economy is headed? Mikkel Plagborg-Møller, Lucrezia Reichlin, Giovanni Ricco, and Thomas Hasenzagl argue they cannot be relied on to provide an early warning sign of a recession.

The decreasing power of workers. Declining unionization, increased outsourcing, and other factors have reduced the power of America's workers. Anna Stansbury and Lawrence H. Summers discuss the profound consequences for the labor market, as well as the broader U.S. economy.

The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars.

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