A Tale of Two Recoveries
A Tale of Two Recoveries podcast from the Roosevelt Institute compares the recoveries between now and the Great Recession. What’s Changed since the Great Recession?
The shifts in economic policy thinking over the last decade helped produce today’s record-breaking recovery.
Heidi Shierholz:
“The economy is not like the freaking weather, right? Like it really is a policy choice. The difference in the speed of the recovery really, really underscores just how unbelievably important fiscal policy is, like Keynesian stimulus, to generating a strong recovery in the economy.”
Joelle and Heidi discuss how to measure a recovery and the shifts in economic policy.
Fun fact: The US economy’s rebound from the COVID recession has been five times faster than its recovery after the Great Recession.
You read that right. And to explain why that is—and how workers have benefited—we’ve got two people who’ve had front-row seats in the Obama and Biden administrations.
Joelle Gamble is the current chief economist at the US Department of Labor; Heidi Shierholz (now the president of the Economic Policy Institute) was its chief economist between 2014 and 2017.
Darn. I really hate to suggest an argument that might lessen the importance of fiscal policy in recovery, but comparing massive private debt default, capital loss, high unemployment, and deflation to rising interest rates, record profits, low unemployment, rising wages, and inflation is more that a little like comparing apples to oranges. Solly.
Solly again. A financial collapse is different than a pandemic shut-down, but my attempt to demonstrate that was a feeble brain fart. Got to0 much other stuff on my mind to be firing off rebuttals or any other comments for now.