Josh Bivens
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450150
- eISBN:
- 9780801460654
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450150.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This book relays a compelling narrative of the U.S. economy's struggle to emerge from the Great Recession of 2008. It explains the causes and impact on working Americans of the most catastrophic ...
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This book relays a compelling narrative of the U.S. economy's struggle to emerge from the Great Recession of 2008. It explains the causes and impact on working Americans of the most catastrophic economic policy failure since the 1920s. Economic growth since the late 1970s has been slow and inequitably distributed, largely as a result of poor policy choices. These choices only got worse in the 2000s, leading to an anemic economic expansion. What growth we did see in the economy was fueled by staggering increases in private-sector debt and a housing bubble that artificially inflated wealth by trillions of dollars. As had been predicted, the bursting of the housing bubble had disastrous consequences for the broader economy, spurring a financial crisis and a rise in joblessness that dwarfed those resulting from any recession since the Great Depression. The fallout from the Great Recession makes it near certain that there will be yet another lost decade of income growth for typical families, whose incomes had not been boosted by the previous decade's sluggish and localized economic expansion. In its broad narrative of how the economy has failed to deliver for most Americans over much of the past three decades, the book also offers compelling graphic evidence on jobs, incomes, wages, and other measures of economic well-being most relevant to low-and middle-income workers. It tracks these trends carefully, giving a lesson in economic history that is readable yet rigorous in its analysis.Less
This book relays a compelling narrative of the U.S. economy's struggle to emerge from the Great Recession of 2008. It explains the causes and impact on working Americans of the most catastrophic economic policy failure since the 1920s. Economic growth since the late 1970s has been slow and inequitably distributed, largely as a result of poor policy choices. These choices only got worse in the 2000s, leading to an anemic economic expansion. What growth we did see in the economy was fueled by staggering increases in private-sector debt and a housing bubble that artificially inflated wealth by trillions of dollars. As had been predicted, the bursting of the housing bubble had disastrous consequences for the broader economy, spurring a financial crisis and a rise in joblessness that dwarfed those resulting from any recession since the Great Depression. The fallout from the Great Recession makes it near certain that there will be yet another lost decade of income growth for typical families, whose incomes had not been boosted by the previous decade's sluggish and localized economic expansion. In its broad narrative of how the economy has failed to deliver for most Americans over much of the past three decades, the book also offers compelling graphic evidence on jobs, incomes, wages, and other measures of economic well-being most relevant to low-and middle-income workers. It tracks these trends carefully, giving a lesson in economic history that is readable yet rigorous in its analysis.
Liz Theoharis and Noam Sandweiss-Back
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- June 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780197632819
- eISBN:
- 9780197632857
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197632819.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Conflict Politics and Policy, Security Studies
This chapter discusses how America's recent history is bloodied with examples of how government positions create unlivable conditions for the poor in the richest country in the world that are nothing ...
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This chapter discusses how America's recent history is bloodied with examples of how government positions create unlivable conditions for the poor in the richest country in the world that are nothing less than violence of the highest order. After the Great Recession of 2008, the very speculators and financial institutions that were responsible for the devastating crash were bailed out by the Obama administration, and twelve years later, in March 2020, the Federal Reserve materialized over a trillion dollars to buoy Wall Street in the days immediately following the COVID-19 shutdown. Meanwhile, the U.S. government offered threadbare and temporary support to most citizens and completely locked out millions in undocumented communities, homeless encampments, prisons, and more. Indeed, the poor, minority, and marginalized communities have suffered the most. Notably, the suffering comes in two forms: from the disease and from a shredded social safety net, seemingly designed to bail out only the wealthiest. Nonviolent mass social awakening, the chapter contends, is the only way these systems of violence can be undone.Less
This chapter discusses how America's recent history is bloodied with examples of how government positions create unlivable conditions for the poor in the richest country in the world that are nothing less than violence of the highest order. After the Great Recession of 2008, the very speculators and financial institutions that were responsible for the devastating crash were bailed out by the Obama administration, and twelve years later, in March 2020, the Federal Reserve materialized over a trillion dollars to buoy Wall Street in the days immediately following the COVID-19 shutdown. Meanwhile, the U.S. government offered threadbare and temporary support to most citizens and completely locked out millions in undocumented communities, homeless encampments, prisons, and more. Indeed, the poor, minority, and marginalized communities have suffered the most. Notably, the suffering comes in two forms: from the disease and from a shredded social safety net, seemingly designed to bail out only the wealthiest. Nonviolent mass social awakening, the chapter contends, is the only way these systems of violence can be undone.
