United States: Beyond the wasteland -- New strategies for pivoting from the pandemic crisis to a recovery built on economic justice

‘Decades of falling wage shares mean that millions of households are ready to spend more if only they could earn more income. A well-calibrated recovery strategy that combines public spending on goods and services with regulation of predatory corporate behavior and effective redistribution can unleash a virtuous growth circle that improves living standards for the vast majority and strengthens government finances even as it generates resources to boost public services and tackle the environmental catastrophe.

‘Such a strategy would consist of the following elements:

• A prolonged fiscal expansion with immediate support to employment creation and social services, including a strong component in the care economy;
• Public-infrastructure investment to accelerate the energy transition by combining policies to encourage investments in renewables and discourage fossil fuel extraction;
• Policies to improve industrial capacity based on raising productivity and greater energy efficiency;
• Progressive tax reforms shifting the burden from indirect taxes such as sales and value-added taxes (which are regressive and discourage spending) to direct taxation, especially on high-income earners (whose consumption is relatively unaffected by taxation) and on corporate earnings and rents (with exemptions depending on employment creation).

Read here (The American Prospect, Nov 27, 2020)

Regime change didn't disrupt Covid-19 response: Health DG

‘The country’s Covid-19 response was not adversely affected by the change in government, says Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. “No. Even though there was a change of government, we were still able to carry out our duties, which were to monitor data, look at our strategic planning and do what we needed to do to control and stop the spread of Covid-19.”

Read here (Malaysiakini, June 3, 2020)

Manifesto for post-neoliberal development: Five policy strategies for the Netherlands after the Covid-19 crisis

‘The Manifesto calls the Dutch Government to implement five key policy strategies for moving forward during and after the Covid-19 crisis:

• A move away from “development” focused on aggregate GDP growth;
• An economic framework focused on redistribution;
• Transformation towards regenerative agriculture;
• Reduction of consumption and travel; and
• Debt cancellation.

‘This Manifesto brings to the forefront some fundamental concerns of degrowth scholars and activists, and shows that these concerns are close to the hearts and minds of many academics who may not (yet) see themselves as part of the degrowth community. Particularly relevant is the link between economic development, the loss of biodiversity and important ecosystem functions, and the opportunity for diseases like COVID-19 to spread among humans. The Manifesto proposes policies that, as research tells us, are critical for a more sustainable, equal and diverse society - one that can better prevent and deal with shocks, including climate change related ones, and pandemics to come.’

Read here (Ontgroei, April 16, 2020)

Related:

Use crisis to make post corona society fairer and sustainable, say scientists. Read here

Bringing in the experts: Blame deflection and the COVID-19 crisis

“The contemporary visibility and political emphasis on ‘the experts’ is therefore a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it is completely rational to heed the advice of those who have dedicated their professional lives to understanding and protecting public health; on the other hand, it is also a depoliticisation strategy in the sense that politicians who have dedicated their professional lives to not going MAD (i.e. falling foul of ‘multiple accountabilities disorder’) will understand the benefit of allowing ‘the experts’ to become the public face of the crisis.”

Read here (LSE, April 3, 2020)