The State Of The Economy, 7 Months Into The Pandemic

How is our economy doing seven months into the pandemic? And with winter on its way, are we prepared to handle the slew of challenges that will come with it? We talk about the state of our economy.

Guests

Rana Foroohar, CNN global analyst. Financial Times global business columnist and associate editor. Author of “Don’t Be Evil” and “Makers and Takers.” (@RanaForoohar)

Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist for the Washington Post. Author of “The 21 Day Financial Fast.” Her column “The Color of Money” is syndicated in newspapers across the country. (@SingletaryM)

From The Reading List

Washington Post: “The IRS is making a final push to get stimulus payments to millions of Americans” — “As negotiations for a second stimulus payment falter, the IRS is pushing to finish distributing payments to people who have yet to receive relief funds authorized earlier this year.”

Financial Times: “Joe Biden needs an economic team that will support workers” — “There are still two weeks to go until the US presidential elections, but Democrats are feeling optimistic enough to start talking about what a Joe Biden cabinet might look like. Much of the conversation has been focused on race and gender diversity.”

Washington Post: “Being Black lowers the value of my home: The legacy of redlining” — “Let me tell you about where I live. On my early-morning walks with my Yorkie mix Simba, we often encounter small families of deer, which see so many human walkers and runners in my neighborhood that they glance up but don’t dash away.”

New York Times: “Millions of Evictions Are a Sharper Threat as Government Support Ends” — “For the 108 million people who live in a rental home or apartment, Aug. 1 was a grim milestone. It marked the first time rent was due after much of the nation’s economic response to the coronavirus had expired.”

Marketplace: “Americans on shaky ground financially, speaking out more on racism, poll finds” — “Nearly half of all Americans would have trouble paying for an unexpected $250 bill and a third of Americans have less income than before the pandemic, according to the latest results of our Marketplace-Edison Research Poll.”

Washington Post: “The covid-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history” — “At the height of the coronavirus crisis, low-wage jobs were lost at about eight times the rate of high-wage ones, The Post found. The devastation was deepest among the lowest-paid, but middle-class jobs were not spared.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]