As of Thursday, April 9, Treasury and the Federal Reserve are finally starting to set set up the facilities need to use the $500 billion in funds for “severely distressed sectors” contained in the $2.2 trillion CARES relief act. The money has to be allocated by December 31, 2020. In this initial round, the Fed […]

The 2020 presidential election, like almost everything else, hangs in suspended animation as Americans ride out the coronavirus pandemic. When it resumes, we will learn more about whether another kind of contagion—illiberal populism—is advancing or retreating here. Over the past decade, populism has been rewriting the rules of party competition across the West. Sparked by a […]

The Trump administration prepares for the best instead of the worst. During a period of economic growth, instead of preparing for an inevitable downturn, the administration pushed through large tax cuts that benefited corporations and the wealthiest individuals, driving up federal deficits. And after the Ebola outbreak subsided, rather than preparing for a new global health […]

For many of us, the coronavirus calamity is a humbling reminder of all we don’t know and can’t control. But for the ax-grinders, hobby-horse riders and zealous partisans among us, it’s just another opportunity to advance pet causes. So from certain right-wing politicians and propagandists, we get the lunatic theory that the pandemic is a Democratic or […]

The $2.2 trillion Corona Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities (CARES) Act appropriated $30.75 billion for education—almost half of which will flow to “Local Education Agencies.” These LEAs include both school districts and many charter schools or networks. But charter laws differ from state to state, and many charter schools authorized by school districts do not […]

Expanding Postal Voting to Preserve Democratic Institutions During the COVID-19 Crisis The recent outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States has caused an untold amount of economic, political and social disruption. Trillions of dollars in economic activity has been lost, and in the first week of the crisis 3.3 million workers reported being laid off1. […]

In our previous blog post, we wrote about the importance of keeping the food/essentials supply chains open. With hundreds of millions of Americans stuck at home, having a dependable source of food is essential to avoid panic and to stay the course on social distancing. That’s not optional. We equally stressed the importance of the […]

In order to save lives and mitigate the impacts of the economic shutdown, there is an acute need for national direction to orchestrate and coordinate medical supply production — and it needs to happen quickly. When the U.S.N.S. Comfort sailed past the Statue of Liberty most Americans felt something — whether it be pride or […]