Millions of America’s smallest businesses have been severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. They’ve seen revenue evaporate and have been forced to lay off millions of workers. Over two million small businesses had simply disappeared by June 2020. The U.S. economy now finds itself in a deep hole, with millions of small businesses gone for…
Publications
For Americans and much of the world, 2020 has been an annus horribilis. Following its outbreak in China late last year, the coronavirus has spread quickly across the main international travel and trade routes. To contain the pandemic, nations have been forced to order mass quarantines, freezing economic activity and social life. It likely will…
Originally published June 15, 2020, and most recently updated July 9, 2020. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the globe, no country has been hit harder than the United States. America leads the world in Covid-19 deaths and confirmed cases. Unemployment has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression, and national output…
Press
Independent workers face a dilemma where they cannot currently receive benefit payments from companies without risking their independent status. WASHINGTON, D.C. - A new report from the Progressive Policy Institute examines the possibility of creating a way to regulate platforms that would preserve the flexible nature of independent workers and the benefits to our economy…
At the end of next month, several economic support programs created by the CARES Act in March will expire. House Democrats have moved to extend and expand these supports through January 2021 with the $3 trillion HEROES Act. Senate Republicans, however, have used fiscal cost as a pretext to oppose or scale back this and other potential future…
As federal and state governments outline plans for reopening the economy, lawmakers will have to grapple with the challenge of getting tens of millions of Americans back to work as quickly as possible. More than 47 million Americans have filed for unemployment since the pandemic began, with the unemployment rate at 13.3 percent in May. The economic damage has…
Blog
The Trump administration’s hospital price transparency rule, upheld by a district court judge this week, will require hospitals to post publicly the rates they negotiate with insurers beginning in January. President Trump called it a “BIG VICTORY for patients — Federal court UPHOLDS hospital price transparency. Patients deserve to know the price of care BEFORE they enter the…
Back in December, Congress failed to reach an agreement on “surprise billing” legislation. A surprise bill is when patients get an out-of-network bill from a provider at an in-network facility. Lawmakers couldn’t decide if an arbitration model — where billing disagreements would be sent to a third-party review board — or if a benchmark model — where…
As COVID-19 takes its toll across a divided nation, bad economic news is pouring in from every corner of the country. Vice President Biden has been here before. He campaigned with President Obama in 2008 as the U.S. economy and Wall Street collapsed. This time, however, it’s Biden’s turn to pick a running mate. Should he claim…
