Glad to see you are interested in government
To borrow a few phrases from POLITICO
This week its gets really, really real — We’ve had one bad GDP number and lots of really bad unemployment claims numbers (and will get another on Thursday). But the true ugly toll of the Covid-19 impact on the American economy will punch us all in the face on Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. when the government reports the April jobs numbers. . .
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NEW ON THE BOOK SHELVES — Gene Sperling’s new book, “Economic Dignity,” officially out on Tuesday.
Here’s a recent piece by Gene in the NYT.
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Here's E.J. Dionne on the word dignity:
the word dignity has two different meanings, both of them enlightening about our political moment. The first, Merriam-Webster tells us, refers to “seriousness of manner, appearance, or language,” which is precisely the opposite of the day-to-day behavior of the current occupant of the White House.
In the 2000 election, George W. Bush made a pledge to “restore honor and dignity to the White House” a standard part of his stump speech. It was his way of referencing Bill Clinton’s sex scandal without mentioning it. In 2020, that promise has more relevance than ever.
But my focus is primarily on the second meaning of dignity, “the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed.”
Americans in large numbers feel excluded from this state of grace. . .
Gene Sperling, a top economic adviser to both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, has gone further than anyone else in the policy world to describe what it would mean to make dignity “the singular end goal for economic policy.”
In an important article in Democracy that will be expanded into a book this spring, Sperling argued that economic dignity rests on three pillars:
(1) “the capacity to care for family and experience its greatest joys”
(2) the “pursuit of potential and purpose”
(3) “economic participation without domination and humiliation.”
READ MORE >> The Atlantic
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Gene Sperling: Economic Dignity
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