News Roundups

Climate change has hit the U.S. harder than any other G20 country, hundreds of companies that got stimulus aid have failed, and more

Weekly news headlines about the stimulus and recovery from November 20th, 2020.

Weekly news headlines about the stimulus and recovery from November 20th, 2020.

Central Bank Is Committed to Using All Available Tools to Boost Economy, Top Fed Official Says

A top Federal Reserve official said Monday that the central bank would use all available tools to ensure a strong recovery from the pandemic-induced shock and that he expected more support would be needed from fiscal and monetary authorities.

Richard Clarida, the Fed’s vice chairman, said officials discussed at their rate-setting committee meeting earlier this month changes they could make to the asset-purchase program, in which the central bank has been buying $120 billion a month in Treasurys and mortgage bonds.

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Ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: I've never seen anything like this

The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden has its work cut out for it, and getting the virus under control should be the number one priority, according to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a move that will help save the economy.

"I've never seen a particular situation during my professional experience anything like this," the 94-year-old Greenspan told CNN's Julia Chatterley on her show First Move on Thursday.

Although he wasn't working in finance when he was a boy, he lived through the Great Depression.

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Hundreds of Companies That Got Stimulus Aid Have Failed

About 300 companies that received as much as half a billion dollars in pandemic-related government loans have filed for bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of government data and court filings.

Many of the companies, which employ a total of about 23,400 workers, say the funds from the Paycheck Protection Program weren’t enough to keep them going as the coronavirus and lack of additional stimulus payments weighed on their businesses.

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More than 400 Southwest mechanics get furlough warnings as cost-cutting talks falter

More than 400 Southwest Airlines mechanics and technicians, about 15% of the work group, have received notices warning them about potential furloughs, the carrier said Wednesday.

Southwest has asked employees to take 10% pay cuts to avoid furloughs, which would be the first in the Dallas airline’s nearly 50 years of flying. Southwest warned 42 material specialists about possible furlough earlier this month.

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What could a good green recovery plan actually look like?

What does a green recovery look like? That is the question governments around the world are considering as they decide how to align their $12tn worth of economic rescue packages for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic with their obligations under the Paris climate accord.

The UK is expected to announce a 10-point recovery plan this week, and observers have warned that if it lacks ambition, it could undermine the world’s goals of limiting catastrophic climate breakdown.

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Climate Change Has Hit the U.S. Harder Than Any Other G20 Country

Of all 20 member countries in the G20—a group of powerful nations which accounts for 85% of the world’s GDP and creates some 78% of all global greenhouse gas pollution—the U.S. has been hit hardest economically by extreme weather fueled by the climate crisis. But when rather than using Covid-19 economic stimulus bills to speed up the clean energy transition, the U.S. poured money into bailing out polluting corporations.

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