How Unemployment Insurance Helps America ns, the ‘Angela Merkel of Asia,’ and More

May 14, 2020

For workers, families, and the U.S. economy, unemployment insurance (UI) has been a critical component of the economic policy response to the COVID-19 crisis. In a new analysis, Ryan Nunn, Jana Parsons, and Jay Shambaugh demonstrate how large increases in UI payments have partially offset the rapid fall in personal incomes.

“In many respects, Tsai Ing-wen has emerged as the Angela Merkel of Asia. While there are limits to the analogy, the basic point is that, like Merkel, Tsai has been steady, methodical, technocratic, competent, and quick to seize opportunities to advance her agenda.” Ryan Hass explains the challenges Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen faced in her first term and what she has in store in her second.

President Trump recently signed an executive order authorizing the use of the Defense Production Act to reopen meat plants that had been closed due to COVID-19. While the order suggested both that the president can order plants to reopen and that plant employees would be protected by that order, neither is true, Jeffrey Bialos and Joshua Gotbaum write.

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