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By Steve Levy
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved ...
(More)About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved downtown in 2006 and enjoy being able to walk to activities. I do not drive and being downtown where I work and close to the CalTrain station and downtown amenities makes my life more independent. I have worked all my life as an economist focusing on the California economy. My work centers around two main activities. The first is helping regional planning agencies such as ABAG understand their long-term growth outlook. I do this for several regional planning agencies in northern, southern and central coast California. My other main activity is studying workforce trends and policy implications both as a professional and as a volunteer member of the NOVA (Silicon Valley) and state workforce boards. The title of the blog is Invest and Innovate and that is what I believe is the imperative for our local area, region, state and nation. That includes investing in people, in infrastructure and in making our communities great places to live and work. I served on the recent Palo Alto Infrastructure Commission. I also believe that our local and state economy benefits from being a welcoming community, which mostly we are a leader in, for people of all religions, sexual preferences and places of birth.
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Economic Responses to the Coronavirus
Uploaded: Mar 12, 2020
There are four immediate and several medium term responses that would help mitigate the pain and support the economy to the extend possible.
The immediate measures are:
--temporary and substantial augmentation of unemployment insurance benefits
--Paid sick leave covering most or all of lost wages
--a temporary reduction or suspension of tariffs for countries who reciprocate
--increased spending to increase the ability of the health care system to respond
The first two policies target those directly affected , allow sick residents to stay home without economic penalty and support spending power
The tariff policy would reverse the terrible course we have been on and benefit most of us as well as countries around the world.
The fourth policy addresses the need to increase our health care infrastructure (more temporary hospital; and testing facilities, etc/
Over the medium and long-term the nation needs (before the virus but even more now) a,major investment program to address climate, transportation and housing challenges.
Democracy.
What is it worth to you?
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