University of Redlands
"Further recovery absolutely requires further stimulus at this point. The unemployment insurance expansions were wildly successful and should be restored. State and local budgets need federal support to avoid cuts to essential services, but also to avoid being a drag on spending recovery. We should not forget that the slow growth after 2008 was in no small part due to state and local government austerity," Cline says. "The second point is that we are indeed experiencing a two-speed recovery as many people have pointed out, but there are some unique features as compared to previous recoveries. In particular, we are not seeing parents of children return to work, and service sectors like education and health (which are usually resilient) are shedding jobs. So in addition to the usual two-speed recovery (in which workers from minority groups and low-income workers fall behind), we are leaving behind teachers and nurses. Point three, going forward, the speed of the recovery is, as always."