The K-shaped recovery just keeps getting more K-shaped — better for those at the top and worse at the bottom
Nov 25, 2020, 23:35 IST
- For some Americans, the future is finally starting to look bright: a vaccine is on its way, the Dow has reached record highs, and savings have spiked.
- Those are the ones at the top of our "K-shaped recovery," where higher-income Americans are seeing jobs recover in their typical industries — like tech, software, and retail — and their incomes grow.
- But the K-shaped recovery is much more jagged than the more desirable "V" shaped recovery — or even the "U" shape. That's because the bottom of the "K" just keeps pointing downward.
- Weekly job claims just rose to 778,000, and from October 28 to November 9, 12% of all American adults reported that their households sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past week, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
- The US has been breaking records for coronavirus cases, and could reach 1 million new daily cases by the end of the year.
- On the upside of the "K," billionaires have seen their net worths grow up by almost $1 trillion during the pandemic, while their frontline workers have foregone hazard pay and fallen ill.
- From October 28 to November 9, almost one in five American renters weren't caught up on rent.
- As The Washington Post reports: "This is a humanitarian crisis in America. It's also an alarm bell."
- Across the board, the report said, Americans of color — particularly Black Americans — have felt the economic fallout more acutely.
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