<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nearly every major automaker has some kind of electrification plan in the works, following the EV lead set by Tesla.</li><li>But pure <keyword id="312660" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="EVS">EVs</keyword> still have limited range and nationwide charging infrastructure isn't where it needs to be in the US just yet. </li><li><keyword id="2158849" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="plug-in-hybrids">Plug-in hybrids</keyword> with good EV-only range are the solution.</li></ul><p>Much of the talk surrounding the so-called "future" of the automotive space has to do with battery-electric cars. EVs are the hot item buyers and automakers are jumping on now, with the latter spending billions and creating all-new product lines that run on electricity alone. </p><p>That push includes both taking major risks with top-selling vehicles and reviving storied nameplates with an electric twist. Ford is hard at work on an all-electric F-150 pickup, America's favorite four-wheeled conveyance since Ronald Reagan was president. General Motors killed off the Hummer after the financial crisis, but the brand is back as an electric truck under GMC.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/super-bowl-commercials-electric-cars-hummer-vw-porsche-taycan-2020-2">Based on marketing alone</a>, it would seem to be game over for the internal-combustion engine. But there's a significant flaw with that argument: While EVs get the buzz, 98% of all vehicles sold in 2019 ran on some form of a petroleum product.</p><h2><strong>The EV revolution is already well underway</strong></h2><p>There's no denying the need for cleaner cars. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/01/vehicles-climate-change-emissions-trump-administration">The Guardian reported in 2018</a> that personal cars were the biggest source of carbon-dioxide emissions in the US — a figure aided, no doubt, by our propensity to buying big trucks and SUVs instead of smaller, more fuel-efficient economy cars. </p><p>Thus, the push for EVs. With Tesla leading the charge, both in EV sales and in building out the vital charging infrastructure, we can now count Volkswagen, Chevrolet, Hyundai, Kia, Jaguar, Porsche, Polestar, Audi, and Nissan among the automakers with all-electric offerings. </p><p>State legislatures are getting on board, too, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html">even if the current federal administration isn't</a>. Most recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-to-ban-sale-of-new-gasoline-powered-passenger-vehicles-in-2035-2020-9">executive order</a> will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars and trucks starting in 2035 in an aggressive push to reduce emissions.</p><p>It's an ambitious idea, one that buys into the need for an EV revolution. But the real EV revolution — one that's attainable and realistic for most US buyers, anyway — is already well underway in the form of highly capable plug-in hybrid cars. </p><p>We'll be the first to admit that hybrid cars suffer from a bit of an image problem. They don't have the futuristic, space-age design that so many EVs have. They don't beat supercars in whisper-silent drag races. </p><p>For a long time, when people thought of a hybrid car, they thought of a <keyword id="108403" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Toyota-Prius">Toyota Prius</keyword> — an objectively fine vehicle, but one that was perceived to be driven by tree-huggers and hippies, despite having sold more than 6 million examples since its introduction in the late 1990s.</p><p>But <keyword id="6557668" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hybrids">hybrids</keyword> get the job done. You don't need to make any major life changes to own one, and you don't need to build out a major, nation-wide fast-charging network for them, either — a costly undertaking that Tesla has committed to, but that other automakers have tried to achieve through partnerships with charging providers to lower expenses and spread around the risk. </p><h2><strong><keyword id="6374528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="toyota">Toyota</keyword> has always been the hybrid leader</strong></h2><p>Toyota hybrids have a lock on the situation. The co-author of this story, Matt DeBord, owns a 2017 RAV4 hybrid and routinely averages 35 mpg. The majority of that figure comes from city driving, where fuel economy is always lower. He also has a 2011 Prius and even at close a decade old, the car continues to serve up better than 40 mpg. </p><p>But neither of those vehicles can travel far, or drive even remotely fast, on battery power alone. Toyota is aware that many customers want better, and that's where hybrids with superior electric performance enter the picture. And Toyota leads the pack here, as well.</p><p>This was most obvious after the 10 or so days co-author Kristen Lee spent with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rav4-toyota-plug-in-hybrid-first-drive-review-suv-mpg-2020-10">the new Toyota RAV4 Prime</a>, the plug-in hybrid version of the popular RAV4. Because plug-in hybrids generally have bigger batteries, they have longer EV-only ranges than non-plug-ins. </p><p>Toyota <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/toyota-rav4-prime-plug-in-hybrid-specs-pricing-release-date-2020-6">quotes</a> the RAV4 Prime's EV-only range to be 42 miles. In our own testing, we achieved 35 miles, but that was only because we took it on the highway.  </p><p>An all-electric range of 42 miles is impressive no matter which way you look at it, especially in an SUV like the RAV4. In the US, the length of the average commute is 16 miles — at least, according to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Traffic/story?id=485098&amp;page=1ge=1">this ABC News story</a> from the mid 2000s — which means you could theoretically do 1.5 commutes to and from work without using a drop of fuel.</p><p>You'll emit far less noise and pollution while you're sitting in traffic, then you can charge the car in your garage overnight if you have one. Repeat it all the next day and your trips to the gas station will be rare. </p><p>An <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/08/aaa-says-americans-warm-to-electric-cars-but-most-arent-ready-to-buy.html">AAA study from last year</a> found that about 40 million US buyers will consider a battery-electric car, but <a href="https://www.thedrive.com/news/26637/americans-cite-range-anxiety-cost-as-largest-barriers-for-new-ev-purchases-study#:~:text=By%20a%20margin%2C%20the%20largest,low%20availability%20of%20charging%20stations.">The Drive</a> reported that the biggest thing keeping more buyers from buying an electric car is range anxiety. </p><p>"That is, 58 percent of drivers are afraid that they will run out of power before being able to charge their vehicle," the outlet elaborated, "while another 49 percent fear the <a href="http://thedrive.com/news/22830/tesla-says-99-percent-of-the-u-s-population-lives-within-150-miles-of-a-supercharger">low availability of charging stations</a>."</p><p>A capable plug-in hybrid with great EV-only range solves this problem. Drivers can rely on the battery for local commutes, and if they wish to go somewhere further, they aren't constricted by the lack of chargers along the way. </p><h2><strong>Not enough hybrids to meet demand?</strong></h2><p>In the ideal scenario, Toyota makes enough RAV4 Primes for anyone who wants to buy one and we gradually shift everyone to electrified driving that way. Prior to the latest wave of EVs, both real and planned, people who study <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="transportation">transportation</keyword> for a living or who have researched the impact of auto emissions on <keyword id="6361617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change">climate change</keyword> thought that widespread hybridization would be the way to go. That <a href="https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/06/20190618-ea.html">could</a> lower greenhouse-gas pollution from tailpipes by 30%.</p><p>However, <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a33266528/2021-toyota-rav4-prime-supply-demand/">Car and Driver</a> reported in July that because of "unforeseen battery supply constraints," availability of the plug-in SUV this year won't be as robust as it should be. Toyota is now aiming for 5,000 RAV4 Primes, which Car and Driver said looks like "limited availability."</p><p>"The result is limited supplies, sellouts, and potentially, prices above the MSRP of $39,220," Car and Driver wrote.</p><p>"As of right now, we have no additional production confirmed," a Toyota spokesperson said when Business Insider asked if there were more cars planned for next year.</p><p>In some respects, the composition of the US market is ideal for big carmakers that don't want to miss out on a large-scale shift to EVs, but that are also determined to preserve the gas-guzzling, feature-loaded cash cows that buyers are able to afford thanks to rock-bottom interest rates and long loan terms.</p><p>The legacy players can make ambitious gestures toward EVs, and they can even roll out impressive vehicles — namely, Porsche, with the stunning <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/porsche-taycan-rose-gold-electric-vehicle-ev-2021-paint-colors-2020-8">Taycan</a>— but they can continue to produce big-ticket pickups and SUVs that average less than 20 mpg. </p><p>The trick is to avoid falling behind on research and development. But even if an automaker does, it can always partner up with a competitor and hedge some risk. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gm-honda-alliance-sharing-platforms-engineering-development-costs-2020-9">Honda recently did this with General Motors</a>, and Ford and Volkswagen have been exploring a sort of soft alliance on all things futuristic, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ford-vw-alliance-announcement-details-2019-7">from EVs to autonomous vehicles</a>.</p><h2><strong>Government could lend a helping hand</strong></h2><p>With limited resources all around, and with the car business being a notably capital-intensive enterprise, it's easy to see hybrids getting kicked to the curb. Why go to the trouble of engineering and marketing a new generation of plug-ins when you can prepare to sell buyers an EV instead? </p><p>From a giant automaker's point of view, compliance with various regulations on fleet emissions around the globe would be covered with a portfolio balanced out by EVs and gas guzzlers, allowing big pickups and SUVs keep the lights on while the EV transition continues.</p><p>There are two losers in that wager: the consumer and the planet. The consumer is deprived of the perfect, versatile transportation solution in a plug-in hybrid, while the changing climate remains in a waiting game for EVs to achieve escape velocity. </p><p>The latter, by the way, is behind schedule: A decade ago, EVs were supposed to have <a href="https://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/14/carlos-ghosn-evs-could-account-10-percent-of-global-sales-in-20/">taken over 10% to 15% of the market</a> by now. But even with Tesla's success and traditional automakers such as GM and VW launching dozens of EVs in the coming years, EV growth in mature regions like the US and Europe has been sluggish.</p><p>An obvious spur to higher hybrid sales comes with better government incentives. The largest US federal incentive is a $7,500 tax credit — certainly helpful, but canted toward buyers who both purchase a 100% electric vehicle. Plus, the credit phases out when an automaker sells more than 200,000 qualifying vehicles, and that's hardly a long-term inducement.</p><p>The credit thus isn't designed to move the needle for the mass market, where knocking $5,000 to $10,000 off the sticker price of a plug-in hybrid would convince buyers to seriously consider the option.</p><h2><strong>Broadening a hybrid incentive through tax policy</strong></h2><p>When the Green New Deal debuted in Congress last year, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-new-deal-is-right-and-we-dont-have-to-wait-for-ambitious-goals-2019-2">we suggested</a> the idea of a $10,000 hybrid voucher to reduce taxable income. It would be like making a contribution to a retirement plan, or, if you run your own business, deducting the cost of your vehicle as an expense.</p><p>The incentive could also be extended to used hybrids, but with discounting applied based on a vehicle's age. The entire scheme would also be voluntary, so automakers and consumers wouldn't be coerced into doing anything. </p><p>This could clearly get expensive, but with a looming climate crisis, giving consumers an opportunity to buy a hybrid or plug-in now has to look cheaper than the alternatives. Capturing future carbon in the atmosphere and sequestering it with technologies that haven't yet been developed at scale has to be far costlier than simply not generating the carbon emissions at all.</p><p>Luckily, there are more hybrids and plug-in hybrids today than ever before to choose from, giving buyers far more variety than when the Prius was the only real game in town. Audi <a href="https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30560357/audi-q5-a8-plug-in-hybrid-2020/">has a few</a>. The Lincoln Aviator is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2020-lincoln-aviator-review-hybrid-specs-three-row-suv-luxury-2020-7">an absolute heavyweight in plug-in guise</a>. And the beloved Jeep Wrangler <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeep-wrangler-plug-in-hybrid-coming-in-2020-8">will soon have a plug-in version as well</a>.</p><p>So, while everyone else might, don't be so quick to assume that purely battery electric cars are the solution. Do consider the humble hybrid.</p>

The real electric car revolution has already taken shape with extremely capable plug-in hybrids

<p><div type="image" title="eubanks1" height="2000" width="3000" msid="75298881" hostid="261"></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>African Americans make up just under 40% of <keyword id="99644" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mississippi">Mississippi</keyword>'s total population, but <a href="https://mississippitoday.org/2020/04/08/black-mississippians-at-greater-risk-72-of-deaths-56-of-states-covid-19-cases/">represent</a> 56% of its known COVID-19 infections and 72% of its deaths from the virus.</li><li>"The reduction in income for people during this crisis is going to hit particularly hard in Mississippi ... since a large part of the population has little or no cushion to withstand an unexpected financial shock," Hope Credit Union CEO William Bynum said.</li><li>Instead of working to improve <keyword id="6364896" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="public-health">public health</keyword> and economic outcomes for the his state's black community, Gov. Tate Reeves has, of late, chosen to honor its Confederate legacy. </li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Directly across from a set of railroad tracks in the heart of Jackson, Mississippi, stands a brick building with a mansard roof. Built by 62-year-old Tyrone Bully, and his father, a former brick mason, it houses Bully's Restaurant, perhaps the one place in town that unites Mississippians of all races. Inside its exposed-brick walls, lined with portraits of black icons such as Medgar Evers and Barack <keyword id="16284" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Obama">Obama</keyword>, you're as likely to meet a powerful state legislator inside its walls as you are ordinary working people from the African American neighborhood that surrounds the 38-year-old restaurant.</p><p>Even before Bully's won a prestigious James Beard Foundation award, in 2016, it was no secret to the people of Jackson that its soul-food offerings — greens, macaroni and cheese, oxtails, and smothered pork chops — were without peer. While today foodies associate the cuisine with comfort and decadence, it originated from dishes African Americans made from the meager food rations available during slavery and after emancipation. Making them tasty became a byproduct of survival. Bully's, then, came to represent black survival.</p><p>On April 10, Tyrone and his wife, Greta, closed Bully's because of the COVID-19 pandemic, nine days after Gov. Tate Reeves issued a statewide stay-at-home order. Restaurant closures began slowly, first in the college town of Oxford before moving south to Jackson. While the Bully's found the closure devastating, they knew staying open would imperil their employees and customers.</p><p>The couple is lucky: Their savings will allow them to continue to pay their staff and close the business and reopen when this crisis is over. But Greta worries about their neighbors. "Black people have always done without," she told me.</p><p>Before the Bullys closed up shop, several of their neighbors showed Greta an <a href="https://archive.fo/oioB5">article</a> they saw on social media falsely claiming black people were immune to the <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword>. "The benefits of melanin (internal and external) must be considered when talking about black people resisting the coronavirus," one article said. She reminded those who shared the posts that COVID-19 did not discriminate on the basis of color.</p><p>While African Americans make up slightly less than 40% of Mississippi's total population, they <a href="https://mississippitoday.org/2020/04/08/black-mississippians-at-greater-risk-72-of-deaths-56-of-states-covid-19-cases/">represent</a> 56% of its known COVID-19 infections and 72% of its deaths from the virus. In a state where black residents already face dire health outcomes, the unprecedented pandemic will only further devastate its most vulnerable citizens.</p><p>Outside of Jackson, Mississippi is largely a rural state, where for some the closest hospital is 20 miles away. Combine this pandemic with unequal access to healthcare and existing poor health outcomes for the state's black population, and the approaching disaster becomes clear. <a href="https://mississippitoday.org/2020/04/07/coronavirus-is-a-gendered-crisis-in-mississippi-as-the-pandemic-rocks-woman-dominated-professions/">Black women</a> also fill most of the state's low-wage jobs, particularly in sectors deemed essential like healthcare and food retail. This places them at higher risk for exposure than most of the population.</p><p>"What we are seeing in Mississippi can't be really fully appreciated without acknowledging the conditions that existed before the pandemic," William Bynum told me. He's the chief executive officer of the Hope Credit Union, which serves low-income communities in Mississippi and across <keyword id="1781283" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="The-South">the South</keyword>, particularly in areas with a legacy of persistent poverty.</p><p>Over half of Mississippi households don't have enough cash or liquid assets to subsist for three months if their income is interrupted, he said. The racial disparities are staggering: 7 out of 10 black households just could not withstand losing their income for three months.</p><p><div type="image" title="eubanks4" height="3965" width="5939" msid="75298888" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"The reduction in income for people during this crisis is going to hit particularly hard in Mississippi," he said, "since a large part of the population has little or no cushion to withstand an unexpected financial shock."</p><p>Across the South there is a saying that when white folks get a cold, black folks get pneumonia. Mississippi's COVID-19 crisis threatens to prove it true.</p><p>On adjacent 30-acre stretches of land, about 70 miles north of Bully's, in the Mississippi Delta, lies the West Holmes Community Development Organization, a rural farm cooperative in Holmes County, the poorest county in the state. Its origins are rooted in the New Deal-era 1930s, when Mileston was <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mississippi-growing/">established</a> as a black-run farm cooperative by the federal government.</p><p>Each year the co-op hires high-school students to plant and harvest vegetable crops on land donated by farmers in the area. In turn, local residents enrolled in the USDA Women, Infants and Children program can redeem their vouchers for organic produce. At the end of the growing season, the farmers split the proceeds with the young entrepreneurs who are part of this program.</p><p>By this time of year, 58-year-old Calvin Head, who runs the cooperative, would have typically employed 30 workers to work his fields. Each of his student workers earned about $700 a month, not a living wage but enough to supplement the income of a family living close to the poverty line. But an unusually heavy rain season has made the land too wet to plow, and the pandemic has disrupted access to seed and planting products.<strong> </strong></p><p>For Head, a perpetual optimist, the great irony is that an operation that was founded to change the dynamic in a poor community may now be in danger. "I'm not giving up, but there is so much uncertainty," Head told me over the phone from his co-op's small office. "Everything in farming is time-sensitive. We don't mind doing the hard work, but we can't even get out in the fields now."</p><p>Holmes is one of Mississippi's 82 counties experiencing persistent poverty, a federal <a href="http://www.rupri.org/Forms/Mississippi.pdf">classification</a> indicating that the poverty rate has been over 20% for more than three decades. Many of these counties have been challenged by persistent poverty dating back to the Jim Crow era. If you take a map of Mississippi showing areas of deep, entrenched poverty with regard to race exists in Mississippi, it often overlaps with the heaviest concentration of slaveholding on the eve of the Civil War. These also happen to be the same places in the state with the worst health outcomes, poor housing conditions, and regular food insecurity.</p><p>These parts of the state are also home to families saddled with crushing debt, as Bynum said. Depressed wages will increase the pressures of debt, which in turn will hammer businesses and employees of essential businesses, including healthcare and hospital workers. Average annual wages for the state's service-sector workers are already less than half that of all industries in the Deep South, and Mississippi has the largest wage gap for service workers of any Southern state. The average annual pay in the retail and hospitality sector is $17,500, compared with almost $39,000 for all industries statewide. And these jobs are largely filled by people of color, many of them women. Blacks in Mississippi earn about 69% of what whites earn at the median, among full-time, year-round workers.</p><p>The safety net these families would rely on in times of hardship has also come undone. Between 2003 and 2010, the state rejected about half of the applicants to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF, a federally funded state-run <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/temporary-assistance-for-needy-families">program</a> that provides emergency assistance to families in times of need. In 2011, the state's rejection rate moved up to 89% and has inched up every year since. In a state with 51 counties dealing with persistent poverty, only 7,000 people in Mississippi meet state standards to receive a monthly check of $170 for a family of three.</p><p>"The denial of rights and privileges, and privileges, the things that we normally would consider to be basics, they are not so basic anymore," Sen. John Horhn told me.</p><p>Yet just six weeks before Mississippi issued its stay-at-home order, its former welfare director, four of his colleagues, and a former pro wrestler were <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/02/06/803399172/mississippis-ex-welfare-director-5-others-arrested-in-massive-fraud">charged</a> with carrying out a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme. This operation used public money from needy families for the personal use of those involved in the scheme. Money was even used for a luxury rehab stay in California. Mississippi has funds to help its poorest citizens, but those funds have now been squandered by people who didn't need them.</p><p>The Affordable Care Act, passed during the Obama administration, made it so that states could expand their Medicaid programs to households making less than 138% of the federal poverty limit. Previously, those benefits were available only to people below the poverty line. Expanding the program would cover 130,000 poor Mississippians. But Mississippi declined to expand, and Republican Tate Reeves, elected governor in November 2019, ran on a platform promising to keep it that way.</p><p><div type="image" title="eubanks3" height="3280" width="4915" msid="75298892" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Even in a full-blown public-health emergency, Reeves has said he had no plans to change his position.</p><p>"We do have a lot of people in our state who are either obese or headed towards obesity, and that's not a good condition to have if you were to contract the virus. That puts you in a higher-risk category because you're going to have similar challenges breathing, et cetera, if you get one of the horrible cases," Reeves told Mississippi Today in a recent <a href="https://mississippitoday.org/2020/03/30/gov-tate-reeves-defends-handling-of-the-covid-19-crisis-talks-medicaid-expansion-trump-and-his-controversial-spain-trip/">interview</a>.</p><p>He claimed to be working to provide access to care for every Mississippian. But he also stressed the state had to prioritize who gets care.</p><p>"We don't need everyone who's sneezing to run and get a test," Reeves said.</p><p>A lack of sensitivity seems to be a recurring theme for Reeves. Just days after finally <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/07/mississippi-governor-takes-break-from-pandemic-response-to-declare-confederate-heritage-month/">issuing</a> a shelter-in-place order, he proclaimed April Confederate Heritage Month. Oddly, his proclamation failed to mention slavery, ignoring both the real reason Mississippi seceded from the Union, and legacy of its successor, Jim Crow. In the absence of a sound plan to keep his constituents safe, Reeves embraced Southern essentialism, shielding himself from the racial and economic realities of life in the state he governs. He went further by appointing not a single African American to his COVID-19 economic recovery team.</p><p>In Mississippi and across the American South, politicians often cleave to a regressive idea of the South seemingly out of the 1950s, an era defined by white supremacist politics and rhetoric. In draping himself in the Confederate legacy, Reeves reminds nearly 40% of his constituents that white supremacy is about denying opportunity to African Americans and ensuring their impoverishment. A proclamation of Confederate Heritage Month, then, feels like a celebration of that impoverishment.</p><p>If Mississippi, my home state, can sever its linkage to the Confederate imagery and its associated rhetoric, it can reimagine its cultural identity and shift its narrative. Yet Mississippi's narrative seems to be caught in a feedback loop, one that reinforces the idea of a closed society, one that led a newspaper <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/12/archives/new-and-old-times-there-mississippi-the-closed-society-by-james-w.html">editorial</a> during Reconstruction to proclaim: "This is a White Man's Government; and trusting in our firm purpose, our good right arms and the God of Right, we will maintain it so."<br /><br />"Once if you were pushing against the state government, you could rely on the courts for help," Sen. Horhn reminded me. "But you can't do that anymore. At one time you could rely on the federal government to provide basic supplies and food for people in abject poverty, and you can't even depend on them anymore." Instead, black Mississippians feel abandoned and alone.</p><p>Mississippi has always gone it alone. Maybe this pandemic — and the economic issues it places into full view — will finally open up the closed society.</p><p><em><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/w-ralph-eubanks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">W. Ralph Eubanks</a> is the author of "Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi's Dark Past" and "The House at the End of the Road." He is a visiting professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi.</em></p>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.insider.com/coronavirus-mississippi-african-american-tate-reeves-obama-healthcare-economy">Insider</a>

COVID-19 will devastate Mississippi's African-American community

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/57165fbadd0895fe718b46a3-1155/rtsbqz6.jpg" alt="police helicopter" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Christian Hartmann" data-mce-caption="A police helicopter hovers over Brussels' rooftops following bomb attacks in Brussels, Belgium, March 22, 2016." /><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Christian Hartmann</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Britain's vote to leave the European Union could lead to the introduction of the most unconventional of monetary policies - helicopter money - in the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword>, according to economists at Morgan Stanley.</p><p>In a new note titled simply "Out into the unknown" economists Jacob Nell and Melanie Baker argue that the huge economic shock that Brexit has sparked could lead the Bank of England to look further than traditional monetary means to keep the British economy steady and ensure sustained growth.</p><p>The term helicopter money was first coined by American economist Milton Friedman in the '1960s. The basic principle is that central banks create new cash and give it directly to people to spend on whatever they want.</p><p>Here's the quote from Friedman that coined the phrase: "Let us suppose now that one day a helicopter flies over this community and drops an additional $1,000 in bills from the sky, which is, of course, hastily collected by members of the community."</p><p>There have been serious concerns about both the possible inflationary effects of helicopter money and its legality, and because of that - <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/hsbc-report-on-helicopter-money-and-ecb-2016-4" target="_blank">as Business Insider's Ben Moshinsky pointed out in April</a>- in recent years, helicopter money has "remained as more a thought experiment than a viable policy."</p><p>But now the British economy has seen such a massive shock, helicopter money may be a necessary next step, the analysts argue. Asking the question "Helicopter money in the UK?" - Morgan Stanley's economists respond (emphasis ours):</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">We <strong>see a possibility of a more radical fiscal and monetary policy option to help a UK economy suffering from a referendum recession</strong>. The objective would be to provide policy support through a targeted intervention with a high multiplier - use-it-or-lose-it consumption vouchers for the liquidity-constrained. We see this as a form of government money, which would ultimately be backed by long-term government debt held by the central bank.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">It would be cheap, since the interest and principal would be paid by the central bank back to the government,and it could be effective, if it drove additional consumption rather than savings. However, such radical policy experiments would open up risks and could impact the credibility of UK institutions and the demand for UK assets. In this situation, the BoE's scope for monetary policy action could become more constrained by the potential reaction of the FX and gilt markets.</p><p>While introducing helicopter money is a possibility according to MS, its introduction would be a huge volte-face for BoE governor Mark Carney, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/mark-carney-speaks-to-house-of-lords-economic-affairs-committee-2016-4">who told the House of Commons treasury select committee in April</a> that it can lead to "a compounded ponzi scheme" and that he is "not a believer in the concept of helicopter money."</p><p>Earlier on Friday, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/bank-of-england-governor-mark-carney-on-brexit-and-results-2016-6">in response to the UK's vote to leave</a>, Carney suggested that he may be considering a cut to interest rates, saying: "In the coming weeks the bank will assess economic conditions and we will consider any additional policy responses. We've taken all the necessary steps to prepare for today's events."</p><p>Along with that hint, Carney said that the Bank is "ready to provide more £250 billion of additional capital" to prop up the British financial system.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-flags-emails-with-these-phrases-2016-6">These are the phrases that will get your email flagged at Goldman Sachs</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="JmMWw3NDE67SsX7jdg192zCLe6Blqs_t" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'JmMWw3NDE67SsX7jdg192zCLe6Blqs_t',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

MORGAN STANLEY: Helicopter money may be the next step for Britain

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c5c27a50d15f51bb466c5e4-1800/gettyimages-1096582032.jpg" border="0" alt="Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Green New Deal" data-mce-source="Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images" data-mce-caption="Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands in front of a 'Green New Deal' sign at the Women's March in January 2019." /><p class="source"><span>Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stands in front of a 'Green New Deal' sign at the Women's March in January 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>US Representatives <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/alexandria-ocasio-cortez">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> and Ed Markey's <a href="https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5729033-Green-New-Deal-FINAL">Green New Deal</a> is wildly ambitious and has sparked needed debate about solutions to global warming.</li><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/green-new-deal">Green New Deal</a> argues for sweeping changes to the nation's <keyword id="34991" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="transportation">transportation</keyword> system.</li><li>Those sweeping changes would all be great - but they're also politically challenging and have set off distracting debates.</li><li>Real change at a "good enough" level could start much sooner.</li></ul><p><br />The <a href="https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5729033-Green-New-Deal-FINAL">"Green New Deal" non-binding resolution</a> introduced by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ed Markey of Massachusetts is exceptionally ambitious. And when it comes to the transportation sector, it's a combination of wildly futuristic and spot-on.</p><p>In a nutshell, the proposal would seek to stabilize global warming at a level recognized by the scientific consensus.  The plan entails many things, including a broad jobs program. Ocasio-Cortez and Markey have put a decade-long timeframe on the GND, and the language of the resolution compares its implementation to a wartime "mobilization."</p><p>Ambition and urgency - two things that are overdue, if you accept the planet simply can't get warmer if humanity is to avoid a catastrophe. </p><p>Those two qualities have immediately provoked natural opponents of the proposal to highlight its impracticality. They warn that it would empower the government to take away your large, gas-guzzling automobile, force you to take public transportation, and do away with air travel.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-green-new-deal-support-among-americans-poll-2019-2">More than 80% of Americans support almost all of the key ideas in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal</a></em></p><p>Maybe it would, but this is a case of AOC and Markey's critics getting as far ahead of themselves as Markey and AOC have already. The jarring effect that this has created is that we're holding a debate pulled forward from a speculative future, when it would be better to use the proposal to compel change now.</p><h2>Much of the GND transportation platform is a non-starter</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5c1eb63b519b15579c1018d4-2000/ap18356496751239.jpg" border="0" alt="us capitol government shutdown 2018" data-mce-source="Associated Press/Carolyn Kaster" data-mce-caption="The U.S. Capitol Dome is seen beyond American Flags around the the base of the Washington Monument in Washington, early Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018." /><p class="source"><span>Associated Press/Carolyn Kaster</span></p><p class="caption">The US Capitol Dome is seen beyond American Flags around the the base of the Washington Monument in Washington, early Saturday, Dec. 22, 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>And not because the US can't pay for it. We live in a low-interest-rate, sluggish-growth world and have for a decade. In this context, the stimulative effects of a huge, generational investment in green projects makes sense. The challenge is running the political gauntlet, which as we saw during the financial crisis will lead to underfunding even in the face of a massive crisis (Paul Krugman has been making the point that the Obama stimulus ended up being too small, and my take on that has always been that the price we paid was a too-long period of devastating unemployment). </p><p>To counteract this, the GND pulls no punches. Fair enough, but it neglects to throw a few transportation jabs that it could easily land.</p><p>The GND calls for investment in zero-emissions vehicles, for which there is now a tiny market. It calls for clean public transportation, when municipalities are struggling to maintain existing, antiquated mass-transit systems, even in the face of massive demand. And it calls for high-speed rail, when unfortunately such projects in the US are monumentally difficult to make happen (even when voters apparently want them, as they did in California, only to retreat when the costs hit). </p><p>Before you get depressed, consider that huge investments have already been made in a number of systems that would advance the GND agenda, starting now. </p><p>The easiest is gas-electric hybrid engine technology. I'm not even talking about plug-in hybrids, which can deliver 20-30 miles completely emission-free. I'm talking about tech that's 20 years old, and that doesn't require any new infrastructure (electric vehicles that aren't Teslas lack a coherent national recharging network that can compete with gas stations). </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5bb7795794750c5c2551bb33-2400/toyota prius.jpg" border="0" alt="Toyota Prius" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Mark Lennihan" data-mce-caption="The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime is shown at the New York International Auto Show, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, in New York." data-link="http://www.apimages.com/Search?query=Toyota+Prius&amp;ss=10&amp;st=kw&amp;entitysearch=&amp;toItem=15&amp;orderBy=Newest&amp;searchMediaType=allmedia" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/Search?query=Toyota+Prius&amp;ss=10&amp;st=kw&amp;entitysearch=&amp;toItem=15&amp;orderBy=Newest&amp;searchMediaType=allmedia">AP Photo/Mark Lennihan</a></span></p><p class="caption">More Prius!</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>On this front, you'd have to do something immediate and forceful, following two possible paths.</p><p>The first is to simply require by law that all engines be hybrid engines. This could result in a fairly quick 30% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions. But it would also result in an equally quick decimation of automaker profits; those have been flowing in for the past five years thanks to sales of full-size pickups and SUVs. (For what it's worth, some - but not all - automakers are also already retiring their hybrid platforms to pursue all-electric vehicles.)</p><p>More feasible would be a stronger incentive to buy a hybrid vehicle. And I don't mean something like a tax credit, such as the kind that applies to electric vehicles ($7,500 at the federal level, phasing out after and automaker sells 200,00 qualifying cars). All that does is encourage wealthy people who are likely to owe taxes to buy an EV, to lower their bill.</p><p>Something like a $10,000 hybrid voucher to reduce taxable income would be better. I buy a qualifying hybrid, I knock ten grand off my taxable income. It would be like making a contribution to a retirement plan, or if you run your own business, deducting the cost of your vehicle as an expense.</p><p>The incentive could also be extended to used hybrids, but with discounting applied, based on a vehicle's age. So a five-year-old Toyota Prius might qualify for a $5,000 voucher. Obviously, the entire scheme would be voluntary, so automakers and consumers wouldn't be coerced into doing anything. And the break would apply to people who itemize deduction, who are not in the majority of taxpayers.</p><p>But the urge to go hybrid could be substantial, if you assume that carmakers would offer incentives anyway, in the normal course of business. </p><h2>Fund mass-transit with targeted property taxes</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/544e6af36bb3f7091a911e8e-2048/96123804289db008daf7k.jpg" border="0" alt="Subway new york M train" data-mce-source="Flickr/Michael Tapp" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/59949757@N06/9612380428/in/photolist-kBaJM7-ddZcfw-fDpXP3-kEyQqY-maesip-dGjYKt-p6BXE3-8DgJ23-nTsE8U-ofzsSY-7dzmWb-7zWXGE-mc9DRy-9gRJbH-5j8s61-kZZbeK-8FvBSb-4ik1F3-7dNmDE-ohrf8w-afxtwE-puHApZ-a2woiF-9gDpE3-e8teW9-kvvuQf-5KhJjE-7ukAig-8XSDk6-nzJrjs-gftg54-4ik1Cj-7cwcFQ-5KhwcJ-kvtnog-fBkDvm-ayD3u-6FWieR-crSJGA-2TdLET-fCKtPs-eb7Lta-aGmbHK-9rz2ms-bzBVKa-7giFDr-8RPW4S-3bTYhC-5wSc7X-bmH3nQ" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/59949757@N06/9612380428/in/photolist-kBaJM7-ddZcfw-fDpXP3-kEyQqY-maesip-dGjYKt-p6BXE3-8DgJ23-nTsE8U-ofzsSY-7dzmWb-7zWXGE-mc9DRy-9gRJbH-5j8s61-kZZbeK-8FvBSb-4ik1F3-7dNmDE-ohrf8w-afxtwE-puHApZ-a2woiF-9gDpE3-e8teW9-kvvuQf-5KhJjE-7ukAig-8XSDk6-nzJrjs-gftg54-4ik1Cj-7cwcFQ-5KhwcJ-kvtnog-fBkDvm-ayD3u-6FWieR-crSJGA-2TdLET-fCKtPs-eb7Lta-aGmbHK-9rz2ms-bzBVKa-7giFDr-8RPW4S-3bTYhC-5wSc7X-bmH3nQ">Flickr/Michael Tapp</a></span></p><p class="caption">New York City's subway needs help.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The most direct fix here is to directly tax corporations, the biggest beneficiaries of transportation systems that enable their employees to get to work.</p><p>That would be politically difficult, however, and in any case, funding for public transportation is a financial hodgepodge, with money coming from fares, from state coffers, and from sales taxes, among other sources. An intriguing way to streamline and improve the financing process, localizing it in the process, would be to tax business properties in critical urban areas. </p><p>I ran into this idea via a <a href="https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/better-way-fund-chicagos-mass-transit">short piece by Richard Murray in Crain's Chicago Business</a>. Murray, a former developer who now applies his expertise to the financing side, makes the logical argument that cities could avoid the struggle of traditional tax solutions for mass-transit by shifting the cost to businesses in a "<span>special service area" (Chicago's Loop, in his example).</span></p><p><span>The appeal here is that like homeowner property taxes that are used to fund schools, the money inflow increases as property values rise, creating a sort of invisible yet effective type of cash flow that's somewhat immune from <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword>, if administered ethically. (A city couldn't overdo it and constantly go back to the SSA well for more funding - it would have to incorporate SSA financing into an overall budget for a transit project.)</span></p><p><span>The money is serious, too - Murray estimates that Chicago could have raised $600 million for a light-rail project by this means.</span></p><h2><span>Favor popular slow-speed rail over futuristic high-speed rail - and remake Amtrak</span></h2><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/55537dc869beddc5024446f7-2400/ap101228118655.jpg" border="0" alt="Amtrak Acela" data-mce-source="AP" /><p class="source"><span>AP</span></p><p class="caption">Amtrak's not-fast-but-fast-enough Acela train.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>It's easy to look at the US transportation system, apparently dominated by cars and airplanes, and conclude that high-speed-rail is something that only people in Europe and Asia should enjoy. The ongoing saga of California taxpayers balking at a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco suggests that Americans like the idea, but aren't able to make the leap to execution. Then you can consider the relatively slow speeds at which our existing, theoretically faster rail routes run - the Amtrak Acela on the crowded northeast corridor is exhibit A - and get depressed about the whole concept.</span></p><p><span>That's a failure of imagination because the speed of rail lines isn't as important for the GND as providing a good option for travelers, one that doesn't involve automobiles.</span></p><p><span>The best course of action isn't to promote extremely expensive high-speed rail but rather to redesign the existing US rail system so that it can operate where it's needed most. And by redesign, I mean consider dropping lightly traveled routes to focus on heavily used ones, remaking Amtrak in the process. This isn't a new idea; <a href="https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/the-amtrak-era-is-over-its-time-for-a-replacement/">Railway Age's F. K. Plous outlined a way to replace Amtrak last year,</a></span><span> a</span><span>nd it now looks as though <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amtrak-plan-to-expand-ridership-could-sidetrack-storied-trains-11550664000">Amtrak is considering a move to retire under-traveled routes.</a></span></p><p><span>In Fortune, <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/02/12/amtrak-funding-cut-trump-spending-plan/">Kirsten Korosec noted</a> that "Amtrak serves 32 million passengers each year," but "[o]nly 4.7 million take Amtrak's long distance routes." (Korosec also reports that better serving Amtrak's 32 million frequent railroaders doesn't have to mean completely de-budgeting the $4.7 long-haulers; the states that need the longer routes could commit to funding them.)</span><span></span></p><h2><span>Detect a theme here?</span></h2><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5beb2d5ef556fc62f3744482-2400/paradise-california-camp-fire-wildfire-burned-cars-road-stephen-lam-reuters-2018-11-09t221308z851036266rc1741a3fa90rtrmadp3california-wildfires.jpg" border="0" alt="paradise california camp fire wildfire burned cars road stephen lam reuters 2018 11 09T221308Z_851036266_RC1741A3FA90_RTRMADP_3_CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES.JPG" data-mce-source="Stephen Lam/Reuters" data-mce-caption="The Camp Fire left behind burned cars on the side of a road in Paradise, California." data-link="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2018%3Anewsml_RC1741A3FA90%3A851036266&amp;search=all%3Aparadise%20camp%20fire#" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?id=tag%3Areuters.com%2C2018%3Anewsml_RC1741A3FA90%3A851036266&amp;search=all%3Aparadise%20camp%20fire#">Stephen Lam/Reuters</a></span></p><p class="caption">No time to waste.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span>The GND shoots for the Moon. That's a reliable political strategy - AOC and Markey's resolution has people talking. But practical solutions are within reach right now: a tax incentive to go hybrid; using asset taxes to fund mass transit in cities that need it; and making old-school slow-speed rail work at a 21st-century level in US regions where it's already popular.</span></p><p><span>My downgrading of the GND falls into the category of a "Good Enough" solution. If you think about, the two of the three parts - hybrids and US rail service - could be addressed during the next federal budget cycle, with the third, the special service area tax, something that cities could undertake immediately. The salient point is that rather than a debate incipient socialism for the next ten years, we could start stabilizing the climate in ... 2020. </span></p><p><span>Even better, nobody would notice. Consumers would take care of the hybrid tax incentive. If 10% of new-vehicle buyers opted for it in 2020, it could take $17 billion in taxable income off the table - 0.43% of the annual US federal budget of about $4 trillion. (That 10% would, by the way, be a modest number of taxpayers who itemize on their returns rather than taking the standard deduction.)</span></p><p><span>The federal rail subsidy could stay the same, at around $2 billion, but with the funds concentrated on key routes where trains already provide a good but not yet great alternative to driving or flying. And if you don't own a business property in a city proposing an SSA tax, you could remain blissfully ignorant and where those hundreds of millions in new mass-transit dollars came from.</span></p><p><span>Don't get me wrong: the Green New Deal's time has come. But the fact is that we don't have to wait for progress. Progress could happen now, and it doesn't really have to cost that much, or be subjected to endless, ruinous debate over ideological differences.</span></p><p class="tagline">This is an <keyword id="6356002" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="opinion">opinion</keyword> column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-roadster-what-fans-should-know-electric-vehicles-cars-2019-2">Everything you need to know about Tesla's new Roadster</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/XKRiWpfs-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

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