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Tuesday was National Entrepreneur's Day. Reopening the economy should be approached in a thoughtful manner – taking into account both the costs of exposing new people to the virus if businesses continue to reopen and, alternatively, the costs of continued isolation and unemployment if businesses remain closed.

The latest post from the JEC sheds light on the latter, providing evidence that being without work causes significant mental distress. https://www.jec.senate.gov/…/index.cfm/republicans/analysis…

Oct 21 2020 Print Facebook Twitter Email The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in unprecedented hardship for Americans as the nation’s health and economic stability have deteriorated. When the virus initially emerged, pandemic-related fear drove individual behavioral changes that had a chilling ef...
jec.senate.gov
A Case for Thoughtful Reopening: The Value of Work and Mental Health Impacts of Unemployment - A Case for Thoughtful Reopening: The Value of Work and Mental Health Impacts of Unemployment - United States Joint Economic Committee
Oct 21 2020 Print Facebook Twitter Email The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in unprecedented hardship for Americans as the nation’s health and economic stability have deteriorated. When the virus initially emerged, pandemic-related fear drove individual behavioral changes that had a chilling ef...
Oct 21 2020 Print Facebook Twitter Email The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in unprecedented hardship for Americans as the nation’s health and economic stability have deteriorated. When the virus initially emerged, pandemic-related fear drove individual behavioral changes that had a chilling ef...

NEW: The latest from The Joint Economic Committee looks beyond deaths and GDP alone to understand COVID-19 policy responses ↓

Nov 16 2020 Print Facebook Twitter Email Discussions of COVID-19 policy have often centered around two metrics: robust economic performance, as measured by GDP, and public health, as measured by deaths attributable to COVID-19. Places that do better on either metric, or both, are often judged to hav...
jec.senate.gov
Looking Beyond Deaths and GDP Alone to Understand COVID-19 Policy Responses - Looking Beyond Deaths and GDP Alone to Understand COVID-19 Policy Responses - United States Joint Economic Committee
Nov 16 2020 Print Facebook Twitter Email Discussions of COVID-19 policy have often centered around two metrics: robust economic performance, as measured by GDP, and public health, as measured by deaths attributable to COVID-19. Places that do better on either metric, or both, are often judged to hav...
Nov 16 2020 Print Facebook Twitter Email Discussions of COVID-19 policy have often centered around two metrics: robust economic performance, as measured by GDP, and public health, as measured by deaths attributable to COVID-19. Places that do better on either metric, or both, are often judged to hav...
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Photos
Image may contain: 1 person, standing and outdoor, text that says 'The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Two-P Home'
Image may contain: text that says 'HEARING O TOMORROW The Economic Impact of America's Failure to Contain the Coronavirus TUNE IN SEP 22, 2020 I 2:30 PM EST JOINT Economic REPUBLICANS'
Image may contain: 1 person, text that says 'The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home'
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Videos
Brain Drain Across The United States
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Drug-related deaths have been rising at an accelerating rate since the late 1950s. The increase has been especially sharp over the past 20 years. This long-run increase was preceded by a long-run decline dating back at least to the early 1900s. Cocaine and heroin use increased dramatically during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they (and morphine) became controlled substances only in 1914. The rise in drug overdose deaths likely was boosted by the countercultural revolution of the 1960s, when illegal drug use increased. The 1980s saw the crack cocaine epidemic. And then came the opioids crisis. The proliferation of opioid deaths was initially a result of oversupply and abuse of legal prescription narcotics. However, as awareness of the dangers of misuse and policy changes led to drug formulations changes and added restrictions to prescribed opioids, a second wave of heroin overdoses and a third wave of overdoses from more lethal concentrations of synthetic opioids like fentanyl followed soon thereafter, prolonging the crisis. There were nearly as many opioid overdose deaths in 2017 as there were combined deaths from suicide, alcohol, and all drugs in 2000. In a single year, from 2016 to 2017, age-adjusted drug overdoses rose by nearly 10 percent, amounting to over 70,237 deaths in 2017. The overdose crisis is following a very different trend than those for other “deaths of despair.” Similar numbers of men and women died of drug overdoses when such deaths were rare. By 2017, however, male overdose deaths were twice as common as female overdose deaths.
While Americans may not be less lonely than in the past, socializing has become rarer between neighbors. Between 1974 and 2016, the percent of adults who say they spend a social evening with a neighbor at least several times a week fell from 30 percent to 19 percent. In part, this is likely a consequence of suburbanization and declining population density.
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