And the political spin, via Talking Points Memo: “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC Thursday morning that the jobless figures were “not relevant” at the moment, because there are direct payments going out to Americans soon.”
- TPM (3/26/20): 3.28 Million People File Jobless Claims, Smashing Previous Record Amid COVID-19 Outbreak
This is asinine and dangerous thinking. It’s a safe bet that next to no one filing an initial UI claim this last week would prefer a one-time $1200 check and emergency unemployment insurance (if they even receive both) over having their job back. And the staggering scale of these (and future) initial claims numbers are exceedingly relevant for calibrating an overhaul of our beleaguered UI system for the pandemic and “quarantine unemployment.”